How I Met My Husband by Alice Munro

Unexpected alterations occur in everyone’s life. While one anticipates something to happen, adulthood changes the plan ahead. These unexpected turns have a name: irony. Consequently, ironic situations are just a part of growing up. Likewise, Alice Munro has masterly presented life’s irony. Her short stories explore the social realism of rural towns as well as practical reality. They are intellectually complex with well round engaging characters entangled within an interesting plot line. Most importantly, the guided principle to her stories is surprise. Just as the readers believe they know what will happen next, the plot shifts to where the elements fuse into a meaningful ending. One of the short stories related to this principle is “How I Met My Husband.” However, the irony presented in this story offers readers something more than just a dramatic twist. The use of irony in Alice Munro’s “How I Met My Husband” demonstrates how in every situation, each individual holds a different perspective than the others involved.

In “How I Met My Husband”, Munro demonstrates how a young girl attempts to understand the adult world. The story begins by describing how the charming Chris Watter’s low flying airplane stirs the Peebles family, Loretta Bird, and fifteen-year old housemaid Edie. Sequentially, the plot derives from Edie and Chris’s developing connection. As the relationship starts to bloom, so does Edie. As stated by Hallvard Dahlie, Chris “brings her to the edge of, but not onto, the realities of his world: sexual experiences, adult betrayals, and infidelities” (Dahlie 65). In turn, this relates to how couples may not feel the same about each other. For example, when Chris complemented Edie at the initial encounter, she says, “I w...

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...other. Finally, Munro teaches readers life is a fun house; with every turn, the unexpected happens. By the use of ironic events in “How I Met My Husband”, Munro demonstrates how different perceptions and interpretations can be formed by a single event.

Works Cited

Astingon, Janet Wilde. and Eva Filippova. “Further Development in Social Reasoning Revealed in the Discourse of Irony Understanding.” Child Development 79.1 (2008): 126-138. JSTOR. Web. 3 March 2014

Dahlie, Hallvard. “The Fiction of Alice Munro.” Ploughshares 4.3 (1978): 56-71. JSTOR. Web. 3 March 2010

Munro, Alice. “How I Met My Husband.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Diana Gioia. 12th ed. New York: Pearson, 2013. 218-229. Print.

Ravitch, Michael. “Alice Munro.” The Yale Review 90.4 (2002): 160-170. Wiley Online Library. Web. 3 March 2013