论文总字数：42913字

摘 要

爱丽丝·门罗的短篇小说集《逃离》讲述了平凡女人的逃离故事，并且对她们与朋友和亲人的关系进行了细致的刻画。对于这部小说集，评论家一般从叙事技巧和女性主义等角度做出分析，还鲜少有学者关注书中主角间的关怀关系。本篇论文将从关怀伦理的角度分析其中的三个短篇小说—“逃离”，“匆匆”和“沉寂”，对三篇小说中的的关怀关系进行讨论，探讨移情作用、尊重和互惠性等因素对建立和维持关怀关系的重要作用。

除了引言和结论部分之外，本篇论文一共包括三章。第一章主要关注卡拉和西尔维娅间的关系。她们一开始维持着和谐的关怀关系，但后来由于西尔维娅对卡拉私人生活缺少必要的尊重，她们的友情渐渐淡漠。第二章分析了山姆和萨拉间不平等的关怀关系。萨拉对关怀的过度需求使山姆渐渐感到疲累，而付出得不到适当的回应也让山姆失去了关怀的动力，导致了两人间关系的疏离。第三章讨论了朱丽叶和佩内洛普之间的母女关系，指出朱丽叶对女儿的过度关爱造成了女儿的逃离。本文对这三种关怀关系的分析强调了关怀双方的重要作用，希望能够对现实生活中的关怀关系提供一定的启发。

关键词：爱丽丝·门罗；《逃离》；关怀伦理

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements i

English Abstract ii

Chinese Abstract iii

Introduction 1

Chapter One The Changed Caring Relationship between Female Friends 7

1.1 Emotional Attachment between Carla and Sylvia 7

1.2 Sylvia's Intrusion in Carla's Private Life 9

Chapter Two The Unbalanced Caring Relationship between Wife and Husband 11

2.1 Sara's Consuming Demand for Care 11

2.2 Emotional Detachment between Sam and Sara 12

Chapter Three The Unidirectional Caring between Mother and Daughter 14

3.1 Juliet's Overwhelming Care for Penelope 14

3.2 Penelope's Escape from Julie 16

Conclusion 17

Work Cited 18

Introduction

Alice Munro and Runaway

Alice Munro, born in June 10^th, 1931, is a remarkable Canadian short story writer and Nobel Prize winner. Growing up in a farming family, she began writing as a teenager, and published her first story, “The Dimensions of a Shadow”, in 1950, which was collected in her first book of short stories—Dance of the Happy Shades. This collection was published in 1968 and won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Since then, she has published 14 collections of stories, such as Lives of Girls and Women, Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You, Friend of My Youth, Runaway and so on, which include almost 170 short stories. In 2013, Munro was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, cited as a “master of the contemporary short story”^[1]. She is the first Canadian and the 13^th woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Typically set at Huron County, Ontario, most of Munro’s stories delineate common pictures of ordinary life, in which female characters have their desire, regret and weakness, but try hard to look for their identity and freedom, to seek what they want.

Runaway is a book of short stories first published in 2004. It was awarded that year's Giller Prize and Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. There are eight short stories in this book, three (“Chance”, “Soon”, “Silence”) of which are about a single character named “Juliet”. As the name indicates, the eight stories are all literally about runaway. Female protagonists depicted in the book mostly feel the compulsion to leave their original life, their friends, spouses or parents, to strive for a new life. Considering the length limitation, this paper will mainly focus on three short stories – “Runaway”, “Soon” and “Silence”.

“Runaway” is about a young wife called Carla, who has had enough of her moody, rather threatening husband Clark. Under the encouragement and material support of her neighbor Ms. Sylvia, who is also her good friend, Carla decides to leave Clark, but her runaway fails at last. Sylvia’s excessive intrusion into Carla’s private life also leads to their estrangement in the end. In “Soon”, Juliet visits her parents, Sam and Sara, with her one-year-old daughter Penelope, only to find that the relationship between her parents has deteriorated. Sara’s long-term disease leads to her overreliance on her husband. Their unbalanced caring relation causes Sam’s emotional detachment from their marriage. “Silence”, as the final story of the trilogy, focuses on the mother-daughter relationship between Juliet and Penelope. Juliet doesn’t enjoy the same success at home as she does in the workplace. Her paternalistic intervention in her twenty-one-year-old daughter’s life results in Penelope’s escape, who decides to cut off all contact with her mother, totally and permanently.

