With no clear plot or steady timeline, Alice Munro's "Circle of Prayer" is remarkably similar to how one perceives real life. Relationships, people, and events all come together in our stream of consciousness, which is both constant and unpredictable. The story is truly a slice of life, conveying typical day to day activities rather than a complex storyline leading up to an explosive climax. The reader is given an inside view of the different relationships explored in the story, such as the mother-daughter relationship between Trudy and Robin and the married life of Trudy and Dan. The vivid descriptions of how each character thinks and reacts to varying life situations allow the reader to easily relate due to their intense realism.
One example of this realism can be found in the de
Another way that Munro conveys the thoughts of her characters is by inserting lines of their actual thought. As Trudy and Robinm are fighting about the necklace and Trudy throws a jug across the room, Munro interrupts the dialogue to place the characters' exact thoughts in the text. "You threw the jug at me that time. You could have killed me. Not at you. I didn't throw it at you. You could have killed me." The thoughts of both Trudy and Robin are mixed together. Rather than just stating that Robin was angry or that Trudy denied throwing the jug at her daughter, the characters' actual thoughts are set aside and exposed, mimicing real life effectively.
scription of Tracy Lee's funeral. The intricate description of the funeral home made the reader feel as if they were there themselv
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