Lives of Girls and Women

As Del transitions from childhood to young adulthood, she begins to discover her footing within the social realm of people her age. While Del has grappled with complex, abstract ideas, such as faith, her focus transitions here to tangible, concrete relationships with other people around her. In middle school, Del’s attention shifts to boys and wondering how other people perceive her, illustrating Munro’s continued adherence to the realism genre. As Del develops a friendship with Naomi, Munro introduces relationships outside of Del’s family that will ultimately influence her development into adulthood. For example, Naomi and Del go to the library after school, despite Naomi’s distaste for reading, which allows them to connect through a medium that makes sense to Del: books. Del reflects on the engagement others have with reading: “This was the normal thing in Jubilee; reading books was something like chewing gum, a habit to be abandoned when the seriousness and satisfactions of adult life took over” (131). Del does not dismiss or even blame Naomi for her lack of reading. Rather, she recognizes the widespread behaviors in their community that contribute to a lack of engagement with literature that has influenced Naomi, as it has with most of the people around them. This moment also foreshadows Naomi’s and Del’s eventual conflict regarding the choices they make as adults. Munro’s exploration of their differences as children, or young adolescents, provides the framework that informs the way both girls will approach adulthood in later stories.

The title, “Changes and Ceremonies,” is indicative of the emotional and mental space occupying Del’s mind, just as the other stories’ titles reflect her internal battle of the moment. At this point in her development, Del experiences changes within herself, such as her crush on Frank Wales, and she experiences the meaning behind “ceremonies” with the production of the operetta. Having been conditioned to explore life on her own, the operetta provides a space for Del to explore a community of people coming together for the sake of art—in this case, music—as a mode of expression, which aligns with The Discovery of Identity Through Exploration. At the same time, “ceremonies” can refer to the repetitive behaviors of humans, as Del points out that each year, “there was a hypothetical romance, or scandal, built up between [Miss Farris] and Mr. Boyce” (135). As the operetta takes form, so do the community’s insistent rumors regarding the relationships of others, advancing the theme of The Impact of Social Class and Poverty: The personal lives of individuals affect how society perceives them.

Further, Del’s perception of the world drastically shifts upon learning of the death of Miss Farris. Up until this point in the book, Del has undergone a series of pivotal moments that cause lasting effects on her, such as the death of Uncle Craig and obtaining his manuscript. For Del, Miss Farris’s dedication to the operetta provides an “undefeated, unrequited love” that transcends time (156). After Del discovers that Miss Farris has passed away due to mysterious causes, she begins to question the town of Jubilee and those around her. This death creates a different understanding of the world around Del, rooted in an acceptance of the mystery: “It was a mystery presented without explanation and without hope of explanation, in all insolence, like a clear blue sky” (156). Del recognizes that her idealized version of Jubilee crumbles with the notion that “no revelation” exists when there are events or people that cannot be explained.