Literature Review on Runaway

Since the 1980s, Alice Munro’s work has attracted more and more attentions of oversea literary critics. However, studies of Munro’s works in our countries started relatively late. Before 2000, there were few academic papers analyzing her short stories. After 2009, the year when Munro was awarded the Man Booker International Prize, more and more domestic scholars began to pay their attention to this distinguished short story writer.

When it comes to Runaway, most oversea research is conducted from the following perspectives. First of all, analyses are made from the narrative perspective. Many critics and scholars analyze the narrative art and techniques applied in this book. For instance, in “Alice Munro’s “Silence”: From the Politics of Silence to a Rhetoric of Silence” published in 2010, Corinne Bigot focuses on the power of silence in this short story. Instead of using this technique merely as a weapon to sever the relationship with her mother, Penelope is actually using her silence to emphasize the importance of her father’s death, and to punish her mother for sending her away at the time of the death. Moreover, the article also points out that Alice Munro adopts the technique of silence to turn her female protagonist from a pathetic woman into a heroine who adapts herself into her husband and daughter’s reticence and becomes full of hope for her future (Bigot 55).

Besides, many foreign scholars do their research on Runaway from the perspective of feminism. In “To Leave and to Return: Frustrated Departures and Female Quest in Alice Munro’s Runaway” (2010), Fiona Tolan points out that on the one hand, Munro adopts the pattern of female quest by creating female characters such as Carla who undertakes a quest for self-identity; on the other hand, she endows her characters with the persistent pressures of home and family, which is typical in a male-dominated society (161-178).

The third main aspect that many western critics are interested in is the psychological states of characters. Raheleh Bahador reads “Runaway” on the basis of Sigmund Freud’s theory of the Unconscious and its connection with the interpretation of dreams, and discusses the symbolization of three main characters, Carla, Clark and Sylvia according to the tripartite agencies of the id, ego, and superego (169-176).

Although the study scope and depth of Munro’s stories within our country are less satisfactory than those abroad, when it comes to the research perspectives, domestic researchers have a lot in common with foreign scholars. In general, domestic studies of Runaway mostly concentrate on its narrative art and feminist features. For example, Tan Min and Zhao Ning point out in “Lost in the Meditation of Running away or Returning——An Analysis on the Narrative Strategies of ‘Runaway’” (2011) that the adoption of bilinear narrative framework in the short story “Runaway” helps to avoid the monotony and tedium of traditional narrative; and the application of the narrative techniques such as pause, repetition and ellipsis presents and deepens the theme of the story, and makes the story rich in artistry(48-52). Besides, in “An Eco-feminist Interpretation of Alice Munro’s short story Runaway”(2014), Liu Geng analyzes “Runaway” from the perspective of ecofeminism, and uncovers the latent relationship between men, women and nature in the story, with the aim to promote gender equality and to build a more eco-friendly society (77-78).

Care Ethics

Care ethics is a normative ethical theory which appeared in mid-1980s, inspired by the works of psychologist Carol Gilligan(1936-). When Gilligan was a graduate student under the supervision of developmental psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, she found that Kohlberg was biased in his research about the theory of moral development which considered boys more morally mature than girls. Gilligan argued that Kohlberg’s model was not objective as it displayed a masculine perspective on morality^[2]. According to Gilligan, in the history of ethics in the western culture, abstract duties or obligations have traditionally been cultivated and shared by men and women’s “care perspective” of morality has been neglected due to their limited influence in society^[3]. In her book, In a Different Voice (1982), Gilligan points out that men and women are inclined to view morality in different terms. In general, most men tend to focus on the just and rational application of rules and regulations in the problem solving process, while women appeal to emotional attachment when they are involved in the human relationship (21). She identifies the ethics of care as a “different voice”—a voice that joins self with relationship and reason with emotion.

In 1984, Nel Noddings (1929-) published Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education, in which she accepts Gilligan’s ideas but holds the opinion that although care ethics has risen largely from women’s experience, that does not mean that it is inaccessible to men. A more comprehensive and general approach is suggested when it comes to the analysis of the ethics of care.

