1933 by Mavis Gallant
"1933" by Mavis Gallant explores the emotional landscape of the Carette family, grappling with the aftermath of a patriarch's death. Following the demise of her husband, Mme. Carette and her two daughters, Berthe and Marie, are thrust into a new reality, forced to relocate to a smaller apartment. The narrative captures the children's anxieties surrounding change and loss, as they are haunted by fears of ghosts during the night. The story delves into the rigid social expectations of their middle-class upbringing, illustrated by the daughters’ limited understanding of their mother’s identity and the constrained expressions of their everyday life. Mme. Carette’s insistence on how her daughters refer to her work underscores the complexities of self-identity and societal perceptions. Through the interactions with their landlord and his wife, Gallant subtly reveals the family's profound sense of isolation and the unspoken grief that permeates their lives. Overall, "1933" poignantly reflects themes of fear, loneliness, and the struggle to navigate a world altered by loss.
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1933 by Mavis Gallant
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1987 (collected in Across the Bridge, 1993)
Type of work: Short story
The Work
A year after the death of her husband, Mme. Carette, with her two daughters, Berthe and Marie, has been forced to move to a smaller apartment. Although the new apartment is near the old one, the two girls, worried about the adult mysteries of change, death, and absence, stay awake at night, frightened about ghosts in the house.
The strict social conventions of the middle-class Carette family are revealed by the fact that the daughters never see their mother wearing a bathrobe and that the only English Mme. Carette thinks her daughters need to use are the phrases: “I don’t understand,” “I don’t know,” and “No, thank you.” The most telling statement in the story is the mother’s insistence that the children never refer to their mother as a seamstress but must say instead, “My mother was clever with her hands.”
The children are often looked after by the landlord, M. Grosjean, and his Irish wife, who live downstairs. The story communicates the inarticulate fear and loneliness of the Carette family because of the loss of the husband and father; its artistry lies in the subtle way Gallant conveys that fear and loneliness.
Bibliography
Canadian Fiction Magazine 28 (1978). Special issue on Mavis Gallant.
Essays in Canadian Writing 42 (Winter, 1990). Special issue on Mavis Gallant.
Gadpaille, Michelle. “Mavis Gallant.” In The Canadian Short Story. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Grant, Judith Skleton. “Mavis Gallant.” In Canadian Writers and Their Works, edited by Robert Lecker, Jack David, and Ellen Quigley. Toronto: ECW Press, 1989.
Keith, William John. “Mavis Gallant.” In A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada. Toronto: ECW Press, 1988.
Kulyk Keefer, Janice. Reading Mavis Gallant. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Schaub, Danielle. Mavis Gallant. New York: Twayne, 1998.
Simmons, Diane. “Remittance Men: Exile and Identity in the Short Stories of Mavis Gallant.” In Canadian Women Writing Fiction, edited by Mickey Pearlman. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1993.
Smythe, Karen. Gallant, Munro, and the Poetics of Elegy. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1992.