Encounters in Thought, Becoming-Animal, and Epiphany in Literature: Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls”

This essay examines how the narrator’s witnessing of Mack the horse’s slaughter, alongside her assistance in Flora’s escape from the same fate, reshapes her gender identity as a ‘girl’ in Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” through the lens of Gilles Deleuze’s concepts of ‘encounters in thought’ and ‘becoming-animal.’ According to Deleuze, thought is not re-cognition in the world of representation, but arises through an encounter that compels us to grasp the intensity of the object through the faculty of sensibility. Sensibility is then elevated to its highest potential (the nth power) through the transcendent exercise triggered by its own limitations, which is then transmitted to other faculties like memory, imagination, and ultimately, thought. Deleuze’s account of encounter offers a philosophical explanation for the nature of experience and thought unique to literature, as characters in literature often experience singular moments (intensity) and learn something significant and previously unknown (Idea) about themselves and the world. Munro’s story first presents ‘dark precursors’ to the narrator’s encounter, such as her intuitive awe toward animals and the molecular affect related to becoming-animal. When the narrator encounters Mack’s slaughter, she is drawn to think non-conceptually of the ‘Idea of life’—something that cannot be thought but must be thought—and is ultimately swept into becoming-animal by unconsciously helping Flora escape. Munro’s deliberate deviation from the conventional epiphanic conclusion highlights her caution against the transcendent or religious implications of epiphany, emphasizing instead a more immanent, transformative experience. The apparnetly bathetic ending subverts the traditional epiphany structure, but the story still captures the character’s growth and learning through the encounter and becoming, aligning with Deleuze’s philosophy of immanence and illustrating a form of immanent thinking unique to literature.