Noddings emphasizes “caring relations” in caring activities. She points out that the understanding of “relation” and the roles of both the one-caring and the cared-for in building and sustaining such relationship should be considered (41). To build a healthy caring relation, emotions such as empathy and engrossment are of critical importance as motivations. In Noddings’ Caring, empathy is identified as an attempt to think about someone in their position in order to better understand their situation, and to “feel with” their emotions. Empathy is necessary in caring because the cared-for’s physical and psychological situation must be understood before the one-caring takes any caring actions. It requires the carer’s attention in hearing and understanding the expressed need of the receiver. However, empathy cannot on its own constitute a perfect caring relationship. Someone could have a good understanding of his/her cared-for, but acts against that person’s interests and intention. Respect to the care-receiver’s rights and privacy is required in preventing this from happening. In The Ethics of Care and Empathy (2007), Michael Slote indicates that the caring person is supposed to give enough respect to the cared-for’s autonomy as an individual, or over-involvement is likely to occur, in which the caring part may fail to separate his or her own needs and desires from those of the other(55-57).

In building an integral caring relation, the contribution of the cared-for is essential. He or she needs to response in a way which shows that the caring has been received and accepted. The word “reciprocity” appears in Nel Noddings’ The Language of Care Ethics (2012) as one of the key words in understanding caring relations. Noddings explains the word as “the mutual recognition and appreciation of response”(2). She believes that the appropriate response of the care-receiver can not only complete the caring relation, but also offer further information about his or her needs and interests, which helps the caring to deepen and perfect the caring practice. Besides, Noddings also points out that reciprocity will not lead to the fixed roles in caring relation, instead, exchanged roles and contributions are needed to build a stable relation (53). For example, the wife and the husband are supposed to exchange their positions as a caring or a cared-for from time to time to maintain a happy and balanced marriage.

Although in many cases, care ethics have different focuses from dominant ethical theories such as Kantian ethics, utilitarianism and liberalism, there are common moral grounds between them. For instance, similar attitudes are shared when it comes to the situations where the caring person has to decide whether to intervene in order to prevent the cared-for from getting hurt, or the situations that fall under the rubric of paternalism. Typically regarded as an ethics of relationship, care ethics emphasizes good relationships as a basis in evaluating individual’s caring actions. Therefore, in a mother-child relationship, if the mother intervenes in the child’s life for his or her good, such caring practice may not be considered ethically satisfactory if the child does not acknowledge the mother’s caring, because the caring action is not based on the empathic understanding of the child’s autonomy.

The three stories that are selected in this thesis relate to caring problems in different aspects and will be analyzed from the perspective of care ethics.. By discussing the caring relations in these stories, this paper hopes to explore some essential factors in forming caring relations and contribute to the establishment of harmonious interpersonal relationship in our society.

Thesis Structure

Besides the introduction part where the theoretical framework is set up, the main body of this thesis will be divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, the caring relationship between the female friends in “Runaway” will be discussed. At first, Sylvia and Carla share harmonious caring relation, and both of them are emotionally attached to each other. However, because of Sylvia’s lack of respect to Carla’s autonomy, she is over-involved with her friend’s private life, which leads to their estrangement. The second chapter will focus on the marriage between Sam and Sara in the story “Soon”. Because of Sara’s bad health condition, she is unable to contribute to their caring relation. Her consuming demand for caring causes their unbalanced relation and leads to Sam’s emotional detachment from her. The third chapter will analyze Juliet’s paternalistic intervention in her daughter, Penelope’s life. And such overwhelming care finally causes Penelope’s escape. Based on the textual analysis from the perspective of care ethics, this thesis will come to the conclusion that an ideal caring relation asks for the joint contribution from both sides of the caring practice--not only the carer’s respect to the other, but also the positive response and acknowledgement from the cared-for.

Chapter One The Changed Caring Relationship between Female Friends

Nel Noddings defines care ethics as a relational ethic and emphasizes the importance of caring relation in understanding the ethics of care. To build and maintain an ideal caring relation, the one-caring is supposed to be attentive to the cared-for, listening to and observing his or her needs. In the caring practice, the carer should respect the cared-for’s rights and autonomy and try to avoid situations such as over-involvement. In the friendship between Carla and Sylvia, they build mutual beneficial caring relation at first, however, as Sylvia overly involves with Carla’s private life, their harmonious relationship changes at last.

