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Alice Munro Comfort

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Alice Munro Comfort
"Comfort," by Alice Munro, is a short story based on life, death and dying, suicide and religion. With the depth of all four topics, controversial issues arise and compromising situations hold the main character, Nina, at a difficult crossroad. That crossroad is the wants and needs that Nina yearns for. "Comfort" illustrates a ride through what Nina experiences after the passing of her husband and her dire need to get what she wants or at least to obtain comfort. From the beginning of the story the reader is bombarded by the emphasis of different views of comfort. However, Munro develops a sense of what Nina believes her comfort should be and then Nina finds her comfort in an unsuspecting place. In the beginning of the story, Nina is driving …show more content…
When Nina asks, "Do you believe in such a thing as souls?" Ed replies with "Yes" and a nod of his head (154). As Nina talks with Ed, she begins to think for herself. Nina has molded herself to Lewis' requirements their whole marriage. Now for the first time, Nina is speaking her mind and discovering the possibility of the soul and the correlation it has with life in general. With this new discovery, Munro presents the reader with the climax. Nina's comfort has finally come through. She is no longer fixated on closure with her late husband's death. Now, her comfort holds true in the present. Munro lets the reader breathe a sigh of relief at this symbolic portion of the short story. Although Nina, does not achieve comfort from Lewis she ultimately receives comfort from within herself. From within herself, Nina finds what she has been looking for, her true character.
Nina carefully takes the ashes along a crossroads out of town. As she throws the "cooling ashes" at the roadside she mixed with emotions. "A sickening shock at first, then amazement that you are still moving…surviving…" (Munro 155) This sentence closes the pathos appeal to the audience. Emotional and full of moving words, it is the plateau, leveled off from suspense of Nina's crossroad. Release of Lewis' ashes also releases her from the role as Lewis' wife and back to
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