BA#4 Munro's The Jack Randa Hotel

1. One secret that is kept from Will is that it is actually Gail who is writting to him pretending to be Ms. Thornaby. Will has no idea that he is actually writting to hsi old girlfriend and not some elderly lady he looked up in the phonebook. Gail holds this secret from him. You realize that this secret is being held on page 173 after the letter to Will has been written. The narrator says "Gail writes this on an old portable typewritter..." (Munro 173).
2. This also reminded me of the story we read earlier called Carried Away when Louisa writes letters back and forth to Jack and how they don't really know who each other is when they meet in person. "'I always meant to speak to you'"(Munro 46). This is an example of Jack and Louisa talking when they meet. Of course this differs from The Jack Randa Hotel because Gail leaves before she even gets to meet with Will in person. "Hurry. Hurry. Her rent is paid. She must leave a note for the manager. She must take the money out of the bank, get herself to the airport, find a flight"(Munro 188). Thsi is an example of Gail leaving before meeting Will in person.
3. Understanding this secret is important to understanding the story because it is what the story is mainly about. Gail had gone to Australia to reconnect with her ex lover and gets scared so sge writes to him pretending to be another woman and when he wants to see her she gets scared and leaves. If we did not understand what she was doing by writting to him then the story would take on a completly different meaning.