Awareness in Boys and Girls by Alice Munro Essay example -- Boys and G

When children are faced with emotional events that challenge their ideas, they take another step on the road to being grown up as they discover their identity. The short story Boys and Girls written by Alice Munro illustrates this coming of age by allowing us to follow the development of a immature girl. We follow the main character, who narrates the story, as she changes from beginning to end. As the story opens, the narrator acts like a care still child, not paying heed to her gender. She then begins to react strongly to the way she is treated by her family and their expectations of her new-made womanhood. Once she realizes that some changes are inevitable she begins to encounter a new understanding of who she is which is evidence of a more mature way of thinking. This story demonstrates that difficult childhood experiences regarding gender contribute to a exploitation maturity and are frequently met with varying degrees of resistance. In the early parts of the sto ry, the narrator behaves in a way that would be expected of a young child. She, along with her younger brother, finds Henry Bailey (the familys hired hand) to be quite amusing in his antics. She states that we admired Henry for his performance and for his ability to make his stomach rumble at will, and for his laughter, which was full of high whistling and gurgling and involved the whole faulty machinery of his chest(101). Being afraid of the dark is another experience that she and her brother share, and they make up rules that When the light was on, they were safe as long as they did not step off the square of worn carpet which defined their bedroom-space (101). Children that are of a young age will often make up stories that reflect their s... ... let Flora run free, he speaks with resignation, even good humour, the words which absolved and disregard her for good. Shes only a girl (114) to which she states I didnt protest that, even in my heart. Maybe it was true (114). It is not an easy task for a child to understand the obligations that accompany their assigned gender, yet while they encounter difficulties processing these thoughts they are also achieving a greater sense of identity. Different stages of look consist of social rules that encode how one is to behave, however, it is not clearly defined when the transition should occur from young girl to young woman. It is not surprising that nurture about gender roles and their associated responsibilities is not an easy part of a young childs maturation and is often the result of a very emotionally charged collection of experiences.