Interface News Reporter | Dong Ziqi
Interface News Editor | Huang Yue
Two months after the death of Canadian writer and Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro, her youngest daughter Andrea Skinner ) recently disclosed to the Canadian media "Toronto Star" that he was sexually assaulted by his stepfather when he was a child. The mother knew this and still chose to live with her stepfather.
Considering to protect the mother's reputation, this matter has not been made public. "What I want is a public record of the truth about what happened to me, and for my story to be part of the story people tell about my mother," Andrina said.
Alice Munro, a Canadian novelist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, is famous for writing about the lives of ordinary people and reflecting the complexity of life. Her works include "Open Secrets" and "Escape".
In a letter to her mother Monroe in 1992, Andrina revealed to her mother, "Dear Mom, I have hidden this secret for 16 years: Gary has been sexually molesting me since I was 9 years old. Violation. My whole life I have been terrified that you would blame this." Andrina was the youngest daughter of Alice and Jim Monroe, born in 1966. Monroe divorced her husband, Jim, in 1974, and married her second husband, geographer Gerry Fremlin, in 1976. Alice and Jim Monroe decided to share custody of their three daughters, so Andrina lived with her father and stepmother in Victoria during school years and in Clinton, Ontario, with her mother and stepfather during the holidays.
Andrina recalled that in 1976, her stepfather climbed into her bed and sexually assaulted her, "He wanted me to hold his My genitals and my hands became numb and I tried very hard to pretend that I was sleeping." Afterwards, she did not tell her mother about it because her stepfather threatened to kill her if her mother found out. After returning to her father's house, she reported the matter to her father through her stepmother, but instead of confronting her mother, Jim Monroe asked her two sisters to remain silent in front of their mother, and told them to try to avoid Andrina's death. Alone with stepfather. This precaution had little effect, and the sexual assaults continued for several years, with Andrina recalling that her stepfather would expose his genitals to her and masturbate in the car.
After many years, 25-year-old Andrina finally confessed the truth to her mother through a letter, but the result was a huge disappointment to her. Monroe's daughters recalled, "(The aftermath of the letter) was very confusing, but the focus was not on Andrina. Everyone in the family was afraid that their stepfather would kill himself, which he often threatened." Gary admitted to the relationship with Andrina turned the blame on her underage stepdaughter, saying she was lying and fabricating, "She invaded my room for a 'sexual adventure'. If she was afraid, she could leave at any time. But she was quite flattering and even proactive. The scene was quite depraved, like Lolita and Humbert" - he quoted Nabokov's "Lolita" to describe his sexual assault on Andrina. After receiving Andrina's letter, Monroe left home for several months. Later, he forgave Gary, returned to him, and published the work "Open Secrets" (open secrets) in the same year.
It is worth mentioning that the last article in this collection of novels is called "The Vandals" (vandals). The novel uses a complex narrative to tell the story of children's long-term sexual assault experience and psychological trauma, as well as a mother-like character. of adult women may choose to turn a blind eye.
Later, as Monroe's reputation was in full swing, Gary's sexual assault became an "open secret" in the family. The daughters recalled, “In the silence there was doubt, ignorance, fear, cowardice, and the fear of losing one’s reputation."The father Jim is also a silent part, because he puts his own needs more important than his daughter's, and may not understand what happened at all. For Andrina, the client, she buried her experience in In my heart, I tried to treat the past as insignificant.
When Alice Munro was interviewed by the New York Times Magazine in 2004, she expressed her praise and admiration for her husband Gary and called him the love of her life. , Andrina felt very hurt and angry. She believed that her mother had excluded her from family life and created a fictional image of her stepfather. "She had been in a position that no matter what she said, others would believe it." "In 2005, nearly 30 years after she was assaulted by her stepfather when she was 9 years old, Andrina filed a complaint with the Ontario Provincial Police. Her stepfather, then 80 years old, was found guilty and given probation and two years of parole. Until Gary He died in 2013, and a few months after his death, the 82-year-old Munro was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature."
