CATEGORY ： English 12 Essay: Boys And Girls - Discussion Of The Author's Signature: Alice Munro 2007/04/06 Fri TB ： CM ： 0 △

Question #5 Boys And Girls Discussion Of The Author's Signature: Alice Munro

“... It seemed to me that work in the house was endless, dreary and peculiarly depressing; work done out of doors, and in my father's service, was ritualistically important.” - Narration, pg 102.

    The Story Boys And Girls by Canada's most important author, Alice Munro is about a girl who lives under the pressure of other's expectation for her to act as a girl and help mother in the kitchen with house works that she can not accepted easily since she loves working outside to help her father who works hard as a fox farmer. There are two female characters who show conflicts, issues, and realities which affect them in life; both in family and in society. They presents gender issues, one of the author Alice Munro's signature which often appear on her literature. Her characteristic as a writer of short fiction is to profile the lives of girls and women. The mother presents a general expectation and image for a woman as a mother. It has been a common since an ancient time.

“My mother was too tired and preoccupied to talk to me, she had no heart to tell about the Normal School Graduation Dance; sweat trickled over her face and she was always counting under her breath, pointing at jars, dumping cups of sugar. It seemed to me that work in the house was endless, dreary and peculiarly depressing; work done out of doors, and in my father's service, was ritualistically important.” - Narration, pg 102.

This was said by a girl, protagonist who also act as a narrator of the story. Her mother is isolated in a kitchen and having no time to do anything but working for a family. She works very hard; but her work never ends and never be appreciated by anyone. It is easy to be considered as unimportant jobs since she can not earn money from what she is doing. As a girl said, people usually recognize man's job as an important services. But they do not realize how woman's job can be important. There has been a general concept; woman works inside and man works outside. Specially in a rural place like where the girl lives, it is difficult for woman to break into the man's society as a worker.

“Wait till Laird gets a little bigger, then you'll get a real help.” - Mother, pg 102.

   The mother is saying this to the father at the barn, where the girl feels her mother has no business down there. Following this line, a girl makes comments on her little brother, Laird. He is no help to anybody at this point. At least, that is how she thinks of him. However, this quote gives us the idea of the fact that a pecking order of this little boy is higher than where the girl is addressed. When the boy grown up and become bigger, stronger, and more helpful, he will take his sister's place over. Then no matter whether she likes or not, the girl is no longer needed for outdoor works; and she probably will be forced to work inside only in future, as her mother does at presents time.

   The girl is having difficulty with an assimilation as well. Assimilation is one of universal themes that occur in literature. It identified as being welcome completely into a group, a community, a social situation.

“Girls don't slam doors like that.' 'Girls keep their knees together when they sit down.' And worse still, when I asked some questions, 'That's none of girls' business.' I continued to slam the doors and sit as awkwardly as possible, thinking that by such measures I kept myself free.” - Narration, pg 104.

The narrator is talking about what she hears from her grandmother who comes to stay with her family for a few weeks. Old, general notions of girls are expressed by her. The girl hates what she is told. Not only the actions that her grandmother tells her to do, but she hates the fact and fear of what is going to happen as she follows such expectation for girls. Accepting these expectation helps assimilation to work. Acting as what others like can make the person welcomed and blends him or her in with all others. However, such actions can cause another universal themes called victimization. It is understood to be anything that hurts a character in any way. The girl is constantly being hurt emotionally because of these gender issues and difficulty of assimilation. She understands others expectation for her and knows what she should do in order to be accepted by her family. It can be helped to work by adopting the habits and attitudes of the family in rural place where old-fashioned ideas of gender are still carried on. She is wanting to be welcomed, but not in this way. Conflict within herself appears in through the story Boys And Girls. The reader can be aware of the author Alice Munro's signature, the lives of the girls and gender issues that also presents an effective approach to the universal theme, an assimilation.

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