In this story the girl's mother, who is desperately trying to influence the girl to labor inside the home, announces to the father that he will get "real help" when Laird, their son, gets a little older.

This statement implies to the girl that she is not as useful as a boy and will never be as competent as her opposite sex, despite her efforts. In fact, the girl was very helpful and played a pivotal role in the family by providing water for the "foxes...twice a day" by filling "the drum at the pump and (trundling) it down through the barnyard to the pens" (531). Although these were important jobs in maintaining the foxes, her work was continuously overlooked as insignificant by her mother. This was another reason the girl idolized her father more than her mother: he did not continuously remind her of what her role should be and did not make her do dreary and inconsequential work inside the home. Nonetheless, due to these unnecessary remarks by the girl's mother, the girl finds it extremely difficult to continue to do what pleases her. Her mother is constantly pressuring her into conforming into a traditional woman who helps inside the house with domestic chores which is far from what the girl desires to be.

The girl is also being her own worst enemy by carrying the same biases and stereotypes as the rest of her family. She thinks that the hunting and gathering is of more value and considered "real work" than the domestic chores her mother is in charge of. For this reason she perceives her father as a hero and much luckier than her mother, who has chosen only to be a housewife. She believes not only are her father's jobs more important, but a

Some common words found in the essay are:
Boys Girls, girl's mother, boys girls, stereotypical images, stereotypical images women, domestic chores, images women, individual freedom, inside home,
Approximate Word count = 984
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)