Boys and Girls - Alice Munro - 191 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

Boys and Girls by Alice Munro

Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls was published initially as an individual story in a magazine in 1964 and was later included in Munro’s 1968 collection, Dance of the Happy Shades.



Image - Alice Munro. Dance of the Happy Shades. And Other Stories. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, [1973]. First edition. Signed by the author on the title page.


In 'Boys and Girls', the narrator is a girl child growing and coming to terms with being an adult woman. She is shown to struggle with her identity in a very male dominated world of fox farming, agricultural environment and finding a place in a world dominated by men.


The protagonist prefers to work outdoors with her father, but tradition and expectations of the time and era force her to adopt social habits of women being indoors or kitchen bound and grow into a woman like her mother. This sharp patriarchal view of women is the highlight of the story.


But the narrator's desires and personality is the lovely essence of this story which was ahead of its time and hence makes us think about these empty and backward norms. She is an outdoorsy, free and independent woman or she dreams of becoming one. The girl is confronted with the expectations and boundaries that have been placed on her throughout the story. She tries to fight them, and Flora, a horse, provides her with some encouragement and inspiration.


Themes


Inequality between the sexes

The narrator’s brother Laird is portrayed here as one who is pampered and the preferred child. But just within themselves, we see Laird as dependent on his sister when he was afraid of the dark. She would narrate stories or sing to him. Out of the imagination of her adventurous mind, she would conjure up versions of herself where she was a hero, saving others, riding or shooting.

Inspite of her active mind and personality, the family fails to recognise that and the favouritism towards Laird and draconian expectations from her is shown here.


Patriarchal society

The response of the family towards the girl, the attitudes of the farming and agriculture community towards home management and expectations to a growing girl child in the story all point at the deep rooted patriarchal attitude prevalent at the time.


Nature used as a symbol as well as a character

The story is set in a farm in the 1940’s and the primary occupation shown here is fox farming. The narrator loves the work at the farm. In contrast, she hated the hot dark kitchen and saw the work as endless, depressing and drab as compared to the work with the foxes. Nature set her free and also is a symbol here for freedom from one’s own perceptions of society and roles of a male and female in a household.