Boys And Girls Run Away Analysis

Moreover, strong female characters can be found in all of Munro’s works, but Runaway (2004) mixes both gender roles and the need for escape and freedom from small regional towns. Fiona Tolan’s piece on Runaway studies female characters who try to leave but are drawn back into their old ways. Compared to “Boys and Girls”, Runaway is a collection of short stories, it gives a broader view of the women’s lives. To be noted, Tolan focuses on the actual story titled “Runaway” while drawing from the other stories in the collection. She bases her work on the idea of the “female quest”, women trying to leave and go on a quest to better themselves and their inability to actually do so. Tolan explains to whole concept accurately when she states that, …show more content…
As we already saw with the girl in “Boys and Girls” or Clara in “Runaway”, the female protagonist always finds a way to rebel against her condition. Moreover, in “Vandals” (1993), the rebellion comes from Liza, a girl who used to spend her days at her neighbor’s house, or more exactly land. She and her brother Kenny used to go to Ladner’s place and watch him work on his animals, he was a taxidermist. Ladner got in a relationship with a woman named Bea and “Vandals” studies the interactions between Liza, Ladner and Bea. The story is set in a succession of back-and-forth between past memories and present actions. Munro writes it in a way that does not show much compassion for the protagonist, it shows a rather negative view of women. The females in “Vandals” are flawed and far from perfect. They are not role models but they have the ability to rebel, to do whatever they may want. For example, Bea follows her desires quite closely. She does not shy away from the fact that she had many love affairs before and even while she is in a relationship with an educator named Peter Parr she envisions her possible relation with Ladner, “She didn’t want any more of his geniality, his good intentions, his puzzling and striving. All the things that had appealed to her and comforted her about him were now more or less dust and ashes. Now that she had seen him with Ladner” (330). Thus, Bea can be seen as egoistic, she goes after what she wants no matter who might get hurt in the process. On the other hand, Liza is the richer character in terms of rebellious temperament. She was able to go to college because Bea gave her money. Instead of being grateful, Liza brings her boyfriend to Bea and Ladner’s house while they are away and completely trashes it. She breaks jars, bottles, windows, even the stuffed animals. Her reasons in creating such