The short story “Boys and Girls” (1968) by Alice Munro discusses a young girl’s coming of age, and her realization about what it means to be a girl in a society where gender roles preordained and stereotypes are highly prevalent. The author uses the young girl as the narrator who experiences an inner conflict, where she feels divided between what she wants to do in her life and what is expected of her. Munro’s choice of the setting of a rural area, more specifically a farm where sexism and gender based roles play much greater than in urban areas, is very fitting. In the rural agriculture environments, men are highly dominant and do the hard labor outside, while most women tend to be submissive and take the more traditional roles inside the house, such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the kids, etc.
The Girl Narrator, ‘‘She’s only a girl’’
Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” uses the point of view of an eleven-year old girl, conveniently left unnamed in the story. In a story where the author take pains to append fitting names to various characters including the animals, there has to be a good reason for leaving the main character of the story nameless. Perhaps, it is the author’s subtle way pointing to the lack place or a low place society accords a female. The author’s use of the expressions “only a girl” and ‘‘she’s only a girl’’ lend credence to this analysis.
The story takes us through ‘‘she’s only a girl’’ transformation from a tomboy into a mature woman. The setting in which she lives, a fox-breeding farm, most probably intensified her non-conformance to her expected duties and behaviors as a woman. In addition, her views may have been shaped by what she saw firsthand, how tirelessly her mother worked in that confined hot kitchen, without any time to care for or improve her sloppy appearance. The fact that women did not have to worry much about physical appearance in rural areas also may have influenced her behavior as a tomboy. Looking beautiful is not something that women in these places seem very interested or worried about. The girl loved and favored the outdoors, and helping her father with the hard labor chores, instead of doing housework deemed more appropriate for a lady. She rebels and challenges society’s rules for a while, but she comes to the realization that “following the crowd” is inevitable, and ends up complying with her role. However, ‘‘she’s only a girl’’ comes to the capitalization and resignation to accept the society prescribed norms for woman gradually and towards the end of the story, as Laird aptly put "She's crying". The ‘‘she’s only a girl’’ narrator can also be envisioned to fit the author’s descriptions of Flora, the horse, in the story, a living thing exploited when able bodied and put down or set aside as the occasions change.
Male Dominance
It is perplexing and interesting that the father chooses to introduce his daughter to the sales man as a hired man. The description does fit the narrator well given the kind and extent of her help outside. However, the salesman’s characterization the father’s comment as ‘‘could of fooled me,’’ and ‘‘I thought it was only a girl’’ brings us back to society perceptions of women as weak.
The nature of her father’s work, which is killing and skinning foxes, as well as buying and slaughtering horses that are injured but otherwise healthy in order to provide food for the foxes, is very cruel and violent, and the narrator’s awareness of this fact does not hit her until her father decides to kill the family’s horse, Flora. In a way, the girl identifies with the horse, because it is also wild and rebellious, and when the horse jumps over the fence, and her father asks her to close the gate to prevent the horse from escaping, the girl does exactly the opposite. She opens the gate wide open and lets the horse escape that captive life, because unconsciously, she wants Flora to experience freedom and not have its life dictated forever. The incarcerated foxes also symbolize women of that time, because they had their fates sealed by men. Even though women were not incarcerated physically, they had no saying in most things in life, and if they did not follow the rules, they would be shunned by society or subject to other penalties.
Mother and Grandmother Reinforcing the Inevitable
Her mother and grandmother constantly remind her of her place and role as a lady, and often scold her for challenging the rules and being a tomboy. The grandmother says, “Girls keep their knees together when they sit down”, “Girls don’t slam doors like that”, or “That’s none of girls’ business”, whenever she does not behave as expected or would ask too many questions. They represent the society in general, for trying to mold the girl into who they wanted her to be.
The story takes place inside and outside the house. The girl favors the outside because the inside of the house is dark and suffocating “It seemed to me that work in the house is endless, dreary, and peculiarly depressing”. Her mother always wanted her help, but the girl would run away at every chance she got, and go outside to help her father. Then, her mother would say, “Wait till Laird gets a little bigger, then you will have real help”. However, Laird was always playing around, never doing chores; however, he was a male, so it changed everything “What did she mean about Laird? He was no help to anybody. Where was he now? Swinging himself sick on the swing, going around in circles, or trying to catch caterpillars. He never once stayed with me till I was finished”.
The narrator’s mother goes to the extent of sabotaging what the girl likes the most, working outdoors. She confronts the father one evening and demands the girl give up work outdoors so that she can keep the girl inside the house and teach her household female work.
Final Transformation
Her tomboy behavior, however, starts changing towards the end. She begins to care more about her appearance, and starts decorating her room with curtains, as well as singing and thinking about boys:
I still stayed away after Laird was asleep and told myself stories, but even in these stories something different was happening, mysterious alterations took place. A story might start off in the old way, with a spectacular danger, a fire or wild animals, and for a while I might rescue people; then things would change around, and instead, somebody would be rescuing me. It might be a boy from our class at school
The girl has many realizations about the impact of gender. The final transformation seems to have occurred following the realization that her father would not trust her anymore. It was a devastating thought to bear. The very thought brought tears to her eyes.
The meaning of the word “girl” used to be trivial to her, and as she grows up, she starts realizing its importance, and how it shaped her life. Yes, “she’s only a girl”, and she had no choice but to accept it, but she seemed to embrace it and liked this role. Nonetheless, her own father characterizing her, as “she’s only a girl” must have hurt her too deeply and the words must reflect the author’s ultimate verdict on the place society accords women. The author placing the words towards the very end of the story is highly fitting.
