"Never mind," my father said. He spoke with resignation, even good humour the words which absolved and dismissed me for good. "She's only a girl," he said
I didn't protest that, even in my heart. Maybe it was true. (Munro, 12).”
These last lines from Alice Munro’s short story ‘Boys and Girls’ comes across as a bittersweet ending. Throughout the story the narrator, a young girl growing into adolescence tries to get away from the gender identities the people around her try to instill. Growing up in a rural farm in the 1940’s, where gendered roles were the norm as evidenced by the division of work that can be seen in the house and outside, the little girl dreams of breaking free of the role assigned to her. But as the story progresses, there is a gradual change in her. From trying and dreaming about being a ‘hero’ in the traditional sense - a strong, brave man, a protector- she slowly accepts who she is- a girl growing into a woman. Although it might seem that she has grown wary of the fight to change or that she had passively accepted what her parents desire, the narrator actually comes into her own. By not protesting anymore she accepts not what the others want of her but rather grows into what she wants for herself. She no longer has to be or try to be someone else to please her dad. In recognizing her own gender and her place, she makes it her decision and not someone else’s. She is asserting herself passively and does not give in to the tendency to fight and prove herself. In this way she comes across as being superior to her brother and her father. She no longer has to struggle with her identity or her role but is comfortable within herself. Her father's words, ‘she’s only a girl’ might sound dismissive but for the narrator it is a catalyst that brings an end to her inner conflict. She is a girl and doesn't want to change it.
Jennifer Murray in her essay, “Not Entirely on His Side”: The Assumption of Sexed Subjectivity in Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” , talks about how the girl constructs a god-like image of her father. When talking about his foxes and work she says, ‘‘alive, the foxes inhabited a world my father made for them (Munro 2).’’ She not only looks at his world to be more exciting but does everything to be a part of it and tries to please him as much as she can, She takes immense pride when her dad tells the visiting salesman that she is his new help. But changes occur in herself and in the household and when her dad says she is only a girl, there is a metamorphosis. Murray says that this is when “language fails and the body in its symptomatic jouissance, speaks; a place beyond oedipal identifications and from which the truth of a sexed position of being emerges, imposing upon the subject the question of its recognition, acknowledgement and assumption.” She does not speak up, protest or cry but rather acknowledges the fact. She no longer wants to be someone else to please her father. Rather she understands who she is.
Marlene Goldman, in her essay ‘‘Penning in the Bodies: The Construction of Gendered Subjects in Alice Munro’s ‘Boys and Girls’,’’ talks about the existence of a mature adult narrator in the margins of the story. She says that the narrator’s identity has not been fixed by an ideology which confirms her position in the society based on her sex. The existence of the mournful, bitter voice of the adult together with the idealistic world of the child in the story according to her proves that the narrator has not completely accepted her position. Rather she continues to resist as well as criticize the patriarchal system that tries to fit her into the assigned role. Throughout the story, the narrator is told how to behave and act like a girl. First, it is her mother who tries to make her stay in the house and help her with the household chores. The narrator sees her mother as someone who wants to keep her inside. She feels that her mother tries to turn her into an image of herself-the dutiful housewife who works in the kitchen, does all the household chores and does not enter into the domain of the men. Later it is her grandmother who tells the narrator how to walk and sit. Right from the slamming of the door, the narrator is told the behavior which would be appropriate for a girl. When her parents find her brother in the barn, he is not chided but the mother asks her why she did not take care of her brother. The role assigned to her is that of a caretaker while it seems that her brother can do no wrong. The narrator’s actions are determined by her mother and grandmother and the salesman who think what a boy and girl should do and not do. In her father and his easygoing ways, she sees an escape from this rigidness of gender identity. But in the end it is her father who comes out as the betrayer. In calling her only a girl, he names her, tells her with a sense of finality who she is. Although she changes over the course of the story and develops into an adolescent it is these final words from her dad that lets her acknowledge her self. In doing so, she does not passively accept her father’s dominant role but remains quiet. And in her silence she makes a decision for herself. She no longer wants to please him to be accepted as someone. She decides it for herself. When she says, maybe, there is no absoluteness in her decision. The maybe could signify that it is what her father thinks of her and not what she thinks of herself. The maybe could also mean that she would let it go for now but in the future she would determine her role herself. As Goldman suggests, the narrator’s decision does not mean that her father has succeeded in putting her in her place. It is her decision that eventually makes her feel superior to that of either her brother or her father. By staying quiet she asserts that she no longer needs her father’s validation to show her who she is- a girl- but rather it is her own self who needs to know. The final acceptance is not a denouncement of her conflict or her desire to break free of the societal moulding but rather a denouncement of her father and his naming her.
Rena Korb, in her ‘Rite of Passage’ talks about how Munro deals with the issues of femininity and the desire of women to break free. She mentions that the narrator identifies herself briefly with Flora, the horse. The horse is spirited and does not want to accept its fate without putting up a struggle. The narrator sees parallels with the horse. She is free and unbridled for a few hours after which she is finally killed. In the same manner, the narrator is free to so what she wants but finally is put in her place when her father says she’s only a girl. Although she desires to break free, she realizes the futility of her actions. Her father who she had idolized for so long eventually lets her down. She no longer wants to fight him or please him or prove something to him. She accepts it and in her defeat is her victory too. He decision to not question her father in the table comes not out of fear or a mute acceptance but rather from a gradual process where she sees herself grow. She slowly starts thinking about herself as a girl, about her appearance and takes care to form her own space in the room she shares with her brother. By accepting that she is a girl, she only becomes comfortable in her own skin. She no longer has to try to be a boy or do the manly chores to be treated like her brother. She could decide to be herself and be treated the way she wants to. By deciding that she would no longer dispute her assigned gender role, she takes away the power her father, mother or the society wields over her.
She embraces her identity as a girl. Munro’s ending comes as a twist in the story. When the reader would have expected a different ending, perhaps a different reaction from her father, he simply brushes off the narrator’s actions as being something a girl would do. It is this action of her father that makes the narrator denounce him or rather the image she has of him. He no longer has a control of who she is or should be but rather it is her decision.
Works Cited
Munro, Alice. Boys and Girls. giuliotortello.it. n.d. Web. 8 Mar 2016.
Korb, Rena. A Rite of Passage. Short Stories for Students. The Gale Group, 1999.
Goldman, Marlene. Penning in the Bodies: The Construction of Gendered Subjects in Alice Munro’s ‘Boys and Girls’.Studies in Canadian Literature. 15. 1 (1990): 62-75.
Murray, Jennifer. “Not Entirely on His Side”: The Assumption of Sexed Subjectivity in Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls”. E-rea. 15 Dec 2014. Web. 8 Mar 2016.
