Gender Roles In Boys And Girls By Alice Munro

Since the beginning of time, gender roles have existed in society. Women are assigned the tasks of food preparation and childcare, while men perform most activities that require physical strength. Struggles against society's ideas of how gender roles should be, as well as threats of a feminist influence on some issues are found in "Boys and Girls" composition written by Alice Munro. In this story, the main character, who appears to be an unnamed girl, faces her awakening body and the challenge of developing her social identity in a man's world. Through first-person narration, Munro shows the girl's views of femininity by describing the girl's interpretations of her parents shaped by indoor and outdoor territoriality, criticism and

When we are adolescents we see the world through our parents' eyes.  We struggle to define ourselves within their world, or to even break away from their world.  Often, the birth of our "self" is defined in a moment of truth or a moment of heightened self-awareness that is the culmination of a group of events or the result of a life crisis or struggle.  In literature we refer to this birth of "self" as an epiphany.  Alice Munro writes in "Boys and Girls" about her own battle to define herself.  She is torn between the "inside" world of her mother and the "outside" world of her father.  In the beginning her father's world prevails, but by the finale, her mother's world invades her

Equality between men and women is not always accepted in society. In the previous era, men were seen as the person who had the rights to rule over others and who could work outside the home. But the woman was seen only as a woman from home, she had the responsibility of taking care of the children, doing all household chores and her opinion was never considered. In Alice Munro story “Boys and Girls “, the narrator of the story is a girl who lives on a fox farm with her parents and a younger brother but her character is seen between the conflict with society and her desires because the difference of role that plays each genre.

Since the beginning of time, gender roles have existed in society.  Women were assigned the tasks of child-care and food preparation.  Men performed most activities that required physical strength.  As society progressed, the role of women did not.  Although less emphasis is placed on gender roles today, gender roles still exist. In 1968, Alice Munro wrote, "Boys and Girls" to address the confusion that gender roles may cause in a modern society.

Outside forces do not have any long-lasting influence on how someone perceives themself. This is a notion that some individuals may choose to believe. However, through the events of one story, we come to realize that the prior statement is false. The nameless protagonist of Boys and Girls (1964) showed that as people, we can be created as somebody other than ourselves at our core because we fall back on the opinions of people whose views we regard too highly. Canadian author Alice Munro’s short story displays how an individual’s identity and realization of self is molded by the prominent role adversity plays throughout the course of their life because the contrasting values and ideologies of those around them conflict with their own moral compass.

In Lewis Carroll’s, Alice in Wonderland, traditional gender roles are reversed by portraying women with masculine behaviors and males with qualities generally attributed to women. Where aggressive and dominating behavior is seen as masculine, and sensitive and submissive acts are considered feminine, Carroll paints a picture of a society where these qualities are switched. For instance, the Queen of Hearts is a dominating and aggressive figure who terrorizes her meek husband. While some characters seem to possess qualities that Carroll's contemporaries would consider traditional, they are in the minority and they serve the purpose of teaching Alice something about the true meaning of gender. Alice has to navigate this bizarre world to discover

In Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls”, the author explains the transition from being a tomboy girl to becoming a woman. The protagonist is

In finding personal integrity, courage is a double edged blade as it can sustain integrity in certain circumstances and drive an individual further away in others. In Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls” the main character begins by developing a sense of personal integrity without external influence, but soon loses sight of herself as pressure from both herself and her society outpace her aspirations. As she grows older the values she placed in feats of daring is interchanged with misplaced rebellion as she attempts to fight her expectations and role in her family. Though she has courage in abundance for an untested child, the constant reproach and patronizing attitude of the people around her restricts her ability to flourish. In this text Munro suggests that well-employed courage is needed to sustain an already developed integrity, though it must act with some source of external support to succeed.

     I have thought about many different ways to organize this paper and have come to the conclusion that the best way to approach the topic is on a book-by-book basis. My perceptions of the gender biases in these books vary greatly and I did not want to begin altering my views on each so that they would fit into certain contrived connections. What interests me most in these stories is how the authors utilize certain character’s within their given environment. Their instincts and reactions are a wonderful window into how the authors perceive these “people” would interact with their surroundings and often are either rewarded or punished by the author through consequences in the plot for

In Alice Munro’s short story, “Boys and Girls,” the narrator, a young girl growing up on a fox farm who is coming of age and is thus forced to conform to societies expectations of women. Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Boyle argue that, “Literary texts call into question many of our essentialist ideas about gender” (183) and Munro’s story is an example of how literature can help us question the validity of gender essentialist thought. In this essay, I will argue that Munro’s short story does challenge common essentialist views on gender by exploring the way that society constructs and imposes gender roles on her characters, particularly the young narrator; and by analyzing the symbolic relationship between the narrator and the mare named Flora.

Throughout the course of time, roles in our society towards gender has evolved. In the story Boys and Girls by Alice Munro relatively has a direct message which is the constant battle of gender stereotypes. The audience is reading through the point of view of the main character, which is a girl, and her frustration she feels. Through the young girl’s experience, Alice Munro is able to show the readers the role of stereotypes or expectations that a female has to fulfill.

   Recent history boldly notes the protests and political unrest surrounding the Vietnam Conflict during the 1960s and 70s. However, equally important in this era are the women who pushed for gender role reevaluation and publicly rebelled against the established social norm of a woman's "place." Although Alice Munro may not have been burning her bra on the courthouse steps, threads of a feminist influence can be found in "Boys and Girls." Munro's main character, a girl probably modeled after Munro's own childhood experiences on an Ontario farm, faces her awakening body and the challenge of developing her social identity in a man's world. "The girl," an unnamed character, acts as

These roles control structural identity concepts from external self image, to the factors of quality of life. The girl from Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” demonstrates the difference in identity from early youth, when gender roles have little control over choices, to when she fully embraces the ‘women role’. She demonstrates a lack of knowledge of the roles when describing her stories as being, “... about myself, when I had grown a little older;they took place in a world that was recognizably mine, yet one that presented opportunities for courage, boldness and self-sacrifice, as mine never did.” The character identified herself as capable of heroism, and strength, even as far as mentioning “...teachers [cowering] behind my back… [as] I shot two rabid wolves who were menacing the schoolyard…” Gender roles dictate that girls should aim to be ‘damsels in distress’, destined to be household upkeepers.

In Boys and Girls, Alice Munro shows how the young girl in the story turns into an adult when she is pressured by her family and society to become a genteel woman instead of a little girl who works outdoors

Children are more prone to be obedient towards their parental figures (heteronomous obedience) while growing up. In the short story “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro, life during the twentieth century is portrayed. The narrator, who has portrayed herself as a nameless young girl, struggles for freedom from inequality in her society. The disobedience in “Boys and Girls” is clarified in Erich Fromm’s essay, “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem (DPMP).” The narrator of “Boys and Girls” goes through different phases of obedience due to her “authoritarian and humanistic conscience” (Fromm 10). Also, by being disobedient she has control of her own authorities. “Humanistic conscience” stops her from doing something inhuman and or from being guilty; it’s the inner voice. As well as her comfort levels and the changes of her obedience impact her much to her surprise. The young girl is well aware of what happens around her and is disobedient because of her “humanistic conscience”, which has her in a battle against gender binary and stereotypes.