31 pages 1 hour read

Alice Munro

How I Met My Husband

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1974

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.

Story Analysis

Analysis: “How I Met My Husband”

While the title “How I Met My Husband” sets up the expectation that the heroine’s courtship with her future-husband should occupy the bulk of the narrative, Munro’s story treats Edie’s actual spouse as an addendum. Instead, the main plot centers on Edie’s encounter with Chris Watters, a wayward pilot who is in her life for a brief yet significant spell of time. Munro’s first-person narrative ensures that both the pilot and the mailman remain two-dimensional characters, as it concentrates on Edie’s experiences of the men rather than theirs of her. The woman is thus the subject, rather than the object of the love story. Additionally, the more mature narrator’s commentary from a point in the future concentrates on Edie’s young, fifteen-year-old self, as she offers observations such as how flustered she is when Chris tells her she is beautiful and she “wasn’t old enough to” understand his jokes or flirtations or to do anything but wish he would go away” (60). The story of how Edie meets her husband is also the story of Edie’s loss of innocence through her first real encounter with the romantic world of adults.

Related Titles

By Alice Munro

Plot Summary

logo

Dance of the Happy Shades: And Other Stories

Alice Munro

Dance of the Happy Shades: And Other Stories

Alice Munro

Study Guide

logo

Friend of My Youth

Alice Munro

Friend of My Youth

Alice Munro

Plot Summary

logo

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage

Alice Munro

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage

Alice Munro

Study Guide

logo

Lives of Girls and Women

Alice Munro

Lives of Girls and Women

Alice Munro

Study Guide

logo

The Bear Came over the Mountain

Alice Munro

The Bear Came over the Mountain

Alice Munro

Plot Summary

logo

The Beggar Maid

Alice Munro

The Beggar Maid

Alice Munro

Plot Summary

logo

The Love Of A Good Woman

Alice Munro

The Love Of A Good Woman

Alice Munro

Plot Summary

logo

The View from Castle Rock

Alice Munro

The View from Castle Rock

Alice Munro

Plot Summary

logo

Too Much Happiness

Alice Munro

Too Much Happiness

Alice Munro

Study Guide

logo

Walker Brothers Cowboy

Alice Munro

Walker Brothers Cowboy

Alice Munro