1.1 Emotional Attachment between Carla and Sylvia

In the story “Runaway”, the protagonist Carla shares a friendship with Sylvia Jamieson and they accompany each other through difficult times. Sylvia is Carla Clark’s neighbor, who lives half a mile away from them. She is a Botany teacher in a college. Her husband, Mr. Jamieson, is a poet. Carla is paid to help clean up their house and during that period she gets familiar with Mrs. Jamieson.

According to care ethicists, an ideal caring relation starts from “the moral claim of particular others” (Held 47), whose desires and needs can be expressed in an appropriate way. For example, a baby expresses her needs for a hug by crying. In order to detect the expressed need, the carer is supposed to be receptively attentive and experience motivational displacement. Receptive attention is of great importance in care ethics. It requires the one-caring to be attentive to the cared-for, to feel with the other’s emotions and put himself/herself in the same situation as the cared-for. The motivational displacement is identified as the one-caring’s motive energy which “is directed (temporarily) away from her own projects and towards those of the cared-for”(Noddings 53). After the receiving and understanding of the expressed needs of the cared-for, the carer must respond. He or she responds positively to the need if he/she has the resources to do so. Moreover, to complete a caring relation, the contribution of the care-receiving part is essential. The cared is supposed to respond in a way which shows that the caring practice has been received and recognized. The role such respond plays in forming the relationship is indispensible. Without it, “there is no caring relation no matter how hard the carer has worked at it” (Noddings 53).

After Mr. Jamieson has passed away, Carla takes care of Sylvia by helping her with trifle things such as cleaning out Lion’s bedroom and throwing away his left items. In fact, Carla does not want to step into the Jamiesons’, or rather, she dreads that place. In her eyes, the bedridden Mr. Jamieson is a “real dim and sheeted body”, who is “drugged and shrinking every day”(Munro 15). From the words she uses, it is clear that the house brings her with unpleasant feelings. She is resistant to go inside deep in her heart. However, she still goes there every day, not only for the money, but also because of her sympathy for Sylvia. She is attentive to Sylvia and detects her sadness. Therefore, she experiences “motivational displacement”—that is, she puts aside her own emotions, overcoming her unwillingness to going inside the house. As the one-caring in this caring practice, Carla makes her response to Sylvia’s needs. To loose up the depressing atmosphere in the house, she makes “a silly gargoyle-like face”(Munro 17). By doing something silly, she relieves her friend’s sorrow and makes her smile. Moreover, Carla also consoles Sylvia by giving her a kiss. For Sylvia, who is experiencing the pain of losing the partner of her life, this kiss means a lot. “It meant nothing in particular. It meant Cheer up. Or Almost done. It meant that they were good friends who had got through a lot of depressing work together.(Munro 18)” It gives her hope and tells her that there is still someone who cares about her.

Sylvia receives Carla’s caring and feels grateful for her. Although Sylvia does not express her gratitude to Carla in exact words, she responds to the caring by bringing gifts to Carla from her trip to Greece which implies that she thinks of this friend during her vacation.

Besides, Sylvia launches another caring practice in which their roles exchange. This practice starts from Carla’s expression of her marriage. Because of Clark’s termagancy and irritability, Carla has to endure his blame and impatience from time to time. Their marriage is unhappy:

He was mad at her all the time. He acts as if he hated her. There was nothing she could do right, there was nothing she could say. Living with him was driving her crazy. Sometimes she thought she already was crazy. (Munro 23)

In The Ethics of Care and Empathy(2007), Michael Slote points out the importance of empathy in care ethics, and believes that the one-caring should “feel sorry for, bad for, the person who is in pain and positively wish them well”(13). From Carla’s narration, Sylvia gets to know what happens to her friend, the previously “care-free and generous young creature”(Munro 21). She has had enough of her impatient and bad-tempered husband, and is tired of the current depressed atmosphere in their marriage, which is “weighted down by Clark’s mood”(Munro 9). Carla’s experience triggers Sylvia’s empathy. She feels sorry for her friend and offers to help her run away. She gives her money, and considerately contacts a friend for Carla. She uses her resources to meet the needs of the cared-for.

