Passion Analysis

Alright, here it is: the super fantastical, extra spectastical "Passion" setting breakdown. GeographicalThe story takes place in Canada's Ottawa Valley. Located between Eastern Ontario and W...

Munro's narrator is like a wise housefly. It buzzes around, hangs out on walls, and reports stuff to us. Plus, it has access to characters' thoughts (because houseflies are cool like that), tho...

"Passion" can be categorized in the Coming-Of-Age genre because it explores Grace's transition from adolescence to adulthood. Did that explanation blow your mind? We thought it might. It's inte...

Answers in Short Supply We're introduced to the narrator's searching tone early on: What was Grace really looking for when she had undertaken this expedition? Maybe the worst thing would hav...

Subtlety is Awesome Like a Snow Leopard All that narrative wisdom that helped earn Alice Munro a Nobel Prize wouldn't be possible without some bomb subtlety skills. With subtlety you can be wi...

We suspect there are a lot of things up with the title in this case, but it may have an extra-special something to do with Mrs. Travers saying: I suppose that's just how your sympathies change a...

"Passion" is not a cheerful story. It would earn three violins and a raisin on the Shmoop Sadness Scale (which we got rid of because it didn't make any sense). But maybe the story's final line sugg...

"Passion" is short. Hey, they don't call it a short story for nothing. It's also pretty accessible, so you don't have to go into it with an extensive knowledge of Canadian legislative policies...

Exposition (Initial Situation) Grace hasn't visited the Ottawa Valley for a long time. But now she's back, she's older, and she's looking for the Traverses' summer house. Also, we hear a lot a...

Alice Munro is the first Canadian to ever win a Nobel Prize in Literature. You know this was big for our nice northerly neighbors. Source Alice Munro's dad was a fox and mink farmer. We know t...

It's a reasonable expectation to assume there will be some steaminess in a story called "Passion," but the R rating is not due to explicit steaminess, but rather the story's honest discussion a...

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