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The Bear Came Over the Mountain by Alice Munro: Full Plot Summary | Short Story
The Bear Came Over the Mountain
ABOUT THE STORY
The Bear Came Over the Mountain by Alice Munro
"The Bear Came Over the Mountain" is a very famous touchy story by Canadian author Alice Munro. The New Yorker magazine published it in December 1999 and later included it in Munro's book "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" in 2001. This was Munro's number 10th collection of stories. In 2006, a movie called "Away from Her" was made which was based on this story. The story has presented the story of an old couple Grant and Fiona. Here, Fiona's memory is getting worse because of dementia. Grant takes her to an institution where she is supposed to improve. Instead, she connects with another man, Aubrey, who is also living there and does not recognize Grant. We find various concepts such as infidelity, love, and hypocrisy in its themes. The story talks about love, memory, getting old, and how complicated relationships can be.
FULL PLOT SUMMARY
The Bear Came Over the Mountain by Alice Munro
The story starts with the description of Fiona. When Fiona was young, she lived with her parents. She was courted by many men. Fiona's family has a lot of money and privileges. But her mother's left-wing political beliefs stop Fiona from joining a sorority. Fiona, just like her mother, doesn't care much about the rules and expectations of her rich social group. She enjoys making all her guests feel uncomfortable by playing a Communist anthem “The Internationale” and teasing all her suitors, especially Grant. The character Grant likes Fiona's lively way of living. He even feels good when she teases him. When Fiona proposes to Grant to marry her, he thinks she might be kidding, but he replies her saying yes right away.
The story jumps to the present day, where Fiona is now 70. She leaves her home with Grant for the final time. She wipes away the prints her shoes made on the floor. She clearly knows that she won't need to do that anymore because she's not taking those shoes with her to her new place where she will be living. Fiona dresses so nicely as usual. She wears clothes that fit her slim body. Like always, she puts on a fresh coat of red lipstick before leaving the house.
The story's setting changes again to the year before. Grant notices that Fiona is forgetting things. She puts notes on the kitchen drawers to help herself remember properly what's inside. Once, she gets lost during a long walk. She even forgets when they moved to their house. When she goes to see a doctor, Grant informs the doctor that she's always been forgetful, but her memory keeps getting worse. She even wanders off from a supermarket and is found walking in the middle of the road. At first, she jokes with the policeman who asks her questions after finding her, but when she asks questions related to her dogs who passed away long ago, Grant gets the idea that she's really struggling with dementia.
The story goes back to the present day. Here, Grant is taking Fiona to Meadowlake, the nursing home where she'll be staying. While driving, both of them reminisce and talk about skiing under the moonlight at a place they pass by. Grant wonders if Fiona's memory is really as bad as it seems since she remembers their past so clearly. The supervisor at Meadowlake explains some rules regarding the nursing home. He explains to Grant that new residents can't have visitors for the first thirty days. This particular rule will help residents adjust themselves to new locations without feeling sad and asking to go back home. He adds that after a month without visitors, residents usually settle in and feel happy at Meadowlake.
While Grant is alone at home, he remembers a time when he and Fiona visited a person named Mr. Farquhar. Mr. Farquhar was an old farmer in their neighbourhood, at Meadowlake. The old brick house where Mr. Farquhar used to live has been replaced by a big new house. This house is used by people from Toronto on weekends. The old Meadowlake building that they visited in the past, has also been torn down and replaced too. But during that time Grant can't visit Fiona. He only imagines her in the old Meadowlake building.
Grant waits for the month to pass so he can visit. He makes calls to Meadowlake every day and speaks with a nurse named Kristy. She informs him providing updates regarding Fiona and her health. She updates him about a time when she gets a cold and when she starts feeling better and getting used to life there. Fiona's progress is seen as time passes. She eats well, enjoys the sunroom, and makes friendships with other people living there. Meanwhile, Grant starts avoiding their friends, letting calls go to the answering machine so others think they're away travelling. He exercises by engaging himself in skiing. He cooks dinner by himself, missing the times when he and Fiona used to chat about their day's work and interests.
Grant dreams that he is showing a colleague a letter from the roommate of a girl with whom he had an affair, which claims the girl has committed suicide. When the colleague advises him to talk to Fiona, Grant dreams of going to visit Fiona at Meadowlake. But he arrives at the lecture where a row of young women sits in judgment. Fiona thinks they're silly. When Grant wakes up, Grant gets the idea that the dream mixes up things that didn't happen in real life. There was a piece of letter, but no suicide or disgrace. However, his affair caused social isolation for him at work and made him promise to treat Fiona better. Grant thinks much about how things changed in their lives, he retired and they moved to the countryside.
Grant visits Meadowlake to see Fiona for the first time. He's too excited and brings flowers. But he also feels like there's a gap between them. He finds Fiona sitting with other people. She is playing cards, and one of them is Aubrey, a man she seems to have known a long time ago. Grant feels uneasy seeing their attachment. He starts worrying that Fiona might not recognize him.
Grant keeps going to see Fiona. Fiona gets used to him being there, but she doesn't remember they're married. He notices that Fiona is getting closer to Aubrey. He finds out from Kristy that he is only there temporarily because his wife, who takes care of him, is travelling. Fiona's appearance changes the longer she's at Meadowlake. She wears quite different clothes. She has her long hair cut short, but she doesn't realize it until Grant points it out.
The story shifts back to the past when Grant was a teacher. During that time, it was normal for married women to go back to college for extra classes. At the time, Grant had a relationship with one of them, Jacqui Adams. As the culture shifted during this period, more female students were open about having sexual relationships. While others were okay with this change, Fiona wasn't. Grant kept his affairs hidden, not allowing them to hurt his marriage relationship.
In the present day, Grant takes a book of paintings of Iceland to Meadowlake. This is a gift for Fiona, to remind her of her mother who was from Iceland. Grant finds her in bed, feeling so sad because Aubrey is leaving to go back home with his wife. Since she doesn't remember Grant, she asks him to help so that Aubrey can stay there.
After Aubrey's departure, Fiona gets really sad. She gets into depression. She stops eating or moving around. Her health gets worse. Kristy and the supervisor inform Grant that she might soon become too frail to stay in the assisted living place.
Grant moves to Aubrey's house without informing them first. He tries to persuade Marian, Aubrey's wife. He requests her to let Aubrey visit Meadowlake once again. But Marian tells him that it would upset Aubrey's routine. She adds that they can't afford to put him there full-time without losing their home. When Grant gets home upset, he finds two messages from Marian on his answering machine. He finds her inviting him nervously to a singles dance. Grant wonders if Marian is interested in him romantically. Then she calls again, and he lets the machine answer. While thinking about if she might be attracted to him, he decides to call her back.
Next, Grant returns to Meadowlake. He brings Aubrey there to see Fiona. Fiona seems more like herself, liking the book of paintings from Iceland. She also notices that the clothes she's wearing aren't hers. When Grant introduces Aubrey in front of her, she stands up and hugs Grant tightly. She touches his earlobes and tells him how happy she is that he's there. Grant leans his face against her hair and promises that he'll always be there for her.
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