Analyzing Characterization in Alice Munro's 'Boys and Girls' Essay

This essay delves into the characterization of the unnamed protagonist in Alice Munro's short story, "Boys and Girls." The essay examines the protagonist's internal conflict and struggle with societal gender norms. It analyzes how the protagonist grapples with her identity, torn between her desire to participate in traditionally male activities on her family's fox farm and the expectations of her family and society. The essay highlights how the protagonist's behavior and preferences contradict the predetermined gender roles, leading to a sense of displacement and a longing for a different life. It explores the theme of coming-of-age, focusing on the protagonist's journey of self-discovery and her eventual acceptance of her femininity. The essay utilizes textual evidence to illustrate the protagonist's experiences, emotions, and the eventual resolution of her internal conflict, concluding with the protagonist's understanding of her true identity.

Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note
24 February 2020
Caught between lost Identity
The essay focuses on how the unnamed protagonist who is also the narrator of the
story entitled, “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro is lost in an internal conflict that takes the
shape of an eternal fight against the preconceived norms and conventions of the society
regarding her gender identity. The essay is indicative of how the unnamed protagonist is
thrown into the pit of struggle of ensuring her gender role predetermined by the society.
Analyzing the character of the unnamed protagonist in Boys and Girls with respect to her
characteristics and her behavior the essay concentrates on how the narrator is caught between
the reality and her ideal identity and finally confirms to the attitude of natural law.
The story peeps into the details of the life of the unnamed protagonist for claiming the
distance between her desire and the reality who narrates the internal conflict that she is going
through everyday when she begins to feel like doing things outside her place rather than
concentrating on the chores at home with her mother. She mentions at the beginning of the
story that “we were afraid of inside” however, at the time of snowfall she was not afraid of
the “outside” (Munro 191). She finds the job of her father to be more comfortable and doable.
She enjoys assisting her father rather than helping her mother with household chores. The fox
farm where she is being raised at has different works to offer her that she really used to enjoy
and never considered them to be men’s works.

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The society that she resided in had a very strong demarcating line between the gender
roles of men and women to identify the gap between her identity and the social construct. It is
society that apparently decides what men and women will do according to their biological
capability. Society imposes certain characteristics and traits on the human beings with respect
to their genders. The unnamed protagonist never desired to behave like a girl rather her
behavior and activities gave an impression that she was almost a boy. She found her home to
be confining and the works that was offered by the farm were more appealing to her. She was
always caught in the prevailing conflict between the imposition of the society and her ideal
desire. The society including her parents wants her to act more like a girl and do household
chores while her heart cries to spend more time with her younger brother and craves for
working in the farm.
The unnamed protagonist was so lost in her own world of fancy and imagination that
she used to tell heroic stories to herself at night for bridging the gap between her reality and
the person she wanted to be. She fought against all the odds to attain something unachievable.
The narratives represent how much she was stuck in the body of a girl even though she was
dying to be a boy with every possible means where in one of her stories she “rescued people
from a bombed building” (Munro 192). She was in fact able to have “rode a fine horse
spiritedly down the main street of Jubilee” in her stories suggesting how much she craved to
go against the norms of the society of gender binary (Munro 192). Her father always wanted
her to grow up like a mature woman who would help her mother in household chores
responsibly. However, this girl went on growing up on her own terms. Being aware of her
father’s favorite book, she always wanted to grow up as generous as Robinson Crusoe and
help her father in giving the fox water twice a day in summer (Munro 193). Hence, she “filled
the drum at the pump” like a boy would have done where she proudly mentions, “I worked
willingly under his eyes and with a feeling of pride” (Munro 194).

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The shadow between the reality and desire is emphasized when the unnamed
protagonist regrets upon the fact that her mother did not come outside usually however the
number of times she appeared outside she was visible with her damp apron on her
symbolizing her involvement in washing dishes and making her home worth living. She
never wanted to be like this. She always thought that there must be a world outside kitchen
where she could explore herself. She comprehended that the farm is the only gateway to
postpone her access to the world of womanhood. Since she was always doing
overwhelmingly great in the farm she thought she would always be counted outside the
stereotyped gender role already existing in the society. However, a great irony befalls on her
to make her prove completely wrong.
The theme also emphasizes upon the moment where the distance between the reality
and her ideal identity is clearly stated. The story finally takes an adverse shape where her
inside betrays her and drags her to meet herself through the self-revelation with sudden strike
of n epiphany in her life. When the story ends it is understood that she has never adorned her
femininity that has been hidden secretly inside her. A horse was brought inside the farm to be
fed by the fox when her femininity surfaced amalgamate with buried emotion as a different
being that she never understood herself to be. She helped the horse to escape confirming to
her gender role of being tender and emotional from her heart. Although she never wanted to
be labeled as a feeble female, yet she could not help her emotions to keep the horse confined
inside the farm. The caring and nurturing female that she always was completely
unfathomable to her that came to the plane of reality because of this incident. She was shut by
hearing that “girls don’t slam doors like this” but she confessed that “I had to become”
because she was suppressing her “she” instinct inside (Munro197).
Therefore, it can be concluded that the essay revolves around how Alice Munro has
skillfully crafted the character of the unnamed protagonist. He did not even bother to give her

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a name because she was so confused with her gender identity that at the end of the story she
could finally understand how she has always thought herself to be a boy while she was a
doting and caring woman all the time inside her heart. The essay concludes with how the
unnamed protagonist found her identity even though she was lost from the beginning
imagining herself to be a boy.

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Works Cited Page
Munro, Alice. Dance Of The Happy Shades. 1964.