Personal Attirity In Alice Munro's Boys And Girls

After reading “A&P” by John Updike and Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls”, a centralized theme arose. Each story’s protagonist demonstrates a unique internal struggle centered on the restrictions society places upon them. Even though the short stories written by John Updike and Alice Munro are remarkably different from each other, it is possible for a reader to interpret similarities between the two.

In Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls,” our narrator is a young farm girl on the verge of puberty who is learning what it means to be a “girl.” The story shows the differing gender roles of boys and girls – specifically that women are the weaker, more emotional sex – by showing how the adults of the story expect the children to grow into their respective roles as a girl and a boy, and how the children grow up and ultimately begin to fulfill these roles, making the transition from being “children” to being “young adults.”

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.

The author portrays the message of standing for what you believe is right, never feeling pressured to conform to the attitude, values of other individuals. This is shown through Anthony who chooses to conform to Lance’s peer pressure yet consciously aware of the outcome of invading another person’s privacy. Although Anthony has good moral values, he fears Lance and therefore is unable to bring out the

An initiation story is defined as, “A story whose overall plot is concerned with putting the protagonist through a particular sort of experience – initiation into something for which his/her previous experience had not prepared him/her” (Kansas 1). In Alice Munro’s story, “Boys and Girls”, witnessing the nonchalant, almost indifferent killing of Mack elicited the catalyst in both the narrator and her brother. However, viewing this event changed the protagonist’s perception of her father and his business. For example the narrator states, “Yet I felt a little ashamed, and there was a new wariness, a sense of holding-off, in my attitude to my father and his work” (Munro 4). She brings her brother to this memorable event and after told him, “in a congratulatory way, as if I had seen it many times before” (Munro 4). Conflict arises from this initiation because the narrator no longer feels proud of her father or proud of herself for the things they do. For some reason,

In Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls,” there is a time line in a young girl’s life when she leaves childhood and its freedoms behind to become a woman. The story depicts hardships in which the protagonist and her younger brother, Laird, experience in order to find their own rite of passage. The main character, who is nameless, faces difficulties and implications on her way to womanhood because of gender stereotyping. Initially, she tries to prevent her initiation into womanhood by resisting her parent’s efforts to make her more “lady-like”. The story ends with the girl socially positioned and accepted as a girl, which she accepts with some unease.

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 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

As the world expands and our communities start multiplying, it seems to be arduous to interact with people who have a 50% chance to either be kind or cruel. Sometimes those vicious people can bring you down and make you feel so small ,but what can you do stop this? Courage comes around and pushes yourself forward through life’s challenges and obstacles. If you don’t know how to use it then there are some alternatives to help your quest to find the valor in you. The dramatic novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee has the most guidance in that area. Courage is the ability for people to attempt a risky task in their lives even when the likelihood of failure is very high.

Every individual struggle with self-acceptance at some point in their life, furthermore, every individual chooses to exemplify their struggle to accept themselves in different methods. In the short story “Boys and Girls” Alice Munro focuses on the narration of a girl, in which girls are underappreciated in the society. The protagonist in the story cannot accept who she is, and it makes it harder for her as other individuals do not accept who she wishes to be. The author demonstrates this through the character’s external motivations. As the story is written in third person limited readers understand the girl’s personal thoughts and how she is internally conflicted about who she is. She feels underappreciated for the work that she provides which influences her to be disobedient to others around her. Alice Munroe’s short story “Boys and Girls” demonstrates to readers that individuals struggle for self-acceptance through the expression of their external and internal motivations. Because of their motivations, individuals feel rebellious against their self-conscience.

“Boys and Girls” is a short story, by Alice Munro, which illustrates a tremendous growing period into womanhood, for a young girl living on a fox farm in Canada, post World War II. The young girl slowly comes to discover her ability to control her destiny and her influences on the world. The events that took place over the course of the story helped in many ways to shape her future. From these events one can map the Protagonist’s future. The events that were drawn within the story provided the Protagonist with a foundation to become an admirable woman.

Feminist theory has been around for many years restricting women on how they behave, dress and even what jobs they are ‘allow’ to do. In the short story, “Boys and Girls”, Alice Munro portrays a young girl who is socially and psychologically undermined by her family and the sociality to show her readers how feminist theory took a toll on girls back in 1964 and still happening till this day.

In the story Red Dress 1946 by Alice Munro Individuality and Conformity is discussed. Some examples of this is during the story is “there was a carnival atmosphere of brutality in the room at such times, scaring weak and suspect people like me”. The reason this is important to the text and idea of the essay is because we often feel left out when we are ourselves. In life, we want to fit in we are made to want this just like the main character in the story she wants a “dress like my friend Lonnie had.” Is it implied that she is in a poor finance situation, as many were at that time.

Comparing Female Sexuality in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women