How I Met My Husband by Alice Munro
"How I Met My Husband" by Alice Munro is a coming-of-age story that explores themes of youthful innocence, longing, and the complexities of romantic relationships. The narrative centers on Edie, a young woman working for the Peebles family, whose life is transformed by her encounter with a charming pilot named Chris Watters. As Edie navigates her blossoming femininity, she dresses up to attract Chris’s attention and becomes caught in a whirlwind of emotions, leading to a fleeting romantic connection between them.
The arrival of another woman, Alice Kelling, complicates matters when Chris shows interest in her, leaving Edie to grapple with feelings of jealousy and disappointment. After a tender farewell and an unfulfilled promise of correspondence from Chris, Edie faces the harsh reality of unrequited love. Ultimately, the story evolves as Edie moves on from her infatuation and finds companionship with the mailman, leading to a marriage filled with love and fulfillment. Munro's portrayal of Edie's journey highlights the transition from youthful dreams to adult realities, making it a relatable exploration of love and loss.
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How I Met My Husband by Alice Munro
First published: 1974
Type of plot: Domestic realism
Time of work: The early twentieth century
Locale: Ontario, Canada
Principal Characters:
Edie , the narrator, a fifteen-year-old maidChris Watters , a pilot with whom she falls in loveAlice Kelling , the pilot's fiancéLoretta Bird , the nosy neighbor and town gossip
The Story
A red-and-silver plane lands at the old fairgrounds across the road from the home of the Peebles, for whom Edie works. Edie's first close-up view of an airplane leads to her first encounter with romance.
Edie is both eager for and rather innocent about romance. She is quite proudly aware of her blossoming womanhood, and the day after the plane lands, Edie gets the impulse to dress herself up in Mrs. Peebles's finery, put on makeup, and play the part of a sophisticated beauty while Mrs. Peebles is out for the afternoon. This is how she is discovered by Chris Watters, who is looking for a drink of cool water from the pump. Edie is embarrassed but also irresistibly attracted to the pilot when he tells her she looks beautiful.
That attraction leads Edie to cross the road that same night. Chris Watters has finished giving airplane rides for the day and shares a smoke with his young visitor. Edie, concerned that Mrs. Peebles will discover her improprieties of the afternoon, convinces Watters to promise not to say anything about the dress-up episode. Her short visit reinforces her impression that she is somehow special to the friendly pilot.
Their casual relationship continues as the pilot regularly stops by for drinks of water. One day Alice Kelling shows up, guided to the Peebles's place by the ever-present Loretta Bird. Edie critically notes that Alice is neither young nor pretty, that her bust looks low and bumpy, that she has a worried face, and that her engagement ring features but a single, tiny stone. That night Alice and Chris go off somewhere in her car. Much later, through the slats of her blind, Edie watches them come home. She is not unhappy to observe them get out of opposite sides of the car and walk away from each other.
When Alice accompanies the Peebles on a picnic to the lake the next day, Edie bakes Chris a cake and learns that he has decided to pull up stakes and make his getaway. The visit turns into a rousing but tender farewell party. It becomes Edie's initiation in physical intimacy with a man. The pilot sensibly does not allow his urges full rein; when they say goodbye, he promises Edie that he will write to her.
Later that evening, Alice discovers that her fiancé has left. To her own surprise, Edie lies for him, but also for herself, saying that Chris has flown to another nearby field. Alice becomes suspicious of this sexy young girl; in response to Mrs. Peebles's questions, Edie readily admits to intimacy with Watters. Alice explodes in rage and sobs; Loretta, cliché-loaded and always functioning as a kind of parodic Greek chorus, comments that all men are the same; and Mrs. Peebles finally discovers that, to Edie, being intimate meant kissing.
Throughout the summer and well into the fall, six days a week, Edie waits at the mailbox for the promised letter, but the letter never comes. Finally, Edie's absolute faith in the promised letter crumbles and her heart turns to lead. She stops meeting the mail, for she refuses to become like so many other women who wait all their lives for something that never comes.
Then, however, the mailman calls and says he has missed her. They begin to go out, and after two years become engaged. They marry, have children, and find happiness.
Bibliography
Franzen, Jonathan. "Alice's Wonderland." The New York Times Book Review, November 14, 2004, 1, 14-16.
Howells, Coral Ann. Alice Munro. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 1998.
McCulloch, Jeanne, and Mona Simpson. "The Art of Fiction CXXXVII." Paris Review 131 (Summer, 1994): 226-264.
Moore, Lorrie. "Leave Them and Love Them." The Atlantic Monthly 294, no. 5 (December, 2004): 125.
Munro, Sheila. Lives of Mothers and Daughters: Growing Up with Alice Munro. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2001.
Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. Alice Munro: A Double Life. Toronto: ECW Press, 1992.
Simpson, Mona. "A Quiet Genius." The Atlantic Monthly 288, no. 5 (December, 2001): 126.