David Foster Wallace suggests that education does not necessarily determine one's future, nor does it help them with dealing with the real world and real people, implying that it only a fictional thing. Wallace states that "learning how to think" is the most important concept in the learning field; emotional intelligence rather than intelligence quotient.
Wallace's theory may be applicable to the writing of Munro's, as Munro's work mostly consists of characters who emotionally deal with life's complications, rather than using school or university education to assist them and aid them in getting through and enduring throughout life.
In addition, Wallace states that "the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about"; Munro makes use of this and entails this in one of her writing pieces- 'Runaway'.
The way Munro characterizes Carla is parallel to the preceding statement- Carla is aware that she is involved in an unhealthy relationship however she chooses to stay in it, even though it is an 'obvious, ubiquitous, important reality', it is also the 'hardest... to see and talk about'. This all suggests that no matter the economic/social/mental status of one- all humans are guilty of this.
"A huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded"
Wallace, once again, reminds the readers/listeners that school education is not the most informative and most advantageous and that in school we, all, are conditioned into thinking that the answers we memorize will make us 'smart' or 'intelligent', this is true, to an extent. What Wallace suggests is that 'intelligence' comes in many forms; an important form is in the form of 'emotional intelligence'; "It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience". This is also evident in Munro's writing, as the characters, as well as the readers, are exposed to various emotions, which ultimately cannot be explained or put into the right words, meaning in school, we are not taught how we are supposed to manage our feelings or describe how we feel; most of the time when we believe we are feeling one type of way, it ends up being "totally wrong and deluded".
