A Closer Look at Alice Munros Short Story Runaway

A Closer Look at Alice Munros Short Story Runaway Runaway,  by the Nobel Prize-winning Canadian author Alice Munro, tells the story of a young woman who refuses a chance to escape a bad marriage. The story debuted in the August 11, 2003,  issue of The New Yorker. It also appeared in Munros 2004 collection by the same name. You can ​read the story for free on The New Yorkers website. Multiple Runaways Runaway people, animals, and emotions abound in the story. The wife, Carla, is twice a runaway. When she was 18 and college-bound, she ran off to marry her husband, Clark, against her parents  wishes and has been estranged from them since. And now, getting on a bus to Toronto, she runs away a second time- this time from Clark. Carlas beloved white goat, Flora, also appears to be a runaway, having inexplicably disappeared shortly before the start of the story. (By the end of the story, though, it seems likely that Clark has been trying to get rid of the goat all along.) If we think of runaway  as meaning out of control  (as in runaway train),  other examples come to mind in the story. First, there is Sylvia Jamiesons runaway emotional attachment to Carla (what Sylvias friends describe dismissively as an inevitable crush on a girl). There is also Sylvias runaway involvement in Carlas life, pushing her along a path that Sylvia imagines is best for Carla, but which she is, perhaps, not ready for or doesnt really want. Clark and Carlas marriage seems to be following a runaway trajectory. Finally, there is Clarks runaway temper, carefully documented early in the story, that threatens to become truly dangerous when he goes to Sylvias house in the night to confront her about encouraging Carlas departure. Parallels Between Goat and Girl Munro describes the goats behavior in ways that mirror Carlas relationship with Clark. She writes: At first she had been Clark’s pet entirely, following him everywhere, dancing for his attention. She was as quick and graceful and provocative as a kitten, and her resemblance to a guileless girl in love had made them both laugh. When Carla first left home, she behaved much in the starry-eyed manner of the goat. She was filled with giddy delight  in her pursuit of a more authentic kind of life  with Clark. She was impressed by his good looks, his colorful employment history, and everything about him that ignored her. Clarks repeated suggestion that Flora might have just gone off to find herself a billy  obviously parallels Carlas running away from her parents to marry Clark. Whats especially troubling about this parallel is that the first time Flora disappears, she is lost but still alive. The second time she disappears, it seems almost certain that Clark has killed her. This suggests that Carla is going to be in a much more dangerous position for having returned to Clark. As the goat matured, she changed alliances. Munro writes, But as she grew older she seemed to attach herself to Carla, and in this attachment, she was suddenly much wiser, less skittish- she seemed capable, instead, of a subdued and ironic sort of humor. If Clark has, in fact, killed the goat (and it seems likely he has),  it is symbolic of his commitment to killing off any of Carlas impulses to think or act independently- to be anything but the guileless girl in love  who married him. Carla’s Responsibility Though Clark is clearly presented as a murderous, stultifying force, the story also places some of the responsibility for Carlas situation on Carla herself. Consider the way Flora allows Clark to pet her, even though he may have been responsible for her original disappearance and is probably about to kill her. When Sylvia tries to pet her, Flora puts her head down as if to butt. Goats are unpredictable,  Clark tells Sylvia. They can seem tame but they’re not really. Not after they grow up.  His words seem to apply to Carla, as well. She has behaved unpredictably, siding with Clark, who was causing her distress, and butting  Sylvia by exiting the bus and forgoing the escape Sylvia has offered. For Sylvia, Carla is a girl who needs guidance and saving, and it is hard for her to imagine that Carlas choice to return to Clark was the choice of an adult woman. Is she grown up?  Sylvia asks Clark about the goat. She looks so small. Clarks answer is ambiguous: She’s as big as she’s ever going to get.  This suggests that Carlas being grown up  might not look like Sylvias definition of grown up.  Eventually, Sylvia comes to see Clarks point. Her letter of apology to Carla even explains that she made the mistake of thinking somehow that Carlas freedom and happiness were the same thing. Clarks Pet Entirely On first reading, you might expect that just as the goat shifted alliances from Clark to Carla, Carla, too, might have changed alliances, believing more in herself and less in Clark. Its certainly what Sylvia Jamieson believes. And its what common sense would dictate, given the way Clark treats Carla. But Carla defines herself entirely in terms of Clark. Munro writes: While she was running away from him- now- Clark still kept his place in her life. But when she was finished running away, when she just went on, what would she put in his place? What else- who else- could ever be so vivid a challenge? And it is this challenge that Carla preserves by holding out against the temptation  to walk to the edge of the woods- to the place where she saw the buzzards- and confirm that Flora was killed there. She doesnt want to know.

