Love Unit: How I Met My Husband

"How I Met My Husband"
Alice Munro

Throughout the story, the speaker reflected on several instances of naivete.  On one instance, her own naivete frequently played a negative role while her husband's belief that she anticipated his coming to deliver the mail presented a more positive view of being in the dark.  In all situations, situational and dramatic irony served to present a character's lack of awareness.

The speaker's first major run in with naivete in the story occurs after Chris had abandoned Alice.  Specifically, the speaker misunderstood what it meant to be intimate with a person.  Through this use of dramatic irony in which other characters and the reader understood the connotation of intimacy, the speaker revealed her lack of experience and knowledge when it comes to love.  In this case, the speaker at least suggests that naivete inevitably casts young adults into awkward and potentially violating experiences if not advocates becoming more aware by recounting Alice's attempted inspection of her virginity.  My reluctance to type those words reflects the unsettling effect created as a result of the speaker's incorrect assumptions.

Although the speaker's trusting character led her to wait for Chris to write for her, she eventually realizes how much she has misunderstood things relating to relationships.  However, the naivete simply transfers to her husband.  "He always tells the children the story of houw I went after him by sitting by the mailbox every day, and naturally I laugh and let him, because I like for people to think what pleases them and makes them happy," (Munro, 146).  Naturally, the reader and speaker know that she sat out waiting for Chris, but the speaker's reaction to her husband's pride shows how she reacted to her past love life.  Interestingly, since she allowed her husband to believe inaccurate observations on their love as Chris did when he said he would write, the speaker actually accepts that naivete is inevitable and harmless.