Women In Various States Of Existence:An Analysis Of Female Characters In Runaway

Alice Munro,a Canadian female writer,was born in a small town in Ontario in 1931.She published Runaway in 2004,and won Booker Prize in 2009 and then Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013.In Runaway,Munro has depicted various women from small towns.She exploits themes such as romantic love,kinship,attachment and abandonment.These female protagonists share some common feelings such as perpetuating depression and temporary happiness.In addition,Munro impresses her readers with her tendentious expression when it comes to the physical state of the ill and women.What's more,Munro displays the economic state of female characters.Based on close reading of stories in Runaway,the author of this thesis uses concepts such as gender performativity,norms,patriarchal power,self-will,and limited responsibility formulated by Judith Butler to analyze different states of existence of female characters.Women are generated by norms to perform their gender roles.As a result,such gender roles should be undone.Women could embrace various potentialities.At the same time,as a relational being who shares the vulnerability of human beings,women should take certain responsibilities for others.In the first chapter,female psychological state is closely investigated.The female protagonists in Runaway may feel depressed when they are involved in romantic relationships with men,and in parent-child kinship.Some of them would internalize norms.On one hand they suffer from gender suppression,and on the other hand they feel depressed when they have to break certain norms.Others would express self-will and violate norms.Women need to get rid of conventional norms and confirm their self-will and responsibility.In the second chapter,Munro's use of words concerning female body image is noticed.Munro tends to employ positive phrases such as “decent”,“elderly” to show her approval of feminine appearances,and use negative words including “stunted”,“childish”,“odd”,“bizarre” to manifest the unattractiveness of the ill.The ideal image concerning female body proves to be defined,shaped and generated by male visual power and aesthetic tendency.Through the undoing of ideal female body image,the de-demonization of the ill and various female body images are thus achieved.In the third chapter,female economic state is investigated.The author notices that married women tend to perform economic gender roles including doing house chores and children rearing,and that unmarried,or widowed women,or those from lower class are more likely to get socially employed.They work either to maximize female efficacy so as to help out with family expenses,or to pursue life potentialities.Through the undoing of economic gender roles,women seem to embrace better possibilities so as to achieve individual and social values.To conclude,in this thesis,the author uses Butler's theory to analyze Runaway and chooses interpersonal,physical and economic dimensions to elucidate their states of existence,displaying the dynamic relations between women and self,as well as women and society.The author believes that those female characters question their gender roles which are defined,generated and reproduced by patriarchal norms.Through the undoing of conventional female roles,they call for a better society of freedom,equality and potentialities.