Alice Munro has a history of writing stories that demonstrate the changing and shifting
of relationships in a world perceived as chaotic and unforgiving. "Boys and Girls" is no
different. This story isn't merely about a girl watching a horse die. This is about a girl
fast approaching her adolescence, and her inability to cope at first.
We never learn her name, but the girl in this story has her major conflict in her role in
the family and how she is supposed to act. The first clue that this is a problem occurs in
paragraph 22, where we learn that the grandmother has certain expectations for "girls".
These include not slamming doors and keeping knees together while sitting. The girl tries
to preserve her "freedom" by slamming doors and sitting awkwardly as often as possible.
This reasoning of girls acting in a certain fashion is emphasized in other places in the
story as well. In paragraph 10, she contrasts her parents and how they relate to her while
they work together. This demonstrates the vast differences in how the adults deal with the
More evidence of this is in paragraph 12, where the girl voices her surprise at seeing
her mother out at the barn. This proves that there are two distinctive roles in the home,
and that they are very different. The message here is that the mother is seldom seen
outside the kitchen. We read about conversations between the mother and daughter, and
More examples of stereotypes in their family is in paragraph 16, where the mother is
discussing the way the girl is always helping the father instead of her. She explains that
every time she turns around, the girl has run off. She made a comment that sometimes it
doesn't even seem like there is a little girl in the family at all. This shows how
uncomfortable the mother is with havin
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