Where Do "I" Belong: A Study Of The "Escape" Motif Of Female Destiny In Alice Munro’s Runaway

Alice Munro is one of the most famous contemporary short story novelists inCanada. Runaway, one of her representative works, was published in2004. It tellsabout more than ten women’s extraordinary life stories, who are from different classesand in different ages. Due to oppression and wound, the characters choose to escape.Restricted by different kinds of emotion, they have to come back to the reality afterescape. From different aspects, Runaway analyzes women’s spiritual initiation. As thetitle indicates, the short story collection has a close relationship with “the escapemotif” in western literature. Standing on the feminist perspective and combining thecontents of “the escape motif” with the literary text, this thesis aims to explorewomen’s spiritual progress and initiating track wandering between escape and returnby using intensive reading, textual analysis and literature research.This thesis consists of five parts. In the introduction, it briefly introduces thesignificant position of Alice Munro in the world literature. After the review of studyon Alice Munro at home and aboard, it points out that there is no systematic researchon the textual analysis of Runaway based on “the escape motif”. Through doing theliterature review of forms and contents of “the escape motif” in western literature, it isnoted in the thesis of the meaning and value of doing the textual analysis with “theescape motif”. Based on feminism, chapter one combines the literary content of“escape motif” to analyze the internal and external causes of women’s escape. Theexternal cause comes from the oppression of patriarchy, while the internal causes arewomen’s spiritual predicament and loss of the self. Through analyzing women’sescape destiny, chapter one intends to reflect their unequal social status. Chapter twostarts from the dialectic relationship of escape and return to explore women’s journeyof return. It first of all points out they have to come back to reality owing todominance of destiny, cruel reality and family complex. From the perspective ofindividual initiation, chapter three further investigates women’s spiritual initiation andtransformation after escape and return. From self-cognition to authentic existence, the protagonists in Runaway finally steps into the state of self-transformation andself-actualization. The conclusion points out the researching significance of the thesis:through profound analysis of Runaway, this thesis reflects women’s unequal socialstatus, explores their extraordinary initiating track as well as their spiritual pursuit,and provides ideal guidance for readers.The study finds that there is a certain kind of conformity between the contents of“the escape motif” and feminism. The concepts of feminism, such as oppression andrebellion, ideal and reality, loss and quest for identity, is also what feminism studies.This thesis proves the reasonability of this theoretical perspective. Standing on thetheoretical perspective, this thesis points out that Runaway not only depicts women’soppression and predicament, but also their awakening and rebellion. What AliceMunro focuses on is not the protagonists’ escape, but their initiation andtransformation after their unforgettable experiences.