The Bear Came over the Mountain

Grant is the point-of-view character in the narrative, meaning the events of the story are happening through his eyes. It is through Grant that the reader experiences Fiona’s decline mentally and physically, and it is through Grant’s point of view that the reader experiences his questionable morality. Reading the story through Grant’s eyes illustrates how he is the mastermind behind his own melodrama without realizing it. By setting Grant as the point of view character, Munro shows the perspective of a man who cheats on a wife he claims to love, is not sorry about it, and is forced to accept that he’s not the only one who finds his wife’s company appealing and comforting.

Munro employs irony throughout “The Bear Came Over the Mountain.” Irony occurs when what’s being said and what’s being shown are vastly different. One of the first examples of irony is in Fiona’s description itself. She wears her hair “down to her shoulders, as her mother had done” (287), yet considers herself nothing like her mother. Another example of irony in this story is that