The Many Interpretations of a Title
Long dead men visiting their former confidants, a factory accident leading to love and
one woman’s tale of losing herself and getting carried away by it all. This is the story told in
Alice Munro’s “Carried Away.” It is a very complex story which jumps from place to place and
alludes to some of her previous works and even includes a description of another author whose
themes are comparable to that of this short story. However, the most important story we’re told is
by Ildiko de Papp Carrington who analyzes the story and shows that if we pay attention to the
title of Munro’s work, it flows into an intricate journey about identity and the human experience.
“Carried away” is a simple, commonly used phrase, but in this case it is one of the main
factors that drive the narrative. To fully understand the different ways in which being “Carried
away” is interpreted in this story, it has to be looked at chronologically. The events that lead to