Carla cannot believe that “it would be that easy”(Munro 26). She can finally run away from her current life and leave the unpleasant reality. She shows her gratitude to her care-giver by calling Sylvia “a true friend”(Munro 26), which is different from her previous address—“Mrs. Jamieson”(Munro 10). The change in the appellation shows the receipt and recognition of the caring of Carla, and thus completes the harmonious caring relation between the female friends.

1.2 Sylvia's Intrusion in Carla's Private Life

However, this relationship does not last long. At the end of the story, Carla’s runaway fails. Sylvia moves from her house and writes a letter to Carla.

Mrs. Jamieson went on to say that she was afraid that she had involved herself too closely in Carla’s life and had made the mistake of thinking somehow that Carla’s happiness and freedom were the same thing. All she cared for was Carla’s happiness and she saw now that she—Carla—must find that in her marriage.(Munro 44)

In this letter, Sylvia attributes the failure of Carla’s runaway to the fact that she has “involved herself too closely in Carla’s life”(Munro 44). As Michael Slote argues, the empathic caring requires the caring person not only to meet the desires and needs of the cared-for, but also to respect the autonomy of the cared-for, that is, his or her rights and capacity to make his or her own decisions. When the one-caring does not show enough respect to the cared-for, or in his words, the one fails to “respect for their wants and fears and what is individual or distinctive about them”(57), over-involvement might happen and the care-giver “may have difficulty in separating their own needs and desires from those of the other”(57). As Sylvia writes in her letter, the situation “over-involvement” occurs in her caring for Carla, and it is one of the factors which lead to the estrangement between the two friends.

Sylvia’s husband Lion Jamieson is about twenty years older than her. According to her recall of their married life, their marriage is not very satisfactory. There is a huge age gap between this couple. While Lion is alive, he looks at his wife “with mere exhaustion, disavowal”(Munro 29), and after his death, Sylvia does not show great sorrow. These all show that Sylvia’s marriage is not happy. Therefore, when she learns that her friend, Carla, is also experiencing an unhappy marriage, Sylvia transfers her desire of fleeing from such life to Carla. She helps Carla in her runaway and hopes Carla won’t live the same life as hers. Carla also realizes Sylvia’s desire:

And adapted to live up to what, as far as she could see, were Mrs. Jamieson’s—Sylvia’s expectations. She did have a feeling that it would be possible to disappoint Mrs. Jamieson, who struck her as a most sensitive and rigorous person, but she thought that she was in no danger of doing that. (Munro 31)

In the bus, Carla is worried about her unpredictable future. At that time, what she thinks about is Sylvia’s expectation, and whether she would let Sylvia down. She doesn’t mention about her own desires and thoughts, or rather, she does not have the time to think about herself, to realize that in fact she doesn’t have the capacity to live her life without Clark. This scheme is too fast to be real, which causes her confusion-- “more confusion perhaps than Sylvia had realized”(Munro 27).

Carla’s runaway fails at the end. Since then, she has never seen Mrs. Jamieson. They will always remember those depressed days when they accompany each other. However, because of Sylvia’s lack of respect to her cared-for, their relation won’t be as close as before.

Chapter Two The Unbalanced Caring Relationship between Wife and Husband

An equal and balanced caring relation requires not only the one-caring’s empathy and respect for the other, but also the essential contribution of the cared-for. If there is too much demand from the care-receiver, or he/she fails to respond to the practice in an appropriate way, the carer is likely to stop the caring. In the short story “Soon”, the wife, Sara, depends heavily on her husband because of her heart disease. Aware of her passive role in their caring relation, she tries to do something in return. However, her inappropriate response to his caring further increases his burden. The consuming demand of Sara leads to the emotional detachment between the couple.

2.1 Sara's Consuming Demand for Care

Nel Noddings points out in Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education(1984) that in a caring relation, the one-caring and the cared-for are in fact interdependent (33). The latter relies on the one-caring to offer the caring; on the other hand, the caring person also depends on the receiver. If the care-receiver has too much demand or the demand is unreasonable, the caring person might become resentful or even stops the caring practice.

