Boys and Girls IOC

Audio: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0TC7fzwNVJi

Hard copy (to follow along in-case my voice is not clear at times):

The following passage is an extract from the short story Boys and Girls by Alice Munro which was published in 1968. Generally, Munro’s work is mostly Women’s Literature with the narrator/protagonist being a female who talks about Gender roles in society, more specifically women’s roles. Alice Munro enforces this topic with the implementation of themes such as coming of age theme and the struggles that women face due to how society perceives women’s roles and the consequences of not going through with these assigned roles. Boys and Girls is no exception, the narrator/protagonist in this story is a pre-pubescent girl who faced problems coming to term with the role in life that she was expected to lead, The narrator wanted to work outside with her father in the barn which she deemed more important, than conducting women’s chores and acting like a servant to the males in the house (Laird and Her Father).

The following passage takes place close to the beginning of the short story after Munro provides the readers with information regarding her parents and how they viewed and despised her masculine-like actions.

In summary, the passage conveys the protagonists animosity towards doing feminine jobs around the house especially in the kitchen while, portraying her fondness and appreciation of doing jobs that she deemed important such as helping out her father’s in the barn. The exert also portrays the narrator’s mother’s eagerness for Laird to grow up and help his father do the work the narrator does, so that she would help her mother do jobs and occupy roles deemed appropriate for a lady.

In this passage Munro uses indirect 1^st person narration. Munro does not give the narrator a name, this effect enables the audience to relate the protagonist to whomever they desired. In regards to tone, The narrator demonstrates hate and discomfort towards doing feminine jobs around the house while portraying her mother to be the antagonist or her enemy as stated in line 30, the narrator shows bilateral emotions towards her mother, Firstly, she loves her mother because her mother cares for her and stays up all night creating the dress the protagonist desires as we can see in lines 28 through to 29; however she also views her as her enemy because the narrator feels that her own destiny is pre-determined due to her mother wanting her to remain at home and conduct feminine jobs as shown in line 22 where her mother says: “And then I can use her more in the house.”  Also, the narrator shows some-sort of indirect clash between her and her mother when the narrator attempts to flee the kitchen swiftly after finishing a chore in order to avoid receiving a 2^nd chore by her mother. This event portrays the protagonists respect for her mother as she could simply reject her mother’s proposal to do a second chore; however she feels ashamed of doing so therefore she tries to flee, this is slightly ambiguous as it could also enhance and signify the immense pressure women used to face in society when it comes to doing women’s chores and the consequences of rejecting these chores as a female. Also, the narrator portrays Laird (her male brother) to be free to do whatever he enjoys most as shown in line 20 where she describes him to be swinging himself sick on the swing, and going around in circles.” This effects allows the audience to witness the extreme inequalities of gender roles in society where young males were free to do whatever they pleased while young women were perplexed and forced to do women’s chores even though they hated it as the protagonist did in this passage.

The passage is an exposition as it consists of explanations and inner thoughts by the protagonist with few dialogues describing her mother’s desire for the protagonist to do lady-like jobs and how her mother despises the protagonist due to her admiration of doing masculine jobs.

The essence of this passage as well as the central concept is the oppression of women in Southern Ontario and the Male’s authority out-weighing the female’s authority.

In line 1 of the passage, we are directly introduced to the kitchen. The kitchen acts as a symbol for the protagonist’s prison where the narrator abhors everything about the kitchen from the “depressing work” to the “hot and dark environment during the summer”. The protagonist describes the kitchen to have endless, depressing, and useless work just like a typical prison where the work forced upon the convicts is of no usefulness to the actual convicts while it is of use to the person in charge of running the prison where he/she would have his errands done for them. The narrator also describes her eagerness to leave the kitchen/prison as soon as she’s done with her chores in line 5.

In line 15, Munro implements a simile relating the narrator’s dad to a salesman which shows her dad’s approval of the narrator doing masculine jobs, and the protagonists appreciation of her dad approval towards this specific event. However the narrator portrays contrast between her mom and her dad. Her dad being her ally while her mom being her enemy, this can be justified by her appreciation of her dads actions in line 15 and what the narrator said about her mother in line 30 where she briefly stated that she felt her mom was her enemy although she can be nicer than her dad at times.

In line 17, the narrator’s mother declares that when Laird grows up he would be of greater help to his dad, Munro implements this line to portray how the ideology that Men will grow up to do men’s chores has infected her mother although Laird clearly is not showing any signs of usefulness around the house and that the protagonist is doing most of the chores while Laird never stays with the protagonist to complete any job they previously started.

In Line 24, the mother says: “It’s not like I had a girl in the family at all.” This shows how women will be looked down upon and not be established as females if that certain person does not act womanly, although the protagonist is a female by birth, her own mother justifies her daughter by her actions rather than by her actual birth gender which in this case is female.

Finally in line 40, the protagonist expresses her mother’s lack of understanding of what is going on around the house as well her depreciation towards her daughter’s ability to conduct all these difficult masculine jobs. This in fact shows that at the time, no matter how capable a person is of doing opposite gender related roles they will still be despised and looked down upon by society as a whole.

All in all, Munro’s implementation of a symbolic feature in the protagonist’s life, the portrayal of discomfort and hate by the protagonist towards doing what the protagonist deems to be useless jobs, the narrator’s mothers closed-mindedness, the ideologies regarding gender inequalities enforced upon people in her society as well as her mother, and finally the protagonists desire for change in her current lifestyle to escape her pre-determined fate all assist in suggesting and enhancing the fact that women had little to no authority in doing anything outside the household at the time and the oppression of women in southern Ontario as a complication in Canada.

