Alice Munro Stereotypes

Women are submissive compared to males, at least that is what the majority of society reflects in the history and literature books that readers read; and unfortunately this belief has not changed. In the short story, “Boys and Girls,” by Alice Munro, the narrator takes us on a journey about the gender inequality she faces in her childhood. Alice Munro tells the story of a family that lives on a farm that slaughters foxes for their fur. There is the Mother, Father, the daughter, and the younger son. The Mother and Father have stereotypical gender roles in which the Mother does domesticated housework inside while the Father does the work on the farm. None of the main characters in the story are named besides the younger brother, Laird. The narrator,

The desire that the narrator faces is drastically different than the expectations that society has in place for women. The narrator puts working on the farm as more important than what her mother does. (Munro 156) At this point in the story readers get a sense that the narrator believes that she can choose what she wants to do, that she has a choice in what category she will be placed in. Until it is crushed when the narrator hears her mother saying, “What till Laid gets a little bigger, then you’ll have real help.” (Munro 156) This shapes the narrators’ self-identity not only in the moment but as she gets older because of the fact that her help, is not valued as much as her brothers’ help will be. Reader’s see the moment that the narrator succumbs to the gender inequality stereotype that shapes the world she lives in, it reads, “She is only a girl, he said. I didn’t protest that, even in my heart. Maybe it was true.” (Munro 162)

Gender inequality is a vast stereotype which is continuously reinforced throughout the short story by Alice Munro, “Boys and Girls.” Women are seen as submissive and of not equal importance compared to the male counterpart. This not only affects the characters of a story but readers as well because it is a topic that women must face every day, it is not limited to the pages of a short story. Munro’s short story ultimately reflects the journey of a young women whose self-identity is created through the gender roles enforced upon her by the family that is closest to