Symbolism In Alice Munro's The Shining-Horse Winner

The Rocking-Horse Winner

A classic short story that combines a young boy's quest for his mother's love with archetypal symbols and deeply moral questions, "The Rocking-Horse Winner" is a heart-wrenching experience that will provoke students to question their own priorities and society's ethics. Written in a deceptively simple style in the manner of a ghostly fairy-tale, the story has an undertone of great anxiety and tension, masked by a veneer of civility and respectability in a high middle-class home where love gives way to the all-consuming need for "luck" and material success: "There must be more money! There must be more money!" Beyond the emotional pull of the story, senior students will find themselves exploring the complex issues
Fullerton's house, talking - or really listening - to Mrs. Fullerton, who sold her eggs." And so begins "The Shining Houses," with two very different women conversing in an apparently normal and civilized way in a brand new, orderly, clean subdivision. Like many of Munro's beautifully-crafted stories, this one is notable for the depth with which these ordinary characters are developed through the author's typical and natural use of meticulously chosen images, phrases, and pieces of conversation that often say more in their omissions than in their actual words. As the students begin to explore these ordinary people, they begin to understand the tension and anger that exist in this new subdivision of shiny, new homes, where disorder, eccentricity, and non-conformity will not be tolerated by the upwardly mobile, good "people who win." Students will begin to see how Munro carefully characterizes the neighbours through their words and behaviour to reveal, ever so subtly, their beliefs and values - that the egg-lady, Mrs. Fullerton, is bringing down their property values and life-styles with her "shack, eyesore" of a home. As the students ponder the ethical dilemmas concerning stereotyping, competing rights and responsibilities, and the nature of an urban environment, they will appreciate the craft and artistry of one of Canada's pre-eminent writers. The concluding "Another Viewpoint" activity (p 73) encourages students to consider Mary as a "quintessential
Thus, this essay allows students to see and understand the role of place as an imaginative construct in the artistic process of a great, writer while encouraging them to re-examine and reflect upon the role of place in their own lives, memories, imaginations, and writings: how and why they see things the way they do. Toward the end of the essay, Laurence concludes that, for her, writing has been an "attempt to come to terms with the past," a process she sees as "one of freeing oneself from the stultifying aspect of the past, while at the same time beginning to see its true value." In a sense, then, students will further see how the artistic process involves a quest for freedom and truth - a quest that eventually finds its home in clearly-articulated artistic expression. Analyzing the structure of the essay itself will provide students with a model of solid essay writing - particularly in the use of relevant and interesting details to substantiate the thesis. The essay will also connect with students who have read such novels as The Stone Angel and A Jest of God, shedding further light on how important Laurence's "place" was to the development of her vivid characters and themes. Elements: Essay development,