Boys and Girls
Boys and Girls is a short story written by the Canadian short story writer, Alice Munro in 1968. The story is about a young girl who struggles against society's ideas of how a girl should be, only to find her trapped in the ways of the world. The story takes place on a farm. The narrator is a woman who is telling in the first point of view of when she was a young girl. Her father was a fox farmer, he was hardworking and she had a great deal of respect for him. She enjoyed working with him. The narrator had problems coming to terms with the role in life that she was expected to lead. By using the first person point of view combined with characterization, the author is able to depict the hardships and successes of passage into adulthood through her portrayal of a young narrator. She was also able to examine the different roles that society has defined for boys and girls. Alice Munro's short story, "Boys and Girls," has a very interesting detail written into it. The narrator's brother is named Laird, which was carefully chosen by the author. Laird is a synonym for lord, which plays an important role in a story where a young girl has society's unwritten rules forced upon her. At the time of the story, society did
Near the end of the story, Laird starts to realize his sex-determined superiority. He explains to his father and mother how Flora escaped from the yard and also starts listening to his father almost exclusively. "We shot old Flora," he said, "and cut her up in fifty pieces." "Well I don't want to hear about it," my mother said. "And don't come to my table like that. "My father made him go and wash the blood off. (p. 536) Laird washes the blood off only after his father tells him to do so. This shows the dominance of males in the society of the time. Laird may field his mother's complains, but only does something about it once his father tells him to do so. This shows how his father is the authority figure, that his mother secondary to his father. Even the daughter thinks lowly of the mother in comparison to the father. "It showed how little my mother knew about the way things really were"(p. 531). It was an off thing to see my mother down at the barn. She did not often come out of the house unless it was to do something - hang out the wash or dig potatoes in the garden. She looked out of place, with her bare lumpy legs, not touched by the sun, her apron still on and damp across the stomach from the supper dishes. (Munro 596) quietly and brought Laird down under his arm, at which my mother leaned against the ladder and began to cry. They said to me, "Why weren't you watching him?" (p. 534) My father came, my mother came, my father went up the ladder talking very "Boys and Girls" takes place at a time where there is no such thing as equality between the sexes. Men in this society are the dominant, authoritarian heads of the household whose work is done outside the home. Women are expected to look after the men and their work is done in the home. The narrator in "Boys and Girls" slowly becomes accustom with her role in society. The narrator and her brother symbolize the roles of males and females in that society. The narrator is forced into doing jobs that she doesn't enjoy doing, namely that associ
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1390
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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