Essay Questions

What are the main agents that influence the narrator’s perception of the Birthmark? (“ Face”)

Family: The narrator’s mother helps him to accept the birthmark as something that is standard. However, his father dislike the narrator intensely due to the birthmark.

Friends: The narrator’s childhood friend, Nancy, hurts him ruthlessly when she colors her face so that her cheek can be like the narrator’s. Nancy’s imitation triggers an explosive reaction which changes the courses of their lives.

School: At school, the narrator is nicknamed, ‘Grape-nuts’. The nickname is label that makes the narrator conscious of his birthmark.

Neighbours. Sharon Suttles discriminates against the narrator. In a confrontation, Sharon Suttles tells the narrator’s mother “Can I help it if your husband hates you and you got a kid with a messed-up face?” Sharon Suttle’s assertion discomforts the narrator’s ego.

What is the irony in the title ‘His Grace’? (“ Face”)

The narrator’s mother referred to her husband as ‘His Grace’. This title is ironic considering that the narrator’s father is a graceless person how neither appreciates his son nor his wife. Instead of loving hem, he hurts them through his insensitive behavior. Besides, the narrator acknowledges that his father was unreceptive of him when he was born.

What defense does the narrator’s mother employ after the confrontation with Sharon Suttles? (“ Face”)

The narrator’s mother employs sublimation. She tells Velma,“Fetch me my garden shears, would you, Velma? While I’m out here, I might as well trim the glads. Some of them are downright wilted.” After getting the shears she cuts down all the glads. Through the sublimation she turns her anger, stemming from Sharon’s spiteful remarks, to pruning the glads.

How would you apply the Lacanian Psychoanalysis to interpret the narrator’s mother’s ‘old days’? (“Face”)

The narrator says, “my mother changed completely in her old age, becoming ribald and fanciful. She claimed that my father had been a magnificent lover and that she herself had been “a pretty bad girl.” According to Lacanian Psychoanalysis, the narrator’s mother is living in Imaginary Order. The assertion that her husband was a ‘magnificent lover’ is an illusion of what she would have wanted while her husband was still alive. Furthermore, the fancies of ‘being bad girl’ imply that she has misgivings for being ‘a good girl’, yet the goodness did not make her happy. Therefore, she hides in the Imaginary Order to block the Symbolic Order that she has dominated her entire life.

What is the inference in the sentence: “ No rest for the wicked”? (“Wild Swans”)

Flo used these words as a response to the undertaker when the undertaker suggested that Rose should rest from her work since too much was making her pale. Flo response is an overt dig at the undertaker who Rose presumed was a wicked man. According to Rose, the undertaker used the candy, gum and chocolate bags to mislead young girls and women into traps.

What binary framework influences the happenings in “Wild Swans”? (“Wild Swans”)

Fantasy versus Reality: Rose’s preoccupation about the minister's hand cuddling her including the location of her undergarments are contradictory to reality. Actually, it is the minister's magazine that touches Rose’s skin.

Why does Alice Munro apply paradox in the statement: “Victim and accomplice she was”? (“Wild Swans”)

This statement is paradoxical because in legal settings one cannot be a victim and an accomplice simultaneously. In Rose’s imagination, she is an accomplice because she allows the minister to keep caress her body without resisting. Similarly, she is a victim because the minster strokes her ( based on her imaginations) body without seeking her consent. For Rose, being a victim and an accomplice are not mutually exclusive for the reason that she is dithering between reality and fantasy.