TO REACH JAPAN

Critical Analysis: 

In the story “To Reach Japan” Alice Munro writes the story of a married woman named Greta including very little details of her life. She goes on describing about the works and expectations of a female poet at that age.

In this critical analysis I will analyse the setting of the story, the characters, their decisions and consequences and the vivid depiction of the overall story along with the quotes from the story.

The story starts with a departure and ends with an arrival. In the story Alice starts with Greta’s present and work on Peter (her husband) ,Peter ‘s mother and her past as well, continuing to tell about her desire to explore more for herself and she commits adultery and suffers guilt. The write leaves the reader in wonder and amazement at the end of story as well.

The story starts with “Once Peter had brought Greta’s suitcase on board the train he seemed to get himself out of the way.”, telling the reader that Greta and young daughter Katy are on the train, heading to Toronto for the summer looking out to husband and father Peter as he waves and smile. I find out that Peter is one of those slightly wavers type who avoid intimacy if it also means avoiding a potential, spontaneous problems, even minor ones. I loved how Peter is described as loving his child: “as if he believed that she would continue to be a marvel to him.” Peter was born in Soviet Czechoslovakia, his mother has carried him to west as a baby. Munro tells: “She bought up Peter on her own and sent him to university and now he was an engineer.” This shows the love and devotion of Peter’s mother for her child and “That was her way. She carried not noticing to an extreme. Not noticing, not intruding, not suggesting, through in every single household skill or art she left her daughter-in-law behind” shows that she had a different nature. This also tells that she is better than Greta in household chores but she likes very simple life and is not noisy. This is last appearance of Peter’s mother in the story. As Peter is going up north, and there are no accommodations for his family. Rather than spend the summer alone Greta decides to go to Toronto to housesit a friend’s house who will be spending the summers in Europe but Greta’s choice to go to Toronto is based on more than a desire for a change of scenery. Greta’s personality is a puzzle because it doesn’t fit into the life she has. She’s a poet but is not very famous, but for her Peter is bland husband. She holds herself back in front of Peter and Katy. She desires more than herself. In fact it was Greta’s role an s a poet-coupled with her unit’s insecurity that saved the seeds for this trip. A few years earlier she had been invited to a party for a Toronto based magazine that has published two of her poems. Greta attended the culturally elite party where she doesn’t fit in. She takes public bus where all other having cars. She is not even warmly welcomed to the party: “greeted was the wrong word.” Greta flounders at the party. She reacts by getting smashed and she flounders even more. “People’s eye slid around her and then they went on with their conversation. They laughed. Everybody but Greta was equipped with friends, wolves, half-secrets, everybody appeared to have found somebody to welcome them.”  Both anxious to be seemed and frightened by the idea of being seen, Greta doesn’t feel any more satisfied by her life as a poet/poetess than she does by her life as wife/mother. In the party Greta gets drunk and is helped out by a totally stranger who is named Harris Benett. He is a column writer and son in law of the person who invites Greta in the party. Before dropping Greta to her door Benett says that he is married and that he wanted to kiss Greta but he decided not to do so which puzzles Greta very much. “She thought he was saying that there was something about her that didn’t quite measure up to being kissed. The mortification was like being stopped clean back into sobriety”, this shows that Greta isn’t happy with Benett’s decision of not kissing her and in the coming year she can’t stop thinking and dreaming of him, during the coming fall and winter and spring there was hardly a day when she didn’t think of him. There really wasn’t a day. “She had a husband and a child but she still wrote a letter addressed to Harris Benett writing.” Writing this letter is like putting a note in a bottle and hoping it will reach Japan. Greta thinks that it will be a very thin chance of the letter to reach to Benett and him coming to see her at the station. As Greta gets drunk without thinking about consequences it seems that she’s quite irresponsible and desperate.

In the train, the next day morning after breakfast they go to dome (Greta and Katy) and their they start reciting stories. There they meet Greg and Lausie, unusual sleet and lean. These two people are very charismatic and in display of their charisma, they began to caw, warble and do strange sing songs to entertain Katy. After this they find the train’s children’s playroom and entertain all the children they can find. First drawing attention to himself, Greg turns the attention of the children to each other as he is encouraging role playing exchange games. Lausie says, “He doesn’t save himself up.” Greg is always giving himself out and collision of such a character with insular Greta makes her getting attracted to him.

