The research approach adopted by this thesis is the textual analysis with the theory of Liberal Feminism which seeks equality of rights and freedoms between women and men. In this short story collection, women try to escape from the family, men and themselves because they could not bear or be not satisfied with the current situation and they have the courage to take actions to escape from the bad or imperfect situation. Though the results are not so satisfying, this process is showing the awakening of female consciousness. This thesis consists of three main parts. The first part is the description of the escape from the family, men and themselves. The second part is about the awakening of female consciousness. The third part is conclusion.

2. Literature Review

Alice Munro is a Canadian woman writer whose writing style is simple and plain. She is considered as one of the most famous women writers in the world especially for her short stories. Most of her works are exploring the complex inner world of modern civilized society. Because of her achievement in short stories, she has attracted more and more attention from literary critics. However, these critics do not pay as much attention to Munro’s specific stories as to her overall writing style. Runaway is one of her works which won her the Nobel Prize in Literature. In this book, there are eight short stories, all of which are concerned with the ordinary women’s daily life, marriage and family. And the main theme is about exploring the complex inner world and the emotional world of ordinary women. This book is Munro’s most representative works.  

In China, most of the researchers’ studies mainly focus on Munro’s early works, such as, Friend of My Youth, Girls and Women, and Who Do You Think You Are. However, only a few critics study her latest work Runaway according to CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure). Lin Yiqing finds out the main theme of Munro’s short story collections, includes love, women, feminism, escape and so on. Lin Yuzhen analyzes the themes of Munro’s collections, such as lives, ambition, feminism, and wilderness, whose aim is to find  Runaway, many people study it from many different angles, for example, Yu Yanping makes a feminist analysis and finds out the essential factors for women’s escape: economic and mental independence. Tan Min and Fu Qiong focus on the narrative technique used in the short story. Chen Feng analyzes the fate of the females in Runaway. Yu Yanping analyzes the awareness and the growth of the female consciousness. Luo Surong analyzes the female characters in this short story collection and promotes a better understanding of Munro’s works. In Canada and American, there are many more studies on Alice Munro. In many books, books reviews and articles, people make comments on her works. For example, James Carscallen writes the book, The Other Country: Patterns in the Writing of Alice Munro, also focuses on the theme of Alice Munro’s short stories. Magdalence Redekop’s book: Mother and Other Clowns: The Stories Of Alice Munro, concentrates on the role of mother in Munro’s short stories.