Dance of the Happy Shades

Alice Munro est une auteure canadienne, prix Nobel de littérature. Elle a surtout beaucoup écrit de nouvelles (short stories), un genre que nous n'avons pas encore vu. De plus, elle vit dans une petite ville du Canada, et la plupart de ses histoires se passent dans ce genre d'endroit, un peu isolé des grandes villes. C'est une écriture très simple et ses histoires sont proches de la vie quotidienne. Pas de monstres, pas de SF, pas de grandes aventures. La force de Munro est de rendre ses personnages accessibles et d'emmener le lecteur facilement dans son univers, fait de nostalgie bienveillante. 

The Shining Houses:

Plot in short: in this story, Mary has just moved in to new residence, built on top an old, vanished part of the town. All the houses are brand new, and they all look alike. They are a sign of social success, and the new inhabitants are very proud of themselves and what they have achieved. However, there is still an old house in the middle of the residence that has not been bought and destroyed, and the newcomers are very judgmental about the woman who lives there: they think this is THEIR place and she does not belong. Another newcomer, Mary, who is not as shallow as the others, tries to defend the old woman, but soon realizes that she too will be shunned if she does not conform to the group. 

Structure: There are lots of quotes, that give voice to the characters. The reader feels like Mary, hearing these words. The italics emphasize what Mary understands. They are a comment on these quotes. The narrator takes some distance before being openly critical in the end. This is a strong criticism of social conformity and snobbishness. 

After the text: All the neighbours wish the old woman dies soon, and Mary cannot bear this hostility. She decides she should move out, but her husband refuses. We are led to think she will end up isolated and rejected like the old woman. 

The Shining Houses

Mary set her coffee cup down before she spoke and hoped her voice would sound all right, not emotional or scared. “But remember she’s been here a long time,” she said. “She was here before most of us were born,” She was trying desperately to think of other words, words more sound and reasonable than these; she could not expose to this positive tide any notion that they might think flimsy and romantic, or she would destroy her argument. She could try all night and never find any words to stand up to their words, which came at her now invincibly from all sides: shack, eyesore, filthy, property, value.

“Do you honestly think that people who let their property get so rundown have that much claim to our consideration?” Janie said, feeling her husband’s plan was being attacked.

“She’s been here forty years, now we’re here,” Carl said. “So it goes. And whether you realize it or not, just standing there that house is bringing down the resale value of every house on this street. I’m in the business, I know.”

And these were joined by other voices; it did not matter much what they said as long as they were full of self-assertion and anger. That was their strength, proof of their adulthood, of themselves and their seriousness. The spirit of anger rose among them, bearing up their young voices, sweeping them together as on a flood of intoxication, and they admired each other in this new behaviour as property-owners as people admire each other for being drunk.

Alice Munro, Dance of the Happy Shades, 1968