The Story Of Boys And Girls Alice Munro Analysis

Clearly one of the main themes evident in this short story, the battle with her identity and gender is quickly made apparent. The narrator is a young girl who appreciates, respects and holds her father’s authority in high regard, while she looks down on

The life of a ranch girl is unknown to many people across America. In Maile Meloy’s Ranch Girl, a female narrator brings the reader into her hard life being raised as a ranch girl. Through many different literary devices including, tone, mood, and characterization, the writer set the reader to feel everything the narrator depicts and the reader ingested with a heavier impact than the reader anticipates. The obligation to the community for the ranch girl is to break all stereotypes, thus showing her community and all ranch girls alike that she can be successful and break free of the ranch girl life.

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.”

“Girl” is a short story in which the author, Jamaica Kincaid, unofficially presents the stereotypes of girls in the mid 1900s. Kincaid includes two major characters in the story “Girl”, they are the mother and the girl. Although the daughter only asks two questions in this story, she is the major character. The mother feels like her daughter is going in the wrong direction and not making the best decisions in her life. The whole story is basically the mother telling her daughter what affects her decisions will have in the future. The mother believes that because her daughter isn’t sitting, talking, cleaning, walking or singing correctly it will lead her to a path of destruction. “Girl” is a reflection of female sexuality, the power of family, and how family can help overcome future dangers.

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.

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.

Throughout the history, in all cultures the roles of males and females are different. Relating to the piece of literature “Girl” written by Jamaica Kincaid for the time, when women’s roles were to work in the home. By examining

“Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro is a story that depicts the change of an unidentified female character. As the story progresses, she slowly lets her emotions guide her towards becoming an empathetic as well as an aware person which are considered weaknesses by the men in her family. The unnamed girl becomes empathetic and tender-hearted towards the animal cruelty taking place on the farm. For the first time, instead of obeying her father and “shutting the gate, [she] opened it as wide as [she] could” (Munro 56). Her opening the gate indicates her decision of being on Flora’s side and not her fathers’. This decision signifies the independence that she has granted herself. Although, she has seen animal cruelty her whole life, she now sympathizes

The narrative voice is intriguing when choosing a literacy technique when applied to Alice Munro 's “Boys and Girls” and Jamaica Kincaid 's “Girl” because it highlights the significance of women 's role during the 1960 's. The story of Boys and Girls is in third person narration describing an eleven- year old girl. This story was published in 1968, a time when the second wave of feminism movement occurred. This story gives information about adult gender roles. The setting of the story is in Canada during the winter. The narrator is living in a fox- breeding farm which correlates to the North American culture in the 1960 's. In the 1960 's, women were stereotyped as happy wives and mothers. In contrast, the society believed that unmarried

“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.

The reading for week 5, “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro have some similarities from weeks 4 reading, “A&P” by John Updike. In “Boys and Girls”, the main character was proud of helping her father with the outside chores, it wasn’t until she turned around the age 11 when she fully understood the term of ‘girl’ when it was used. As stated, “The word girl had formerly seemed to me innocent and unburdened like the word child; now it appeared that it was no such thing.” (Boys and Girls by Alice) Here is where she realized that girls weren’t meant to do outside work, but to tend to the chores inside with her mom. At first, she resisted and sneaks out of the house when her mom isn’t looking so she can help her dad outside. This part reminded me of

When the girl was young she was unaffected by external pressure, and was able to develop a sense of personal integrity without performing courageous acts. At a young age the girl was not faced with the expectations of a young woman. She was able to establish, and follow, her aspiration to be her father’s “hired hand”. She was fascinated by the “whole pelting operation” that her father runs. Despite being a gruesome job the girl finds it “ritualistically important” and is naturally drawn to it. She eagerly watches, and participates in the operation. The girl is in charge of feeding and watering the foxes, a job she takes pride in. She, unlike her brother, gets to use a “real watering can” even though she