This story explores themes of marriage, memory, and infidelity through the characters of Grant and Fiona. Grant has been married to Fiona for 45 years, but had affairs during their marriage. Fiona is placed in a nursing home due to dementia. She develops feelings for another resident, Aubrey, and forgets about Grant. Grant tries to persuade Aubrey's wife to let him stay so Fiona is happy. Ultimately, Grant dates Aubrey's wife to secure Fiona and Aubrey's relationship, despite his own history of infidelity in his marriage to Fiona. The story examines what it means to be faithful in marriage and how memory shapes identity, told primarily from Grant's perspective on caring for his wife as

1. 1
Element of Fiction in The Bear Came Over the Mountain
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation
Course
Professor’s Name
Date

2. 2
Element of Fiction in The Bear Came Over the Mountain
contacts:dorineadalyn@gmail.com
Alice Munro’s “the Bear Came Over Mountain” was published in December 1999. While
presenting the author’s perspective on several themes, the story uses several element of fiction to
engage the reader. Element of fiction entail things like setting, character, plot, conflict, theme
and point of view. The story explore the themes of marriage, memory and infidelity as it major
focus. Although Grant fervently love Fiona, he has several flows of infidelity in his marriage.
This essay will analyses elements of fiction in the story, ‘The bear Came Over the Mountain” by
Alice Menro.
Plot.
Plot of “the Bear Came Over Mountain” begin with Grant and Fiona having been in their
marriage for forty five years, Fiona start showing sign of deteriorating memory thus prompting
the need for nursing home for her. During her first month in the nursing home, out of which
Grant is not allowed to visit her, she forget her marriage to Grant and develop like for a
residence called Aubrey. Aubrey is in the nursing home temporality while his wife is on holiday.
Fiona is devastated when Aubrey’s wife returns, however, she will continue to grieve for a while
and Fiona will soon forget Aubrey. For the sake of Grant’s wife, Grants tracks Aubrey’s wife to
persuade her to permanently return Aubrey back to the facility. Unfortunately, Aubrey’s cannot
do so unless she sales her house which she initially, she refused to sale. Presumably, at the end of
the story, Grant make a romantic relationship with Aubrey’s wife and Aubrey’s is brought back

3. 3
to the facility. Unfortunately, by this time, despite Fiona having known Aubrey, she had renewed
he affection for Grant.
Character
The major characters in the story “The Bear Came over the Mountain” are Grant, Fiona,
Mariam and Aubrey. Grant is a former professor and husband to Fiona. The narration of the story
is told from Grant’s perspective on how Fiona moved into a nursing home which contrast with
Grants marital affairs. Fiona is Grant’s wife. She grew up carefree woman. Her family were
upper class. However, she suffers from dementia. She is shown as a charismatic and beautiful
woman chose Grant despite many suitors at the time. Aubrey is a temporal resident while his
wife Mariam is on holiday. Aubrey become Fiona’s companion at the nursing home. Mariam is
Aubrey wife. She come back to take Aubrey back home. Grant approach her to allow Aubrey to
continue staying with Fiona because of their newly found connection at the residence.
Eventually, Mariam and Grant date as a means to secure a relationship between Fiona and
Aubrey. Finally, Kristy, who is nurse at the facility is the person Grant contact in regard to Fiona
services.
Theme.
The story, “The Bear Came over Mountain” explore several themes. Because of
connectedness between several themes in the story, the theme of love, Fidelity and marriage are
discussed in one section. Also, the theme of memory, aging and identity are also discussed.
Finally, the theme of Gender and power are discussed in same approach. In this story, Fiona who
is married to Grant starts romantic relationship with Aubrey ad appears to forget Grant. Grant’s
own marital affair is also explored when he was a professor in the university. Thus the author

4. 4
possess the question of what it means to be faithful in marriage. Flows in marital affairs takes a
twist when Grant takes Mariam and negotiate for stay together between Aubrey and Fiona. As
such, Munro present Grant as someone who is ready to sacrifice his own comfort for the sake of
his wife. The theme of aging and memory and identity is explore throughout the story,
specifically, the story explore how memory informs or create one’s identity. When Fiona
memory became dim, the story explore whether or not a person can be justified if they lose their
memory. Major part of these theme explore how Fiona lose her sense of self and succumb to
dementia. While the story portray Grant as someone with desire qualities as a good husband,
somehow, Grants appear as a typical 20th century character of a stereotypical gender. While at
home, Grant did not want to take care of Fiona while at home. He takes her to a nursing home
and visit her with gifts that “make him look like guilty husband in cartoon” (Munro, 1999). In
most of his thought, he is often misogynistic because most of his+ thought are structured based
on expectation of gender norms to highlight the limitation of norms which can lead to
imbalances of power.
Point of View
Although Munro’s “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” is written in the third person
point of view, the plot’s narration is confined to a particular Characters perspective at a given
time. In the opening scenes, the story is written from Fiona point of view. The rest of the plot and
major focus of the author is written from the perspective of Grant. As such, a greater emphasis is
places on the Grants experiences in his marriage and his emotional struggles. However, Grants
perspective is inherently connected to Fiona point of view. The thought and decision made by
Grants, particularly in the main narrative, are mostly motivated by Fiona’s emotional dementia
needs because their bond is so strong. This consistence sense of consideration from Grant,

5. 5
however, contrast with Grants marital affairs. The relationship between Grants and Fiona’s
perspective seems to be formed based on the past experiences in their marriage.
There are several kind of setting explore in the story. First, the nursing home is located
near Fiona’s and Grant residence in Ontario where Fiona check in to for her deteriorating
memory. At the facility, she loses her memory of Grant. The facility is called Meaddolake. After
Grant’s infidelity, Grant and Fiona move to Georgina Bay for his retirement. Also, the setting of
the story captures Mariam’s House where she lives with Aubrey. Mariam house is relatively
closer to Grant. After discharge of Aubrey, Grant approached Mariam house to persuade her if
she can allow Fiona and Aubrey to live together.
Major conflict explored in the story include Grant emotional experience about Fiona
over dementia, his jealousy over Aubrey and Fiona connection that highlight his history of
marital affairs. It is obvious that Grant is remorseful and longs for his wife, however, his inner
struggle come as result of losing Fiona, a person he love most. Grant admits that "had never
stopped making love to Fiona in spite of disturbing demands elsewhere," this show that he had
betrayed Fiona but at least he did not stop loving her.
Several element of fiction have been explored in the story. Such include character, point
of view, and theme. Conflict, setting and plot. The story art Grants as the main character whose
flows portrays the major themes in the story. Despite Grants’ fervent love for his wife Fiona, he
still love other women outside the marriage which lead to Fiona affection for Aubrey while at the
nursing facility. These lead to Grants and Mariam dating to secure their loves’ happiness.

6. 6
References
Munro, Alice. The Bear Came Over the Mountain. The Magazine.