The Shining Houses

1) Explain what type of narration is used in this story.

There are two types of narration in this story that I can Identify there is retrospective narration (first person narration) and present progressive narration.

2) How is "The Shining Houses" structured? Why do you suppose Munro structured the narrative this way?

The shining houses is structured in a way that you can know Mrs. Fullerton and her back story and to allow Mary to get to know Mrs. Fullerton’s back story. Without this information the story would have seemed completely different the reader wouldn’t have empathized with Mrs. Fullerton to much, the reason it was set up like this could be for many reasons the author could have had an image in her head and wanted the story like that, to make it a better story and many other reasons.

3) Discuss irony in the story with respect to the title.

The shinning houses is very ironic because the houses are not shinning or shiny at all and the people living in them are not good people they do not have very “shining” personalities.

4) What distinction does the story highlight in terms of the difference between legal and moral?

The story shows that there is a very large contrasting difference between what is legal and moral. There are a lot of thing’s that are legal to do but they are not always the most morally right thing to do. In this story the “new people” want to get rid of a house that is Mrs. Fullerton’s, even though they are going about it legally they are over looking the morals about the situation by making someone move out of a house they love. They are simply overlooking her feeling’s and don’t seem to care about morals just what will benefit themselves.

5) Sketch Mary's character. (note: this doesn't mean draw her, rather it means to describe her in terms of the definition above)

Mary is a very caring mother who seems to be content at the beginning of this story. She has good moral values and sees that you have to repect people and what they want, and that it is the right thing to respect your elders. She had great intentions and a sense of motivation to do what would be good for Mrs. Fullerton to the extent the story was told too. Mary knew what kind of person she wanted to be and she didn’t let her feeling be hidden, but in the end she seemed to overlooked her feeling’s to keep peace.