Short Story 'Boys And Girls' By Alice Munro

A Dream Lost Coming of age literature is usually a story that chronicles a youth’s life from adolescence to the time they realize they are no longer a child, and revolves around the youth’s family, mentors, friends, peers, relationships, and community which helps shape the youth into the person they will one day become. A few of the coming of age literature characteristics are innocence, simplicity, disappointment, tension, conflict, wisdom, and acceptance. In the short story “Boys and Girls,” Alice Munro successfully used innocence, conflict, and acceptance to reveal the main character’s struggles from adolescence to the realization she was no longer a child. In the beginning of the story, the main character, who is not named, innocently watches her dad and his hired hand prepare the pelt of foxes. During this time the hired hand jokes with the main character, and she explains that her mom does not approve of the jokes and “the whole pelting operation” (Munro). Another example of the main character’s innocence is at bedtime when she sings with her brother, Laird, and then silently makes up stories of being older and a hero that saves people from danger. Throughout the beginning of the story, the main character spends time in the barn enjoying the time helping her father with the farm work and …show more content…
As any other coming of age literature, the main character had no way of knowing the path her life would take, but the one thing that always happens the same as real life, the main character of coming of age literature transitions from an adolescent to a young adult. As with the story “Boys and Girls,” family and relationships help to shape the adolescences into the young adults they will