After the play session, Greta takes Katy to their compartment so child can nap. Greg comes along. Greg and Greta get drunk and they start touching and kissing each other. Greta forgets all about Peter, Harris Benett and she first goes with Greg and involved with him. They both know that this is just one time thing. Also Greg is younger than Greta, in her lust she forgets about Katy until she goes back to berth and finds that Katy is gone. She then suffers with the guilt, “She went stupid, she yanked the pillow as if a child of Katy’s size could have managed to cover herself with it.” She loses her control and become emotional thinking of consequences of little Katy.

“And there, between the cars, on one of those continuously noisy sheets of metal-there sat Katy. Eyes wide open and mouth slightly open, amazed and alone. Not crying at all, but when she saw her mother she started.” –Greta finds Katy alone and her expressions frightened her. She consoles Katy and takes her back to seat. “This is so terrible, her thoughts of what might happened so terrible.”- Greta realizes her mistake and for first time she sees Katy with that much motherly love. She finds rest of time stuck with Katy, never leaving her. When Greg gets off the train he is received by his parents and Greta waves his bye and Katy doesn’t wave at all. Greta thinks may be Katy is upset with Greg for leaving them. Anyway the journey comes to an end and Greta comforts Katy that they are going to be safe and fine. Greta feels that she has been a traitor of Peter and Katy by just thinking of herself, her poetry and her fantasies. She decides to stop being stupid-“That work stuck her now as traitors-to Katy, to Peter, to life.” “A sin, the inattention cold hearted foraging attention to something else that the Child A sin.”

They arrive to Toronto in the middle of the morning and as they get off the train, they watch other people receiving people getting off the train. “To be claimed by the people who

 were waiting and who called out their names, or who simply walked up and took hold of their suitcases.” Both Greta and Katy are surprised when “As someone now took hold of theirs. Took hold of it, took hold of Greta, and kissed her for the first time in a determined and celebrated way.” It’s revealed that it is Harris and that he has received the letter and has come to take Greta with him.

“She was trying to hang on to Katy but at that moment the child pulled away, she got her hand free”, this shows the shock faced by Katy and her reaction to her mother being kissed by another man. Greta and Katy both are transfixed at their positions, just not to able to think of their future. “She didn’t try to escape; she just stood down east, waiting for whatever to held next.”-these ending lines leave the reader in amazement as to what could have happened next.

The title of the story “To Reach Japan” is justifies as in the climax of the story Harris actually shows up, which means that the letter actually makes to him, it seemed difficult but it happens all the same.

On analysing the story it seems that in her desperation Greta does an unfair deed to Katy and Peter. She goes adultery when travelling with daughter. And just after this she meets Harris again. Her character shows the real life dilemma of middle class women, very nicely depicted by Alice Munro .Greta cannot make her mind about men. On one hand she wants to rescue by them, but she shies away from anything that smacks of a conventional relationship whereby she might get trapped.

In the whole story we do not come across the past of Greta expect one party in which she meets Harris, this leaves us wandering about Greta. Also her decision shows that she is unable to take her stand and at the very end also she’s just waiting for someone to take action. In all of her fantasies, she forgets about real life and her responsibilities. Overall a story worth reading and thinking about

Life and women, their desires and consequences by Alice Munro.

Bibliography: 
1. Anonymous. Book Reviews. < http://mookseandgripes.com/reviews/2012/11/13/alice-munro-to-reach-japan/>

2. Munro, Alice. Runaway .New York: Vintage, 2004.Print

3. Pandey,Dr.Sanjay Prasad.”Beauty”.Illusion or Reality. The Achievers Journal1.1 (2015) n.pag.web<theachieversjournal.com>

4. Alice Munro. Dear Life. New York: Vintage, 26th 2004.Print

By Deepa Paikar

Reg. 11401920