Simple Recipes Alice Munro Analysis

Bonds are formed throughout a lifetime that are put to the test while travelling along life’s twisty road. Some bonds are weak and fragile while others can withstand the heavy weight of struggle. While characters deal with illnesses, mental and physical, the love and care from their loved ones endures through flawed circumstances. While some relationship ties are severed, others remain strong as unconditional love prevails. Dysfunction in a household caused by illness does not damage the endurance or strength of unconditional love, as a comparison of Alice Munro’s “Friend of My Youth” and Madeleine Thien’s “Simple Recipes” affirms.

When individuals are faced with struggle, some may feel alone while others are lifted up by the loved ones around them. For Flora in Simple Recipes, a major sacrifice was

In order for Ellie to live a stable and responsible life, Flora insisted that Ellie marry Flora’s fiancé, Robert. Flora helped Ellie look presentable and ironed Robert’s suit for their wedding day before she began to see the advertisements in the paper of Ellie and Robert’s marriage announcement. Ellie “was never wild from that day on” but Flora was now without her fiancé (156). Flora showed her affection for Ellie without any limitations, the true definition of unconditional love. There were no limitations to Flora’s love even after the wedding as she would “…still read to Ellie” … even “…short bits from the Bible,” (159). This ultimately displayed her commitment to helping her sister and the extent of her enduring love and care for Ellie. This resistance to abandon someone is also evident in Simple Recipes. As the narrator’s father continues their family tradition of having dinner together every night, the narrator’s brother begins to rebel. This urges the father to physically hurt his son after his negative remarks and “angry face[s],” (Thien, 342). Their father “holding [a] bamboo pole between his hands, …rises and again comes down,” and tears the