Abstract
This paper examines the dynamics of female bonding in Alice Munro’s short story “Runaway,” focusing on the relationships between the protagonist Carla, her affluent neighbour Mrs. Sylvia Jamieson, and Carla’s pet goat Flora. The paper analyzes how Carla’s bonding with Sylvia provides emotional and psychological fulfilment, facilitating her attempted escape from her domineering husband Clark. Additionally, it explores the symbolic significance of Carla’s bond with Flora as an alter-ego relationship, where both share the condition of being “means to an end” for Clark. The paper demonstrates how these bonds of female solidarity, though ultimately unable to liberate Carla from the claustrophobic domestic center that Clark represents, make her conscious of herself as a separate individual.
Keywords: Alice Munro, “Runaway,” female bonding, marriage, domestic violence, human-animal bond
Carla and Sylvia’s Bond
Carla works as a help in the house of Mrs. Jamieson, but she is always treated like a friend by Sylvia. They have contrasting personalities. Sylvia has a strong liking for Carla and secretly admires her athletic beauty. She admits that Carla’s “presence had come to mean more and more to her, how an indescribable bond had seemed to grow up between them.”
While in Greece for vacation, Sylvia cannot take Carla off her mind. Her friends tease her that she might be having a “crush” on Carla, but Sylvia reasons it is her “displaced maternal love.” Sylvia meticulously chooses a gift for Carla — a bronze replica of a horse from the second century B.C.
The Crisis
Carla is being forced by Clark to extort money from Sylvia by levelling a charge of molestation against Sylvia’s late husband. Carla curses herself for confessing to Clark an assumption about bedridden Mr. Lion Jamieson. She repeats this fabricated story to Clark every night just to excite his spirited response, as her lovelorn soul craves Clark’s attention.
When Sylvia senses Carla’s perturbed state of mind, Carla breaks down and confesses she wants to run away from Clark. Sylvia offers all possible help — money, travel arrangements, and warm clothes. As Carla boards the bus to Toronto, she “appears to be headed for a new, more self-examined, independent life” (Barber 146).
The Failed Escape
Carla’s escape could never be culminated, for her heart and soul seem eternally captive to Clark. While on the bus she realizes that “Clark still kept his place in her life. But when she was finished running away, when she just went on, what would she put in his place?” This eternal feminine paradox strengthens Clark’s authority over Carla and weakens her bond with Sylvia.
Carla and Flora
Carla’s bond with Flora is a reiteration of close affinity between human and nonhuman. Flora is Carla’s alter-ego. When first brought to the barn she behaves like “Clark’s pet entirely, following him everywhere, dancing for his attention” — very much like young Carla herself. For Clark, both Carla and Flora are only “means” to an “end.” He marries Carla because she has experience working at a riding stable; Flora is brought to the barn because a goat is “able to bring a sense of ease and comfort into a horse stable.”
After Flora’s sudden disappearance, Carla often dreams about her. In one dream Flora walks to her with “a red apple” in her mouth, probably tempting Carla to eat the “forbidden fruit” and escape Clark’s tyranny. The dream is a clear message that she too would meet Flora’s fate sooner or later.
Conclusion
Whatever happens to Carla in future is shrouded under mystery, but her bonding with Sylvia and Flora has made her conscious of her own self — a separate individual who can continue her quest for greener pastures.
Works Cited
- Barber, Lester E. “Alice Munro: The Stories of Runaway.” English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries. 3.1-2 (2006): 143-56.
- DeFalco, Amelia. “Caretakers/Caregivers: Economies of Affection in Alice Munro.” Twentieth Century Literature. 58.3 (Fall 2012): 377-98.
- Goncalvez, Gracia. “Between the Hedgehog and the Lamb: A Reflection on a Poetic of the Nonhuman in Alice Munro’s Runaway.” Interfaces Brasil/Canada. 12.15 (2012): 13-32.
- Munro, Alice. “Runaway.” The New Yorker. 11 August 2003.
- Toolan, Fiona. “To Leave and to Return: Frustrated Departures and Female Quest in Alice Munro’s ‘Runaway’.” Contemporary Women’s Writing. 6 October 2009.