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.