How I Met My Husband

Alice Munro published “How I Met My Husband” in her book Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You (1974). Told from the first-person point of view, the story layers the voice of the fifteen-year-old Edie, working as a “hired girl” in the house of the comparatively wealthy Peebles family, with that of the adult Edie, now happily married and wiser than she was as a teenager. Edie’s voice is colloquial and friendly, keenly aware of its audience. In this way, the story celebrates the art of storytelling, suggesting that by using memories to tell stories people arrive at a greater understanding of who they are. Storytelling also enables women who live on the margins of society—such as Edie, who has little education, money, or status—to speak when