Lives of Girls and Women: Analysis of Major Characters
"Lives of Girls and Women" is an autobiographical novel that explores the coming-of-age journey of Del Jordan, a young woman living in the small town of Jubilee, Ontario. The narrative unfolds across eight chapters, each representing a new phase in Del’s life as she grapples with complex themes such as identity, relationships, and societal expectations. Del is characterized by her intelligence and wit, yet she fiercely values her independence, often challenging traditional notions of womanhood.
Key characters include Del’s mother, Ada Morrison Jordan, who seeks cultural enrichment but holds traditional views on relationships; Garnet French, Del's first love, whose struggle between faith and personal desire highlights the tensions in their relationship; and Uncle Benny, whose unconventional lifestyle serves as a contrast to societal norms. Other significant figures include Naomi, Del’s friend who ultimately embraces a conventional life, and Elinor Farris, whose tragic end underscores the themes of unfulfilled desire and societal pressures. The novel poignantly reflects on the complexities of female identity and the search for personal truth against the backdrop of a constraining small-town environment.
Lives of Girls and Women: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Alice Munro
First published: 1971
Genre: Novel
Locale: Jubilee, a small town in southwestern Ontario
Plot: Bildungsroman
Time: The 1940's and early 1950's
Del Jordan, the protagonist and narrator, who lives in Jubilee, a small town in Ontario, Canada. Each of the eight chapters of this “autobiographical” novel presents a new stage in Del's coming-of-age. She begins the story as a curious child, becomes an academically successful but not very popular student, takes a lover, and becomes a writer. As the chapters unfold, she confronts for the first time the idea of death, gradually recognizes the complexity of her relationship with her mother, desires passionately but ultimately rejects religious affiliation, and engages in initial sexual experiments that are as awkward as her first genuine romance is fulfilling. Finally, she makes the painful decision to leave Jubilee and to abandon conventional small-town life in favor of the independent life of a writer. Although Del emerges as both a witty and a highly intelligent woman, it is an unyielding sense of independence that most characterizes her. Each chapter of the book demonstrates her reluctance to be constrained by traditional interpretations both of the world and of womanhood, a reluctance that often evokes pathos because it is coupled with her keen sympathy for those who accept such interpretations. She discovers in the course of writing her first novel, based loosely on her experiences in Jubilee, that whatever truth she captures about the people and their town ultimately is itself an interpretation; it is, however, hers.
Ada (Addie) Morrison Jordan, Del's mother. She is a middle-aged, intelligent woman who yearns for more culture and freedom than the traditional, small-town world of Jubilee can provide. She makes attempts at broadening her horizons by joining Great Books clubs and by selling encyclopedias. Her emphasis on education as the way to escape from Jubilee certainly influences Del. Despite her unconventional rejection of religion and her avid faith in the future liberation of women, she remains steadfastly traditional in her views concerning sex, possibly because she views any attachment to a man as ultimately destructive of a woman's potential to live her own life.
Garnet French, Del's first, genuine love, a handsome, poor, Baptist backwoodsman. He was a drinker and troublemaker before being changed by time spent in jail and by religion. He now hopes to become a minister. Although his intelligence is no match for Del's, Garnet nevertheless attracts Del because of his raw sexuality, and it is with Garnet that Del first experiences real sexual fulfillment. Despite her deep attachment to him, however, she is forced to declare her independence when Garnet attempts to “baptize” her in the local river, revealing both his deep-seated wish that she become a Baptist and his resentment that she is not like him.
Uncle Benny, an eccentric, illiterate backwoodsman, thirty-seven years old, who is no relation to anyone in Jubilee but who is called Uncle Benny by all. He works for Del's father, who raises silver foxes on a nearby farm. When Del is still a child, Uncle Benny shows her, through his unconventional, often chaotic behavior, that human beings can and do live in a variety of ways. His unconventional activities include arranging by mail to allow a woman and her child, sight unseen, to share his dilapidated shack on the Flats Road; the results are disastrous.
Naomi, a plump, pretty girl, Del's closest friend and confidante throughout adolescence. Together they wonder and worry about sex, sharing their teenage fantasies and romanticizing about future lovers. Despite the influence of Del's independent personality, Naomi wishes for and ends up finally with a “normal,” traditional life, becoming pregnant by and marrying a man she does not love, then looking forward to a future as a suburban housewife.
Elinor Farris, the director of the yearly Jubilee junior high operetta. A native of Jubilee, she is middle-aged and unmarried. She devotes herself fanatically to the annual operetta, perhaps because her sexual life is so unfulfilling. She drowns in the local river, possibly a suicide.
Uncle Craig, Del's aging, stout, and half-blind uncle whose passion in life is to compile a complete, objective history of Jubilee. His death shows Del that humans are mortal, subjective creatures and suggests that compiling such histories may in fact be impossible.
Jerry Storey, an extremely intelligent though unattractive student in Del's high school. His chief interest is science. Jerry and Del become intimate because they are intellectual companions; however, their adolescent experiments with sex are highly unsuccessful.
Art Chamberlain, a local radio newscaster and World War II veteran. Women find him humorous and attractive. Because of her youth, Del initially thinks his passes at her are erotic, but she quickly becomes aware of the more perverse side of his, and human, sexuality.
Fern Dogherty, a boarder in the Jordan household. An over-weight woman in her thirties, she failed in her attempt to become an opera singer. She has an affair with Art Chamberlain until he leaves Jubilee.
Marion Sherriff, a stocky, alienated, seventeen-year-old girl who commits suicide, possibly because she is pregnant out of wedlock. Del bases the central character of her first novel on Marion.