Alice Munro' s "Child's Play"

 

Ring around the Rosie no More:

Alice Munro’s ghastly

Child’s Play

"Ring around the rosie/
A pocket full of posies. / Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down! "

(“Ring around the Rosie," click here to see the origin of this Nursery Rhyme

Keywords mentioned in the workshop as to the analysis of the story: relentless, ruthless, expiatory, manipulative, implacable, difference, special, safety...

“Child’s play” is a ghastly confrontation about the lack of safety in life regarding moral, physical and psychological issues. What drives us apart is the constant swirl of differences which we desperately try to surpass. Marlene and Charlene are brought together through the outside layers of their personnae: they are identified at camp as twin sisters due to the coolie hats, and the fashionable names. Soon, they trade their differences: the freckles and the tan, the averting social status to which they belong, and, later, their paths in life divert through their ideological and family commitments. Marlene is the University woman, resilient to the lack of bonds and ruthlessly determined. Charlene, on the contrary, feels the burden of guilt and needs some soothing placebo in her deathbed that may expiate her from the “trauma” of past.

Verna’s special character does not solely label her, the differance (term deployed by Jackes Derrida, click here to see the implications of the word) that sets her apart from "the ordinary"  is extended to the “differance” of the rest of mortals themselves. Their cosy lives are affected by the same lack of communication, the misundertandings and the relentless cruelty that they enact upon each other.

Marlene doubts whether fulfilling or not her friend’s mission in pursuit of peace. Marlene hesitates whether to travel to Guelph or not, whether to go to hospital or not, whether to destroy or keep the letter. She ruthlessly approaches her dying friend in hospital by referring to her as an undiscerning lump. The pomposity of the church / cathedral / undefined / unidentified building/ grand or not grand does not dazzle Marlene as the Valhalla that Charlene dreams of to alleviate her conscience, The place is unattended. Father Hofsreader is on a vacation, and the perfunctory priest does not aid much as a lot of questioning, red tape, and forgetfulness overtake the situation.

Alice Munro departs from the narrow family ambiance, the nook where children are supposed to feel safe and protected. A tiring anticipatory “I suppose” indicates otherwise the tedious cycle of ordinary lives in the face of uneventful matters. The hushing and shushing of the tragedy remains blanketed in the talk that there is afterwards, in the absence of the word “murder” or “drowning.” Again an undercurrent of ambivalence leads the reader to construct the story in their mind, what is there in the letter? Was it an accident? Did Marlene return to Toronto, her present; or did she, on the contrary, remain in Guelph that night, her past?

Charlene’s voice is described as special, Verna is one of the “Specials.” Marlene writes a book “Idols and Idiots” who wins her “a disapproval from colleagues,” and “small flurry of attention in the outside world” (page 210). Marlene is an idol with feet of clay. Charlene vividly gathers the strewn pieces of the narrative that Marlene delivers on Verna, to the point of acknowledging the presence and power the girl distills and impinges on Charlene. Marlene’s tour de force and influence on her friend is so ominous that she seems to have won her as an adept to her cruel cause. Only Charlene needs some attonement and Marlene carries on with some sublimation of the “traumatic” event in her professional pursuits. 

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