Free Choices In The Absurd World

Alice Munro is a renowned contemporary Canadian short story writer,known as the“master of the contemporary short story”.She specializes in flexible narratives using brief language,and her works are also imbued with profound humanist ideas.In 2013,she won the Nobel Prize for Literature for her short story collection Runaway.The novel contains eight stories about six women from diverse backgrounds who seek their true selves through escape.So far,studies on Runaway have mainly focused on narrative strategies,feminism,symbolism,and ecological attention,but fewer studies use existentialist theory for research.Therefore,this thesis takes Sartre’s existentialism theory as the basis for an in-depth interpretation of the escape phenomenon of the main characters in Runaway.Sartre believes that “The world is absurd,and life is painful”.People will eventually become alienated when living in an irrational and conflict-ridden world.But at the same time,people still have the freedom to make their own choices and take responsibility proactively,and seek the true meaning of life in an absurd world and painful life.This thesis consists of six chapters.Chapter one is the introduction,which introduces Munro’s life and his work Runaway,the overview of domestic and international research in recent years,the background of the thesis topic,and the significance of the research.Chapter two introduces the theoretical basis of this thesis.It outlines the essence of existentialism,its development and evolution,and the basic views of Sartre’s existentialism,including“existence precedes essence”,“the absurdity of the world and the pain of life”,and “freedom of choice and responsibility”.Chapter three discusses the absurdity of the world embodied in Runaway and the sufferings faced by the protagonists in their lives.Chapter four analyzes the alienation state presented by people of the absurd world,which is an inevitable result in a real-world full of irrationality as well as antagonistic conflicts.Chapter five discusses the free choices made by the protagonists in Runaway faced with the absurd world and their painful lives,as well as the process of shaping their true selves by taking positive actions and undertaking responsibility.Chapter six is the conclusion.In summary,this thesis creatively interprets Runaway with Sartre’s theory of existentialism to enrich the domestic research on Alice Munro.It also concludes that people suffer to different degrees in an absurd world,yet we still have the freedom of choice and can take positive actions.To pursue our true selves and realize the value of life,we need to make the right choices,take responsibility bravely,and face the reality of life with a positive attitude.