Marriage traditionally symbolizes the union of two individuals who have vowed their

love for one another. Generally, weddings are characterized by the overwhelming amount of time
and effort put into them. In The Other Paris, Mavis Gallant capitalizes on this social stigma in
an effort to attention to the absurd expectations of her time. To accomplish this, Mavis makes
extensive use of many literary devices; more specifically, the use of a narrative voice and
characterization.
The opening paragraph of The Other Paris introduces the fanciful Carol as she
reminisces on her engagement. The scene that Carol portrays regarding her wedding proposal is,
according to the narrator, an image solely creating to satisfy the expectations from others. From
this, Carol is characterized as being the type of person who actively seeks the approval of others;
so much so that the expectations made by others develop into her own expectations. More of this
can be seen throughout the second and third paragraphs mainly through information provided
through the voice of the narrator. It is revealed to the readers that Carols views of marriage are
based on the information she learned at her college lectures with beliefs, such as the illusion
of love was a blight imposed by the film industry, and almost entirely responsible for the high
rate of divorce ,that are not backed by anything, being accepted by Carol as factual. Even in the
syntax of the paragraphs, the Carols ideology is compared to things of little relevance or
importance. The sentence Love required only the right conditions, like a geranium solidifies to
the readers that Carol has a very simplistic view of marriage, as was common in her time.
As for Howard, his personality isnt as fully fleshed out for the reader like Carols. Like
Carol, Howards views of marriage are very simplistic. For Howard, the objective of getting
married to Carol wasnt for the purpose of love, like most marriages, but for the purpose of
keeping appearances as hinted by the narrator. Without the presences of this narrator in the story,
a lot of information would have not been revealed in such a way that would have supplied the
humor in this satirical piece. This is evident in the very beginning of the story. We, the readers,
are initially led to believe that Carols version is if not a little off of what had happened when
Howard proposed to her. It isnt until the narrator informal states in the beginning of the second
paragraph that he [Howard Mitchell] had proposed at lunch, over a tuna-fish salad. The
narrator views the marriage between Carol and Howard as informal and proceeds to relate
information in the story in an informal fashion. It can thus be inferred that Mavis Gallant made
the narrator in order to highlight the informality of the union of the two characters through the
use of informality itself.
In addition, the voice of the narrator is unidentified and serves to help the readers
establish a point of view that is not biased. This is important as it could be implied that the
traditional values of women at this time period is more ridiculed than men in the piece. By
establishing a voice that is genderless, Gallant is able to get her views across. Likewise, the
characters in the story are over exaggerated in their characteristics so as to help the readers better
identify the flaws of the time period. Through both characterizations and narrative voice,
Gallants piece helps those who read it better understand her view point.