5 Minute Activities for Elementary School Teachers

5 Minute Activities for Elementary School Teachers Every elementary school teacher dreads that point  of the day when they don’t have enough time to start a new lesson, but yet, they have a few extra minutes to spare before the bell rings. This â€Å"wait time† or â€Å"lull† is the perfect opportunity for a quick activity  for the class. And,  what’s great about this type of  time-filler activity is that it requires little to  no preparation and the students tend to think of them as â€Å"play† time. Check out these ideas:   Mystery Box This five minute filler is a terrific way for students to develop their thinking strategies. Secretly place an item into a covered shoe box and ask the students to figure out what is inside without opening it. Allow them to use all of their senses to find out what is in the box: touch it, smell it, shake it. Suggest to them to ask â€Å"yes† or â€Å"no† questions such as, â€Å"Can I eat it?† or â€Å"Is it bigger than a baseball?† Once they figure out what the item is, open the box and let them see it. Sticky Notes   This quick time filler helps students build their vocabulary and spelling skills. Write compound words in advance on sticky notes, dividing each half of the word into two notes. For example, write â€Å"base† on one note and â€Å"ball† on the other. Then, place one sticky note on each student’s desk. Then students can go around the classroom and find the peer who owns the note that  makes the compound word. Pass the Ball   A great way to reinforce fluency is to have the students sit on their desks and pass a ball while saying anything, from rhyming words to naming the capitals of the United States. This is a fun time filler where students will enjoy playing while reinforcing important learning concepts. The act of passing a ball engages students and keeps their attention, and encourages order within the classroom by limiting who is speaking and when. Should students get out of hand, use this as a  teachable moment  and review what it means to be respectful of each other.   Line  Up This is a great five minute activity to take your time lining the students up for lunch or a special event. Have all of the students remain in their seats and each student stands when they think you are talking about them. An example is, â€Å"This person wears glasses.† So all of the students who  wear glasses would stand up. Then you say, â€Å"This person wears glasses and has brown hair.† Then whoever has glasses and brown hair would remain standing and then line up. Then you move on to another description and so on. You can modify this activity to last two minutes or even 15 minutes. Line up is a quick activity for children to reinforce their listening skills and comparatives. Hot Seat   This game is similar to Twenty Questions. Randomly select a student to come up to the front board and have them stand with their back facing the white board. Then choose another student to come up and write a word on the board behind them. Limit the word that is written to a site word, vocabulary word, spelling word or anything that you are teaching. The goal of the game is for the student to ask his/her classmates questions in order to guess the word written on the board.   Silly Story   Challenge students to take turns making up a story. Have them sit in a circle, and one by one add a sentence to the story. For example, the first student would say, â€Å"Once upon a time there was a little girl that went to school, then she†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Then the next student would continue the story. Encourage children to stay on task and use appropriate words. This activity is the perfect opportunity for students to develop and use their imagination and creativity. This can also be turned into a longer project in which students collaborate on a digital document. Clean Up   Have a clean-up countdown. Set a stopwatch or alarm and assign each student a specific number of items to clean up. Tell students, â€Å"Let’s beat the clock and see how fast we can clean up the classroom.† Make sure that you set rules ahead of time, and every student understands exactly where each item goes in the classroom. As an extra incentive, choose one item be the â€Å"trash of the day† and whoever picks up that item wins a small prize. Keep it Simple Think of the skills you want your students to grasp and prepare activities that correlate with that, then use those five minutes to practice those skills. Younger children can practice printing or coloring and older children can practice journal writing or do math drills. Whatever the concept is, prepare for it ahead of time and have it ready for those awkward in-between moments. Looking for more quick ideas? Try these review activities, brain breaks, and teacher-tested time savers.