Missions and Explorers: “Amundsen” as a Key to Reading Alice Munro’s Other Stories

Abstract

In this chapter Magdalena Ładuniuk offers her reading of “Amundsen” as a key to the understanding of other stories by Alice Munro. She begins by arguing that the setting of “Amundsen” (included in Dear Life) comes as a surprise in the context of other Munrovian stories. The town of Amundsen is not only literally covered with snow and unpleasantly cold, but it also has a name that rings many bells: that of the legendary Arctic explorer. Although Munro’s Amundsen is located only about 200 km away from Toronto, the connection she establishes between this small town and the Arctic is not accidental. Ładuniuk reflects on Munro’s “Amundsen” as the story employing the metaphor of the Arctic exploration to comment on human relations, a technique she sees as typically Munrovian. She presents protagonists who undertake important missions, yet at some point become unable to continue or are forced to retreat. Unlike the eponymous Roald Amundsen, as Ładuniuk argues, Munro’s characters tend to be unfulfilled explorers who repeatedly fail to accomplish their life objectives.