To Reach Japan And Gravel, By Alice Munro

What techniques of characterisation do writers use to make what the reader might think of as unpleasant people acceptable, or at least understandable ? Analyse these techniques and their effects using at least two of the Munro stories you have studied.

Short stories by Alice Munro are ordinary human life stories, set in small towns having it relatable to any readers. In her stories, Munro uses characterisation techniques to reveal the personalty of her characters. Specifically, in each story Munro portrays an unpleasant character in society, still handles the readers to understand and sympathise with her characters through her convincing narrative. In the stories, “To Reach Japan” and “Gravel” Munro includes two unpleasant mothers which
In the story “Gravel” the mother is described and is characterised as an irresponsible mother. The mother has an affair with a different man and the small children are placed in a situation with two fathers. The mother still continues to prioritise her desires to play with men, as Munro states, “My mother and Neal were having sex and had locked it against interruptions.” Eventually, her daughter Caro dies because of her inattention towards her children as a mother. However as the story continues after Caro’s death, the mother has another baby. From here, she starts working to support the other two children. This gives an effect to the reader and gives a new impression of the mother as Munro describes her changing and being a responsible mother. This attitude of the mother persuades the readers to see the mother as she is learning from the mistakes. It creates a mother as a character as she is also growing as a mother. Therefore, Munro controls the readers by showing these strong intensions the mother has and her change in attitude towards raising her children, which makes the mother an acceptable character overall at the end of the