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Boys And Girls Summary

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The short story “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro is narrated by an unnamed young girl who talks about life on her family’s fox farm where she lives with her parents and younger brother. She undeniably prefers working outside with her father on the chores and tending to the foxes instead of working in the house with her mother. Throughout the story there are subtle and obvious indications of the differences in and expectations of boys and girls. The narrator clearly demonstrates her preference to the role of a boy, but it wasn’t as if she was given the choice to not conform to society’s and her family’s expectations of a girl. Notably, the roles of men vs. women were clearly defined and differentiated within this story using the narrator’s …show more content…

In the beginning, she told herself stories of how she was a hero, rode horses and shot expertly. In these stories she “rescued people from bombed buildings” and shot “rabid wolves” as others were too terrified to act (p. 402). Later, the stories portrayed her as the person being rescued and were overwhelmed with details of her hair, her dresses and her overall appearance. She had also tried to make her “part of the room fancy” by making a lace bed cover and adding a dressing table (p. 411). The final acknowledgement of this change manifested when it came time for her father to slaughter Flora, who was an energetic horse that had been confine by her father waiting for him to need meat for the foxes. Rebelling against what she knew was coming; Flora escaped the coral and ran towards the narrator and the gate. Instead of obeying her father’s shout to secure the gate, the narrator opened the gate to let Flora escape the farm in the way she always wanted to. Then, when she thought she would be punished for defying her father, he made the ultimate declaration by absolving her of her actions as he stated “Shes’ only a girl” (p. 412). This simple statement meant she would not be punished for not closing the gate, but in actuality it was condemning her to a life of imprisonment in the house as a

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In this paper I will be discussing how Boys and Girls Clubs are used as a deterrence method to keep “at-risk” children off the streets. These programs are all across the country in inner cities and in rural areas. I will be using the Boys and Girls Club to look at its relationship with Social Disorganization theory. The Boys and Girls Club has been around since 1860, when three women decided to open their doors to underprivileged boys. They “believed that boys who roamed the streets should have a positive alternative” (Boys & Girls Clubs of America).

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Nicole Aldana FHS 215 Karrie Walters October 28, 2015 Site Report: Boys and Girls Club The human service organization I chose for this assignment was the Boys and Girls Club of Emerald Valley. While there were a number of equally amazing organizations on the list, it really came down to my personal experience with this institute. During my senior year of high school, I made it a goal to partake in as many community service opportunities as I could. Coming from a big city, there was no shortage of these and after a few months of searching it led me to the Boys and Girls Club and a few other non-profits.

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Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour” is set in the late 1800s – a time when women were considered inferior to men. Women had traditional roles as wives and mothers. In this 19th century patriarchal society, Chopin shows us Louise Mallard, the main character, who does not comply with the female gender norms of the Victorian period. When Louise learns about the death of her husband, her reaction and the reaction of her sister and the doctor tell us a great deal about gender stereotyping during this time. Louise Mallard is described to us as “firm” and “fair.

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Many critics agree on one fact about Canadian author Alice Munro: one of her most notable qualities in regards to her work is the distinct use of realism in her writing. Her writing provides a strong sense of familiarity to the reader, while also containing stronger metaphorical meanings that one can note when they begin to closely look at her work. Her short story “Boys and Girls” portrays the socialization of a young girl, once very close to her father and unaware of any sort of gender bias within her society, into a young woman with a pessimistic view of femininity and her expected position in society. This story shows the socialization process in a way that makes it easy to recognize, illustrating circumstances that the reader can notice the blatant sexism and misogyny; however, its portrayal is extremely realistic, allowing the reader to recall how oblivious they may have been in the past during times that they have been impacted by social biases in our world. Critics of Munro typically agree on her overall theme of femininity and coming of age in her writings; “Boys and Girls” emphasizes the ways in which young girls are socialized into a seemingly natural understanding of the sexist expectations and gender roles.

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Phrabakar and K. Venkat Satish (2011) said that, “Alice Munro is a forthright feminist fiction writer who uses the short story form as a medium to portray the sad conditions of women living in the landscape of small town, Ontario, Canada where she has been brought up and her stories voice woman’s feeling towards society from feminist perspective”. So, ‘Boys and Girls’ short story highlighted the issue of feminism the most in which at that time, society did not consider men and women are at the same level. In this story, the narrator is unnamed while his little brother is named Laird which means ‘land owner’. The name symbolized how the male child was superior in the parent’s eyes and in general. Along with that, the name also symbolizes the difference between the sexes when this story took place.

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This novel is also autobiographical. Throughout history, women have been locked in a struggle to free themselves from the borderline that separates and differentiate themselves from men. In many circles, it is agreed that the battleground for this struggle and fight exists in literature. In a

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Comparing Boys and Girls and Emma Watson’s speech for her HeForShe campaign Gender is not referred “to sex, but to this set of prescribed behavior,” as said by Marlene Goldman’s “Penning in the Bodies” (Goldman). There are many rules set upon an individual as to what is acceptable and what is not. The short story Boys and Girls by Alice Munro focuses on the implications the narrator had to endure on her journey to womanhood by reason of gender stereotypes. Emma Watson’s speech for the HeForShe campaign targets on abolishing gender inequality. Despite inequity, there is a myriad of comparable traits that are shared by humans which portrays our personality.

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