In the story “Soon”, Sam’s wife Sara has long suffered from the heart disease, and her infirmity has been depicted at the beginning. When Sara and Sam meet Juliet and her baby in the railway station, Sara intends to reach out for her granddaughter, however, her arms are “too frail to hold any such burden” (Munro 90). She is so feeble that she cannot hold a thirteen-month-old infant. Besides, when they step out of the railway station, she is “almost out of breath after the short walk” (Munro 90). Apart from her bad physical condition, she is also fragile in mentality. Having been taken care of for decades, she considers herself as “a useless piece of goods” (Munro 115) and asks for others’ attention. In Munro’s description, Sam has given Sara great care. From Juliet’s childhood to adulthood, the responsibility of taking care of Sara lays primarily on Sam’s shoulder, for other carers cannot handle her.

However, Sara still does not acknowledge her husband’s contribution. She always acts like “an oddly aged child” (98), sometimes even wears “both socks and slippers in bed” (98). In order to get Sam’s attention, she will mess the room up and leaves it for Sam to clean up. Sam complains to Juliet that sometimes when he gets back home, he finds that “the washing machine in the middle of the kitchen floor and wet clothes slopping all over the place” (Munro 111). He has no choice but to clean up the mess and continues to look after her. One day, Sara wakes up in the middle of the night and starts vacuuming. Although Sam is tired, he has to get out of bed and stops her. She is like a spoiled kid, who is living in her own world and neglects Sam’s feelings. Long accustomed to her role as a sick person, Sara takes others’ care for granted. She thinks about nobody but herself. Every time Sara makes such mess, she refuses to go back to the bed and keeps crying. In her opinion, she has tried her best and done everything she can, therefore she is supposed to receive more Sam’s caring and love. However, her thought further increases Sam’s burden and makes him tired.

2.2 Emotional Detachment between Sam and Sara

The beginning of Sam and Sara’s love is sweet and passionate. Sam starts the “besotted courtship” (Munro 100) and he would “show up at Sara’s door disguised as a tramp” (Munro 100). However, after years of taking care of Sara, Sam gets tired in their relationship, and his emotion and feelings for his wife have changed a lot.

He is not as considerate towards Sara as before. Previously, Sam seldom drank at home, or at most a glass of beer, because Sara’s father used to be a drunk, which has horrified her. But now, under the great pressure of making a living and looking after his sick wife, Sam always drinks whiskey when he comes back home late at night. He describes Sara as “a downright catastrophe” (111). To Sam, Sara is his responsibility, not his beloved wife. It is his duty to take good care of her and to make sure that she is safe and in good condition. He does not want to have conversations with her or to take her somewhere outside of their house. In his opinion, what Sara should do is stay in bed and be obedient.

Moreover, on their way coming back from the station, Sara says she wants to eat ice cream. Sam refuses, and says “taking her into any place for a treat, and she’ll put on a show” (Munro 94). His words imply his opinion about his wife. During decades of their marriage, Sam knows Sara well. He knows that Sara enjoys the moment when she becomes the focus of others’ attention. He refers to Sara as a “sweet pretty girl with a bad heart and she was used to being waited on” (Munro 111). In his opinion, Sara is not as weak as she looks like. She is using her feebleness to ask for more care from him. Her consuming demand makes him tired. In their marriage, Sam has to take the responsibility of earning money, to do housework, and to take care of his sick wife. Under such heavy burden, he would appreciate Sara’s grateful words that can relieve his stress and give him the feeling that his efforts have been paid off. However, no matter how much he has contributed to their relation, he cannot get any response from his wife. The lack of reciprocity and acknowledgement makes Sam lose faith in women and leads to his emotional detachment.

Chapter Three The Unidirectional Caring between Mother and Daughter

As a short story writer who is good at depicting ordinary people’s daily life, Alice Munro covers different kinds of common relationships in Runaway. Apart from the female friendship and the relationship between the couple, as analyzed above, mother-daughter relation is also a topic that appears frequently in Munro’s stories. In the short story “Silence”, Juliet has become a famous interviewer, enjoying great success in her career; however, her twenty-one-year-old daughter, Penelope, chooses to leave her mother without any explanation. If we review their relationship, it is not hard to find that what leads to Penelope’s escape is actually Juliet’s paternalistic intervention in her daughter’s life.

