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 with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Symbols & Motifs

The Tent

The tent where Chris sleeps during his sojourn in the community is a symbol of his restless, unsettled status. An apparatus used by soldiers on the front line, the fabric shelter is the opposite of the sturdy brick homes other characters take refuge in and expresses Chris’s opposition to peacetime values like constancy and stability. Instead of restricting the owner to one location, the tent can be pitched wherever action and adventure are taking place. It can also be removed easily and disappear without a trace whenever a location or its inhabitants becomes troublesome. This is the case when Chris learns that his fiancée is pursuing him in order to force him to honor his promise of marriage.

For Edie, Chris’s tent becomes a symbol of whirlwind romance and disorder. It is in that tent, which she finds so lovely with “that smell of grass and hot tent cloth with the sun beating down on it” (70), that Edie escapes her position of dutiful servant and styles herself as Chris’s passionate love. The tent allows Edie a portion of the adventurous life that Chris is so fond of. In a society of sexual conservatism, the tent provides a honeymoon-like blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text

Related Titles

By Alice Munro

SuperSummary Logo
STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
Alice Munro
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Plot Summary
Alice Munro
Guide cover placeholder
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Alice Munro
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Alice Munro
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Alice Munro
Guide cover image
SuperSummary Logo
Plot Summary
Alice Munro
Guide cover placeholder
SuperSummary Logo
Plot Summary
Alice Munro
Guide cover placeholder
SuperSummary Logo
Plot Summary
Alice Munro
Guide cover placeholder
SuperSummary Logo
Plot Summary
Alice Munro
Guide cover placeholder
SuperSummary Logo
Study Guide
Alice Munro
Guide cover image