“Boys and Girls” is a short story written by Alice Munro in 1964. The story takes place on a fox farm in the midst of a typical family: one father, one mother, a son, and a daughter. The protagonist, an unnamed daughter, helps her father look after the foxes that he raises for pelts, and she does the manual labor just like any hired hand. She takes pride in her work and sees usual house work done by her mother as constricting and stuffy. One day the mare horse named Flora, who was meant to be put down that same day, runs away from her father and the unnamed daughter let the horse go out of the fence. As a result of her actions, she loses the respect of her father forever. Symbolism is used quite often in the story to demonstrate the roles of girls and boys. What her parents and other people …show more content…
The foxes, which her father skins and raises, demonstrate the common perceived role of women in relationships, while her father demonstrates the commonly perceived role of men in relationships. The house that they live in represents the sphere of the woman and inherently where the daughter and her mother, as females, belong. The barn is representative of the workplace and is where the man belongs. In Munro’s “Boys and Girls,” forced gender roles limit both boys’ and girls’ contributions to society and happiness.
Society, represented by the daughter’s mother, the father, and the “feed salesman,” tells the daughter (and girls and boys in general) that boys are only meant to work, provide for their family, and make all the decisions for the family; Meanwhile women are meant to be domestic and emotional yet intelligent. As a child, the daughter lays in bed and fantasizes of her future self “in a world that was recognizably [her own], yet one that presented opportunities for
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
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.
The object of examining gender roles is to answer the question why should women and men be equal and "Are there populations in which men and women are absolutely equal? Are there societies in which women dominate men?" (Gender 238) By understanding the culture in which this piece of literature is written, the gender roles and the rules of behavior for a woman, then the relationships between genders can be realized. The general myth about women and their gender role in the American society is that the mother works in the home and supports her man in every way. For each relationship, the people in that relationship must decide the particular roles that they will play. In the literary work "Girl", Kincaid shows clearly that the woman's role in this work was to serve the family and to work mainly in the house. The mother writing this story tells her daughter that "this is how you iron your father's khaki shirt so that it doesn't have a crease" (Kincaid 489). In this marriage, it is understood that the wife is to do the laundry for the husband. Today's society does not always provide these clear roles since many women work a full time job and the house chores are a responsibility for both to handle. Though the woman is still mainly held responsible for the home. There should be a constant search for equality in gender roles. Kincaid explains how the man is working to bring home the money and the wife supports
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
There was a time when society did not consider men and women as equal. Men were considered as the superior human being and the dominant figures of authority in the house while the woman had to be a subservient. Alice Munro uses some interesting details in “Boys and Girls” to hold the readers captive. She takes us on a journey in an era where the male child was deemed more important than the female child. “Boys and Girls is a story about a girl’s struggle in accepting the role society has forced upon her in such a vivid manner that it draws the reader to want to know what happens next. In “Telling Tails,” by Tim O’Brien, he illustrates what a good story should be by using story examples. O’Brien believes that “Boys and Girls” is good story because the author uses a well-imagined plot, striking and dramatic elements, and the ability to reach deep into the heart of readers.
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.”
In Jamaica Kincaid’s story, Girl, a mother is talking to her daughter about all the proper things she must do to be considered a good girl to her family and to the public, and when she grows up, a proper lady. She must follow the rules that are given to her by her own mother and by society. The mother also teaches the daughter how to act when things don’t go her way. She is told that along with being a proper lady, she must also be able to get what she wants and be independent. This story was written in the late 1970’s and gender roles, for women, back then were not being “followed” because women wanted equal opportunities (Women In the Workforce). “Gender stereotypes are beliefs regarding the traits and behavioral characteristics given to individuals on the basis of their gender” (Deuhr). This essay will discuss the gender roles that were given to women in the story, during the late 70’s, and in today’s society.
The narration of the mother lecturing her daughter with commanding diction leads to the theme of women conforming to domesticity and if they don’t conform then they will lead a life of promiscuity that will affect the way people perceive them. Women in the past believed that a woman’s role was that of a domesticated housewife. The narration of the third point of view in this story and the commanding diction of it places an importance in the reinforcement of this idea, that if a woman doesn’t follow social norms, she will eventually turn to a “slut” one that her family will be ashamed of. She must set the table for lunch and for breakfast that is “how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know [her] very well, and that it the way they won’t recognize immediately the slut that [the mother has] warned her against becoming.”(Kincaid 485) through her commanding diction, the mother is telling her daughter how to set a table, how to cook, she
In Alice Munro’s short story, Boys and Girls, the underlying theme displayed throughout the entirety of the story is conforming and defying to society’s gender expectations. This is shown through the literary device, symbolism. Symbolism is seen through Flora the horse and the protagonist’s mother.
In “Boys and Girls”, the author, Alice Munro, explains the lifestyle of a boy and girl on a fox farm. These children experience inequality between genders through their chores on the family’s homestead. To the girl, “It seemed that work in the house was endless, dreary, and peculiarly depressing; work done out of doors, and in [her] father’s service, was ritualistically important.” She realizes her opportunities are secondary to the boy’s because she is limited to household chores and smaller outdoor tasks such as gardening. The girl is conflicted by the expectations this inequality places on her and she struggles to cope with the rules of a male dominated society. While Munro uses her imagination to write this story, she also uses her own life experiences as a girl growing up on a fox and mink farm. The story provides insight into stereotyped gender roles reinforced by society which women experienced during the Great Depression.
From the start the girlchild was given gifts that stained in her mind as what she was suppose to become in life. With the little dolls, GE stoves and irons, and lipstick her parents put this ideal image of the perfect woman in her head. With these types of presents the girlchild is already learning her role in society.
The short story Boys and Girls written by Alice Munro takes place in post modern time setting where equality between sexes does not exist as males are seen far more dominant then females. In the short story the narrator an 11 year old girl does not want to be bound by the rules society puts on women and attempts to rebel against the rules that make men superior to women. The theme of women being less useful and less dominant is displayed in the short story by the naming of the characters, through the mother and grandmother as well as the horse Flora.
“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.
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.
The short story Boys and Girls was written by Canadian writer Alice Munro in the 60s. It looks inside the family of a fox-breeder with two children: an unnamed girl and her brother Laird. The girl is narrator of this story. The work showed a typical life of a breeder – the man looked after foxes, but treated them only a source of a good fur. The girl wanted to be closer to her father in spite of fact she was afraid of him a little and did not know what he thought about, unlike her mother. “In this he was quite different from my mother, who... would tell me all sorts of things – the name of a dog she had had when she was a little girl [or] the names of boys she had gone out with later on when she was grown up” (Munro 3). The narrator did not want to play a standardized female role. The girl did not like any types of the house work and did not obey