"How I Met My Husband" by Alice Munro: Sympathetic Character

       In Alice Munro's "How I Met My Husband", Edie is described and shown as a sympathetic character.  She is the hired girl for the Peebles' family and this creates some sympathy from the reader.  This is because she is not treated as the Peebles' complete equal.  One distinct scene that shows Edie as a sympathetic character is when Edie waits at the mail box everyday for a letter from Chris.  The speaker, Edie, says, "I was always smiling when the mailman got there, and I continued smiling even after he gave me the mail and I saw today wasn't the day," (Munro, 145).  The reader knows that the letter from Chris is never coming.  This scene distinctly shows Edie's naivety and evokes sympathy for her from the reader.  Another scene where sympathy is evoked for Edie is when she thinks that being intimate can just be kissing.  Loretta Bird and Alice Kelling do not believe her but Mrs. Peebles stands up for her and this evokes sympathy from the reader.  Edie is scene as a sympathetic character by the her naivety.