In a society dominated by stereotypes and labels about gender roles, “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munroe reveals the story of a nonconformist girl (whose name is intentionally omitted) and her confrontation with the dominance of the male in the house and females obedience. The 10 years-old unnamed girl protagonist grows up in a fox farm in Jubilee, Canada back in 1940s along with her younger brother, named Laird ( from Lord) and her father, whom she is helping with the farm and the mother who wants her to be a traditional girl that wears dresses and takes care of the house. The story depicts the hardship a girl faces on her way to become a self-sufficient personality and the gender boundaries imposed to her by community and family that dramatically
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Her relationship with the brother, before the climax, is equal as long as they were not labeled as “boy” and “girl”. They share the same room, sing same songs before falling asleep and they even share the same fear of the inside of the room where they slept. She feels herself superior and much more helpful for her father, because she was the one who was wheeling the tank and giving water to the foxes with his can, while Laird was of less help “with his little cream and green gardening can, filled too full and knocking against his legs and slopping water on his canvas shoes”. (Munroe 155). Having access to the male’s tools and job, made her think that she acquired the male’s identity. Besides the little brother, the girl feels superior to her mother because she “dared” to think and ask that she could have her help more in the house. This moment turned her mother into an enemy and made the narrator feel more knowledgeable about male’s job and, ultimately, equal to the …show more content…
Feeling that they both share the same fate, the girl rediscovers herself in Flora’s behavior. ‘‘It was exciting to see her running, whinnying, going up on her hind legs, prancing and threatening like a horse in a Western movie, an unbroken ranch horse, though she was just an old driver, an old sorrel mare.’’ Flora brings to life the narrator’s fantasies and since the horse is powerful and strong she manages to run away from the father and the girl, who is the closest one to the gate- instead of closing, opens it even wider.The girl
Her relationship with the brother, before the climax, is equal as long as they were not labeled as “boy” and “girl”. They share the same room, sing same songs before falling asleep and they even share the same fear of the inside of the room where they slept. She feels herself superior and much more helpful for her father, because she was the one who was wheeling the tank and giving water to the foxes with his can, while Laird was of less help “with his little cream and green gardening can, filled too full and knocking against his legs and slopping water on his canvas shoes”. (Munroe 155). Having access to the male’s tools and job, made her think that she acquired the male’s identity. Besides the little brother, the girl feels superior to her mother because she “dared” to think and ask that she could have her help more in the house. This moment turned her mother into an enemy and made the narrator feel more knowledgeable about male’s job and, ultimately, equal to the …show more content…
Feeling that they both share the same fate, the girl rediscovers herself in Flora’s behavior. ‘‘It was exciting to see her running, whinnying, going up on her hind legs, prancing and threatening like a horse in a Western movie, an unbroken ranch horse, though she was just an old driver, an old sorrel mare.’’ Flora brings to life the narrator’s fantasies and since the horse is powerful and strong she manages to run away from the father and the girl, who is the closest one to the gate- instead of closing, opens it even wider.The girl