The short story ‘Boys and Girls’ was written by Alice Munro and was first published in 1968. The story is set in the mid-20th century in Canada between a time of war and the industrial revolution, giving birth to the use of machines. The protagonist in Alice Munro’s story is a young girl growing in the transition from childhood to teenage. The main character enjoys the freedom of growing up as a child without defined gender roles or distinction assigned to neither her nor her brother. As a young teenager, however, she is confronted by the burden of gender roles and distinction set in the society: to which she rebels but finally succumbs. The gender roles are presented as fixed in the story despite the main character’s rebellion. The author explores the predicament faced by the main character in the story marked by gender roles and distinctions assigned in her society.
The antagonist in the story is ‘the society at large’: the prevailing force that the main character is trying to overcome. In this story, the girl, the main character, the protagonist is portrayed as a free spirit. She finds the smell of animal carcass ‘reassuringly seasonal, like the smell of oranges and pine needles’. She is a hardworking girl as seen when her father refers to her as a ‘my new hired hand’. As she grows up, her mother is concerned with her alignment to her father and his chores. She is, however, hopeful that her brother will take over and expresses her concern that her assistance as inadequate: ‘Wait till Laird gets a little bigger, then you'll have a real help’. The phrase ‘real help’ expresses her criticism of her ability to help his father in any significant way. Her grandmother’s comment about the way she carries herself - "Girls don't slam doors like that" - and behaves - "Girls keep their knees together when they sit down," is a further insight into what members of her society believe is the proper way for a girl to behave. It also expressed the societal expectations of the female gender. Also, Henry’s comment when Laird pins her down in a fight resonated with the ideology of the female gender as expressed by the main character’s mother and grandmother: ‘Laird’s gonna show you, one of these days!’ His statement insinuates that Laird will eventually grow stronger than her – in fact, she is surprised by it: ‘had to use all my strength against him’. Despite all of these incidents, she is quite rebellious of the changes around her imposed by the gender defined society: ‘I continued to slam the doors and sit as awkwardly as possible, thinking that by such measures I kept myself free’.
The main character views of chores are aligned with male domestic chores in the society. Chores that involve hard labor and violence meted on animals for the sake of making a living and bringing food to the table. The father is defined by such parameters: and so is Mack, the horse and the brother later in the story. The father is ‘a fox farmer’. In the second paragraph of the story, the author provides us with a descriptive imagery of the process of ‘[removing] the pelt inside-out from the body of the fox.’ The mother ‘[dislikes] the whole pelting operation’. The main character uses figurative speech to express her love for the process as ‘reassuringly seasonal’ and uses a metaphor to describe the ‘strong primitive odor of the fox itself’ like ‘oranges and pine needles’. In contrast, however, she begins to change and is terrified by events she believed ‘normal’: For instance, when Mack is shot dead and Henry burst out laughing at the poor animal, she cannot help but feel ‘terrified.' When Flora is ‘galloping straight toward [her]’ and is about to be captured by her father and Henry, she opts ‘[open the gate] as wide as [she] could’ and she is surprised by her own reaction: ‘I did not make any decision to do this, it was just what I did’. These changes in her are also seen in the allegories.
The main character goes through changes as a hero – ‘acknowledging the townspeople’s gratitude’ - in her own allegoric stories, to the damsel in distress in need of rescuing: ‘somebody would be rescuing me a boy from our class at school or Mr. Campbell, our teacher’. In this allegory, the author explores the fantasies of the protagonist as a child. She imagined herself on tales that ‘presented opportunities for courage, boldness, and self-sacrifice.' In contrast, however, in the second allegory, she is only excited by how she pretty she looks in her stories: ‘how long my hair was, and what kind of dress I had on’. The horses have also been used to present the allegory of the main character and Laird, his brother. Mack is ‘an old black workhorse, sooty and indifferent’. Similarly, Laird is described as ‘remote’ with an expression that is neither ‘frightened of upset’. Mack is also a name that depicts male gender while Flora resonates with nature: which is ideally regarded as feminine. Flora is wild and rebellious as the main character.
The element of foreshadowing has also been well implemented in the story by the author. The main character is rebellious of her fate tied in gender role and distinction. Likewise, Flora is rebellious of her fate to be shot and killed for her meat. In spite of her rebellion and help from the main character to escape, her fate is sealed and she, Flora, becomes meat. This element foreshadows of the main character’s identity predicament. Despite her rebellion to enjoy the freedom living in the society without subscribing to the gender roles and distinctions, her fate is sealed nonetheless. She cannot escape and in the resolution of the book, she submits to it: ‘I didn’t protest that, even in my heart. Maybe it was true.’
The construction of gender roles and distinctions has been presented by the author as an inevitable aspect that develops over time. Thus, it takes time before it is completely defined. Take for instance the naming of animals in the story. The two horses are assigned names based on their gender: Mack for a male horse and Flora for the female horse. The children – the main character and her brother – name animals with an affiliation to the same sex. The main character names the female foxes ‘Star or Turk, or Maureen or Diana’: names that depict feminine characteristics. On the other hand, the father names the male foxes Prince, Bob, Wally, and Betty. Most of those names are male: three out of four. Therefore, even though she believed she was free to do as she pleased, she was already inclined toward a change experienced from within. Sex and gender have also been presented as intertwined. The main character is a girl. Going by her naming of the foxes, she already identifies with her sex. However, she is yet to identify with her gender: which she eventually submits to at the end of the story.
In conclusion, therefore, the author presented a case of the gender roles and distinctions as defined by society and the human biology. In the story, the protagonist is made aware of the need to assimilate the norms of the female gender as prescribed by the society. She, therefore, needs to be gentle – stop slamming doors – and concerned with her image, behavior, and domestic chores: sit properly. She is rebellious of these pieces of advice. However, she begins to notice alterations in her own thought processes and perception. In fact, she is surprised by some of the decisions she makes that are not mentally issued but emotionally issued. At the end of the story, she submits to her fate. The author has therefore succeeded in presenting her ideas in text within the context of gender roles and distinctions.
Works Cited
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