This Is Water

"This is Water" is an essay written by American Writer David Forster Wallace. The essay covers topics like the difficulty of empathy and the importance of being well-adjusted. The overall chief moral in the story is not to consider factors about life after death, but to consciously be aware and live the life we have before death. The fundamental purpose of this essay is to encourage people to view the world we live in and the people around us with a different non self-centered perspective and take into account other people's issues and hardships.

David develops and enforces his thesis through the implementation of relatable real-life examples and situations that the majority of the working population face nowadays. David also provides a solution to the audience's everyday issues which will ultimately improve and make people's lives less miserable than they are and gives us less of an incentive to "shoot ourselves before the age of 30." David also applies an extended metaphor that runs throughout the entirety of the essay, at the very beginning David introduces a story of three fish and constantly re-assures the audience that he isn't addressing an unimportant issue with no relevance to the audience's real life situations and that they should continue reading to figure out what this essay truly is about. Once we approach the very end of the essay we figure out that the fish are compared to humans and the water around the fish (which the essay was named after) was to resemble life. "This is Water" translates to "this ls life" and this is how life is meant to be we can either learn to cope with it and live cheerful lives or if we refuse we can live miserable lives, it's all up to us to choose how we want to spend the rest of our lives as he states in the essay it's all a matter of choice.

How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence? How does literature help us further understand David's theory? Well, Literature further helps us understand David's theory because, most literary works portray real problems we face everyday and by reading literature we expose ourselves to such problems and ultimately become more mindful and apprehensive to other people's situations which might be worse than we think our situations actually are, therefore we will learn to appreciate the lives we had and know that no matter how hard and irritating our lives are there are always people worse off  that are still fighting and refuse to give up.

Munro Literature Reflection

What is the purpose and benefit of the study of literature?

Literature is defined as: "Written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit. A great Russian poet by the name of Boris Pasternak once said: "Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words, something extraordinary." I believe that literature is not just important to us, it is vital to our survival in this invariably evolving world. My 6th grade teacher once told me: "reading and writing are crucial to your success later on, you will need to be able to do one in order to do the other". It's that simple! Also reading improves our communication skills, we need to communicate clearly through either writing or speaking so we can share our thoughts and ideas with one another. For example if we were approached by an individual who cannot communicate well, naturally we humans don't feel inclined to take that person seriously. Also, studying literature helps us grasp a better understanding of the world around us, since most literature speaks of issues that are still present in our society. Finally, it is very useful to learn about the way people from other nationalities think, this also helps us better relate to them.

What is women's literature and what is the value of studying it? 

Women's literature is defined as: "women-centered books that focus on women's life experiences."It is important to learn about because it allows readers to think critically about gender, sexuality, and criticism. It also helps us better understand culture at particular times and how it gradually develops and changes, and finally provides us with real-life issues that are very common around the world.

Why were themes and values of Munro's social realism so significant during the 1950s - 1980s / Although she does not identify as a feminist writer, how has Munro's work contributed to gender equality?

Munro's themes and values of social realism were significant during the 1950s all the way through to the 1980s was because there were many active movements towards gender equality all over the wolrd and in some of the most predominant countries such as France, The United Kingdom, and The U.S.A. Her work helped further convey social issues women were currently facing and also provoked many readers into supporting such movements.

Scorpions - Wind Of Change IOC

 Wind of Change is a song by German Rock Band "Scorpions" composed in 1990. The lyrics celebrate the end of the cold war and the end of socialism.

Verse 1 reads "I follow the Moskva, down to Gorky Park" The Moskva river could be used as a symbol for the nature, indicating that the end of the socialism is caused by the basic human nature (socialism constricts your freedom to enjoy yourself). The fact that his goal is Gorky Park, an entertainment park, also supports such an interpretation, because people want to have fun. "Listening to the Wind of Change" signifies the failure of the socialism had become visible, everybody could see that it would come to an end sooner or later. The wind he is listening symbolizes the end of socialism.

Verse 2 reads "The world is closing in" The world people knew, one which was separated into the capitalist west and socialist east, was coming to an end; the socialist governments took their last breaths, before finally being gone. "And did you ever think" Only a few years prior, during the prime of the Soviet Union’s Rule, such a dramatic change would not have been believed or expected. "That we could be so close, like brothers" The methaporical border between two different people, but also actual borders such as the Wall of Berlin were destroyed in that time and people could be closer to each other, families that were long separated were finally able to come back together. "The future's in the air, i can feel it everywhere" The problems and the required changes could not be hidden from the public eye by the government anymore. Therefore, the future became obvious to everybody, since many people are now talking about about it openly. "Blowing with the wind of change" The failure of the socialism had become visible, everybody could see that it would come to an end sooner or later. But now, instead of having to listen to the wind of change, the change is actually blown towards him and everybody else, marking the development of the situation as time passed.

The chorus reads, "Take me to the magic of the moment, on a glory night." He who expected the fall of the communist regimes wanted to see this event as soon as possible, considering the fact this night would be a (glorious) part of history. Where the children of tomorrow dream away, in the wind of change" In this moment, the reunion of both German countries, West and East, the life of the next generations would be changed fundamentally, an event he had expected, because of the public view and behavior.

All in all this song has been voted the song of the century, and it is the highest selling song in Germany with an outstanding 6 million records sold. Also this song is remembered as a song of German reunification and a message of hope.