Oh the Suspense

Alice Munro uses the effects of suspense masterfully in her short story: How I Met My Husband.  The reader is initially finds the narrator to be a hard-working and quite girl.  She seems to not be very privileged, often finding the needs of her employers to be ridiculous.  Soon a handsome looking pilot shows up and befriends the family.  The pilot, Chris, is always very polite and kind to the narrator, which ultimately proved to be simple manipulation.  After kissing the narrator in his private tent, he flies off without his fiancee, leaving the narrator to wait for a letter from him letting her know where to come visit.  Despite being called very offensive names by Chris' fiancee, the narrator continues to meet the mailman everyday in hopes of receiving the letter.  The reader finally gets the resolution to this love story in the closing words.  "So I stopped meeting the mail.  If there were women all through life waiting, and women busy and not waiting, I knew which I had to be. (Munro, 146).  This courtship is built up heavily throughout the story, and it receives a rather shocking turn.  This twist certainly outlines the evil and manipulative characteristics of Chris.