In-depth Analysis of Alice Munro's 'Red Dress—1946' - Literature Essay

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Alice Munro's short story, 'Red Dress—1946'. The essay begins with an examination of character development, focusing on the insecurities and aspirations of the young narrator. It then delves into the central theme of appearance and acceptance, highlighting the protagonist's anxieties surrounding the high school dance and her desire to fit in. The essay explores the impact of societal expectations on the protagonist. Finally, the essay examines the story through a feminist lens, discussing how Munro portrays the pressures faced by young women in a small-town setting and the protagonist's journey to self-acceptance. The essay utilizes textual evidence to support its arguments and concludes by emphasizing the story's enduring relevance.

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Red Dress—1946
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Introduction
Part one: Analysing character development
Red Dress—1946 by Alice Munro is a narrative in the first person by a young thirteen-
year-old girl, who is also the main character of the story (Munro 1998). The narrator is a
teenager who deals with the emotions pressures of growing up and wants to be accepted and
admired by others. She is embarrassed about her mother and admires her friend Lonnie. She is
anxious about the school dance as well as the red velvet dress made for her by her mother.
Just like any other teenage girl, her looks and appearance are important for her. However,
she feels that she has little control over her looks or what she wears as she has to wear the dress
her mother makes, even if she dislikes it. She wished “for dresses like those my friend Lonnie
had bought at Beale’s store” (Munro 1998). Those lines reflect her desires to be modern and
fashionable like other girls. As she was not confident about her looks or the red dress, she had no
desire to go to the high school Christmas Dance.
Her only desire at the high school dance is to be asked for a dance by a boy and look
normal and accepted in her world. She was both nervous and anxious, and when Mason
Williams, the most popular boy of the school dances reluctantly with her, she gets even more
acutely aware of her positions. She loses all hope and finds refuge in the bathroom, where she
meets Mary Fortune, who has met a similar fate like hers. However, she feels empowered in the
older girls’ company and the courage to be herself and not what others expected from her. She
felt that she was “not so frightened, now that I had made up my mind to leave the dance behind”
(Munro 1998). She felt free as now she no longer cared about the dance and had her own plans
with Mary Fortune. At that very point, she is asked out for a dance by Raymond Bolting from her

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class. Raymond not only dances with her but escorts her home and even kisses her briefly on her
mouth. She looks at him as her rescuer, who has ushered her into the territory of the ordinary
world, thus confirming her to the societal norms and expectations.
Part two: Analysing the main theme
The central theme of Red Dress—1946 is of the insecurities, appearance, and acceptance
within a young girl. Throughout the story, the narrator wants to be admired and accepted by
other girls and be popular with boys. She thinks highly about her friend Lonnie whom she thinks
to be pretty and light-boned and smartly dressed. She was embarrassed about her mother and her
mannerisms in front of her friend. Together with her friend, she “did questionnaires in
magazines, to find out whether we had personality and whether we would be popular (Munro
1998).” She read articles on how to apply makeup and discussed sexual information and boys
with her friend. Those lines show that the narrator was acutely conscious of her looks and felt
inferior to other girls. She wanted to look attractive and feel confident about her looks. She was
aware that she could be popular with her peers only if she looks smart and attractive.
As she felt unattractive and unpopular, she was not willing to go to the high school
Christmas Dance. There were insecurities and doubts in her mind as to if her peers would accept
her or appreciated at the dance. She feels different from the others as he feels irritated by her
mother's actions and feels different from the others. Because of those insecurities, she tries
everything possible to miss the dance. She considered “falling off my bicycle and spraining my
ankle” and took “a handful of snow from the windowsill and smeared it all over my chest”
(Munro 1998). She wanted to harm herself or catch fever so that she can have an excuse to not to
go to the dance.

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Those quotations show clearly the desperation within the narrator and reflect her
insecurities, about her appearance and looks. Because of her insecurities about her looks, she felt
unaccepted within her group and was anxious if she would be asked out for a dance by any boy.
Those lines show a strong desire in the narrator to look good as she knew that without an
attractive look, she would not be able to get noticed and accepted by others. So fierce is the
desire that she is willing to harm herself to escape the situation that she fears.
Part three: Alice Munro and Feminism
Alice Munro is seen as a feminist fiction writer who used the medium of short stories to
portray the conditions of women living in small towns (Prabhakar & Satish 2011, p. 57). Her
short story, Red Dress—1946, deals with the emotional development of girls and how they strive
to meet the expectations of society. The story can be seen as feminist as it is about the experience
of women. The first-person narrator finds herself in a situation where she must meet the norms of
the society and what the other expects from her as a young thirteen-year-old girl attending her
first high-school dance. when the boys at the dance ignore her, she finds herself thinking.”
Why take them and not me? Why everybody else and not me? I have a red velvet dress; I
did my hair in curlers. I used a deodorant and put on cologne.” Those lines show the anxieties in
her mind to meet the expectations of society to look good, wear beautiful clothes and even smell
good. She feels good towards the end when she knows that she fits within the norms of the
society, now that she has danced with a boy and has been kissed by him (Wessman 2014, p. 57).
The author mocks the society and the pressures it exerts at the women, even from a young age.

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Bibliography
Munro, A., 1998. Red Dress—1946 narrative magazine [Online] (updated 2019) Available at: <
https://www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/stories-week-2012-2013/story-week/red-
dress-1946-alice-munro> [Accessed 26 May. 2019].
Prabhakar, M. & Satish, K.V.2011. Alice Munro's Stories and Feminism. The International
Online Journal - Literature, Humanities & Communication Technologies, 4(1), pp.57-60.
Wessman, C., 2014. Gender Construction in Alice Munro´s Writing. Gotesborg University, 1(1),
pp.1-22.