In the story "Boys and Girls" the narrator tells us how she would like to have more excitement in her life. Since her mother did boring work in the house, she did not wan to be like her mother, or a girl like her mother was. The narrator wanted to be like her father who was a boy and was inventive and did exciting work. The narrator continually resists every ones efforts to try and make her into a "girl." All her acts of rebellion fall back on her and they all begin to define her as this "girl." The following essay is a discussion on why she does not want to be a "girl" and how her resistance eventually led her to become this "girl."
             The narrator is portrayed as a rebellious child. She continually acts against what is expected of her. The expectations are that she should act like a young lady not a boy. For example, when she continued to slam the doors and sit awkwardly when her grandmother was around. She only did this because her grandmother kept saying "Girls don't do that" (331). She also shows rebellion when Laird and her snuck into the barn and watched their father shoot the old horse named Mack when they were not supposed to (332).
             The narrator is also in denial of what she really is, which is a girl. She denies the fact of being a girl mainly because the only female figure she sees is her mother and she doesn't have interest in what her mother does. She wants to be like her father because his life is more appealing to her than her mothers. Another reason she doesn't want to become a girl is because she thinks her mother is against her. For instance when the narrator said her mother "had a dead, quiet, regretful way of talking about me that always made me uneasy" (329). This denial of not wanting to be a "girl" is only because she doesn't trust her mother and her father's lifestyle is more appealing.
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