24 pages 48 minutes read

Alice Munro

Friend of My Youth

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1990

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

Divided House

The house where the Grieves sisters live is divided in half; Flora lives in one half, and Ellie and her husband Robert live in the other, larger half. This is an arrangement that is known to nearby townspeople, as are the reasons for the arrangement. To the casual observer, however, the house looks unified and whole, as if one family occupies all of it. The divided house symbolizes the hidden interior lives of Flora and the narrator’s mother, as well as the philosophical divides between characters of different generations and beliefs.

Once Ellie dies and Robert remarries, the house’s division becomes more extreme and apparent. Robert’s new wife, a bossy, materialistic woman, modernizes her and Robert’s half of the house, while Flora leaves her half of the house unaltered. Now the house does look strange and lopsided from the outside, and it is not the new wife who is blamed for this, but Flora. In this way, Munro literalizes the shifting public perception of Flora in town. By not allowing Audrey Atkinson to modernize her half of the house as well, she is failing to keep up appearances. The townspeople will tolerate stubbornness and eccentricity in their neighbors, as long as these qualities are not made public.

Related Titles

By Alice Munro

Plot Summary

logo

Dance of the Happy Shades: And Other Stories

Alice Munro

Dance of the Happy Shades: And Other Stories

Alice Munro

Plot Summary

logo

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage

Alice Munro

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage

Alice Munro

Study Guide

logo

How I Met My Husband

Alice Munro

How I Met My Husband

Alice Munro

Study Guide

logo

Lives of Girls and Women

Alice Munro

Lives of Girls and Women

Alice Munro

Study Guide

logo

The Bear Came over the Mountain

Alice Munro

The Bear Came over the Mountain

Alice Munro

Plot Summary

logo

The Beggar Maid

Alice Munro

The Beggar Maid

Alice Munro

Plot Summary

logo

The Love Of A Good Woman

Alice Munro

The Love Of A Good Woman

Alice Munro

Plot Summary

logo

The View from Castle Rock

Alice Munro

The View from Castle Rock

Alice Munro

Plot Summary

logo

Too Much Happiness

Alice Munro

Too Much Happiness

Alice Munro

Study Guide

logo

Walker Brothers Cowboy

Alice Munro

Walker Brothers Cowboy

Alice Munro