3.1 Juliet's Overwhelming Care for Penelope

In real life, the concern for the other’s wellbeing and the respect will clash in some situations, for example, paternalism. Paternalism refers to the situation in which the parents intervene in the child’s life for his or her good. In care ethics, because of the great emphasis placed on one’s connection with others, such paternalistic interventions are not considered to be ethically acceptable. In The Ethics of Care and Empathy (2007), Michael Slote mentions this issue. He writes: “Paternalistic interventions against the expressed wishes or desires of another individual seem morally invidious and unjustified, even though the person who acts in this way can be seen as acting out of caring concern for the wellbeing of the person whose wishes are thwarted.”(56) Although the one-caring’s paternalistic intervention is out of his/her concern for the cared-for, the care-receiver’s needs and desires are neglected and thus he/she does not acknowledge this caring, therefore, such caring practice doesn’t contribute to their relation. In the story “Silence”, Juliet’s paternalistic intervention is mainly reflected in the way in which she deals with Eric’s death and the ideal lifestyle she chooses for Penelope.

When Penelope is thirteen years old, she goes away on a camping trip. During that period, Eric, her father, dies because of a storm while he is going out in a boat to check his prawn traps. Juliet does not tell her daughter the news immediately. She conducts a ceremony and burns Eric on the beach without Penelope on the scene. As a mother, Juliet thinks that she is supposed to hide the death from her underage daughter to prevent her being hurt by the fact. However, her behavior neglects Penelope’s will and thus causes the deterioration of their relation. After Penelope comes back from the camp, she finally knows what has happened to her father. In front of her mother, Penelope acts as if she is fine. She refuses Juliet’s comfort, and even tells her friend that she “hardly knew” (Munro 145) her father. In fact, she cares very much about the fact that she has not been informed of her father’s death. In the article “Alice Munro’s “Silence”: From the Politics of Silence to a Rhetoric of Silence” published in 2010, Corinne Bigot discusses the use of silence in this story. She points out that Penelope is actually using her silence to emphasize the importance of her father’s death, and to punish her mother for sending her away at the time of the death。 (123).

Juliet’s intervention also covers the way in which Penelope is supposed to live her life. In the previous story “Soon”, Juliet has an argument with a minister called Don. She does not believe in God, so she is going to let her daughter grow up to be a non-believer, to “bring her up without religion”(Munro 120). She really does that, which is implied in her conversation with Joan when she comes to the Spiritual Balance Centre. Joan tells her that Penelope feels lonely and unhappy for not growing up in a faith-based home. Juliet neglects Penelope’s “inward growth” and her desires for beliefs, which causes Penelope in great hunger—“hunger for the things that were not available to her in her home”(Munro 132). Juliet wants Penelope to be an outstanding woman, who is independent both materially and spiritually, just like her. However, this is not the type of woman Penelope wants to become. She prefers to be an ordinary wife and mother, and doesn’t want to struggle too much. Her escape is actually a challenge against her mother’s paternalistic intervention.

3.2 Penelope's Escape from Julie

At the age of twenty, Penelope leaves her mother without telling her anything in advance. Juliet has no idea where her daughter is, until six months later, she gets a message from Penelope, in which she invites her to the Spiritual Balance Centre. Compared with their previous relation, in which they are closely connected with each other, the six-month’s lack of contact is hard to endure for Juliet. She describes her feeling at the moment she gets Penelope’s message as: “I was like an old patch of cracked earth getting a full drink of rain.”(Munro 128). At that time, she doesn’t realize her daughter’s real intention and doesn’t know what influence her paternalistic intervention has exerted on their mother-daughter relation. She thinks that maybe Penelope is merely taking a course or on a retreat there. However, she gets to the Spiritual Balance, only to find that Penelope isn’t there. It is a woman called Joan who meets her. During the conversation with Joan, she realizes Penelope’s unhappiness for the first time. She refuses to admit that her care for Penelope is overwhelming and inappropriate and considers that “grown-up children can have all sorts of complains”(Munro 131).

However, in the following five years, there is still no word from Penelope, except for the cards she receives once every year. The cards are sent on Penelope’s birthdays and with Penelope’s name on it, in Penelope’s own handwriting. Penelope writes her own name instead of her mother’s, which shows that she is keeping a distance away from Juliet and doesn’t want to be too close—she even does not want to write a card to her mother. During the five years, Juliet starts to reflect on their relation. She says to her friend: “I must have acted as if it would have been good enough if she turned out like me. Would that sicken her?”(Munro 153) She begins to realize that it may not right to intervene in her daughter’s life. However, it is too late to make it up.

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