To support Atwood's statement I will analyze its applicability to Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls". This is actually the coming of age story of a young girl who goes from being a tomboy and her father's helper on the farm to being viewed just as a "girl" in the end. Throughout the story she experiences a change in character as she makes a transition from being a free child, to becoming closer to an adult that is restricted with responsibilities and even worse, she becomes stereotyped as "just a girl". The girl is losing her sense of freedom as more and more limitations are being placed upon her.

In terms of character there are 4 major comparisons, which are evident in the story. There i

With relation to her and her brother there are many comparisons and contrasts, for example Laird is said to have much more freedom than her; he just wanders around doing whatever he likes. It is also relevant that Laird is maturing and getting stronger therefore he is going to replace her role on the family farm. Since Laird is going to replace her, she is left to go into the house and help her mother with more traditional women's work, which of course is stereotypical once again.

The narrator's grandmother correcting her on different things provides another view on the freedom issue. She says, "Girls don't slam doors like that" and, "Girls keep their knees together when they sit down" but worst still was after trying to ask some questions her grandmother replied, "that's none of girls business." Here we see the boundaries girls have to deal with, as knowledge seems to be barred from the girl in this story. These three events all address the issue of freedom in girls and just further confirm the boundaries, which are placed on girls by society. They do this by demanding the young girl be mannerly, that she must consider others first, and that she is not expected to know about things.

A very important event in the story is when the narrator says "The word girl had formerly seemed to me innocent and unburdened, like the word child; now it appeared that it was no such thing. A girl was not, as I had supposed, simply what I was; It was what I had to become. It was a definition, always touched with emphasis, with reproach and disappointment." This statement is so important because it actually gives us the point of view from the narrator, who in this case is the young girl. The young girl also feels there is a different kind of freedom for girls, if in fact there is any freedom at all, because she no longer feels the word girl is innocent and unburdened like she originally believed. She now feels that a girl is what she has to become. She has to work, cook and clean the house, and also manage many other responsibilities of women set on by culture. But this definition of a "girl" was something she does not want to become because she looked upon it with reproach and disappointment. This reproach and disappointment comes out in her dreams. Her dreams are suddenly changing; mysterious altercations took place. The girl's dreams would start of in the old way with spectacular danger or her rescuing people, but then things were starting to transform. She says now "somebody would be rescuing me. It might be a boy from our class at school, or even Mr. Campbell, our teacher." Then she goes on to say "At this point the story concerned itself at great length with what I looked like - how long my hair was, and what kind of dress I had on; by the time these details worked out the real exciteme

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Approximate Word count = 1887
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)