Literary Analysis: Character Analysis of Narrator in 'Boys and Girls'

This essay provides a character analysis of the unnamed narrator in Alice Munro's short story, "Boys and Girls." It focuses on the protagonist's struggle with gender bias and societal expectations in the 20th century. The essay highlights the narrator's rebellious nature, her preference for activities traditionally associated with boys, and her internal conflict with the roles prescribed by her family and society. The analysis examines how the narrator's actions and perspectives reflect the theme of women's struggle for identity and equality, emphasizing the author's use of characterization to critique gender roles and societal limitations. The essay concludes by emphasizing the strength and dominance of the narrator's character, portraying her as a rebellious individual who challenges societal norms. The essay adheres to the guidelines provided in the assignment brief, including the word count and the focus on characterization to illustrate a theme related to coming-of-age.

Running head:CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF THE NARRATOR IN BOYS AND GIRLS
Character Analysis of the Narrator in Boys and Girls
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors note

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CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF THE NARRATOR IN BOYS AND GIRLS
The aim of this paper is to shed light on the character of an eleven-year-old girl and
critically analyse her struggle with societies gender biasness.
The short story named “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro revolves mainly around the
protagonist of the tale, the unnamed narrator. This story is about the narrator’s struggle being a
girl and how her life got affected by the differentiation between the girls and the boys in her
family as well as the society she is living in. The paper focuses to conduct a literary analysis of
the character of the unnamed narrator in this short tale in terms of identifying the struggle of
being a woman in 20th-century society and to examine how the depiction of the character helps in
reflecting the theme of the condition of women and their struggle regarding gender biasness.
With the help of the character of the narrator, the author shed light on her struggle to get
an equal identity in society. It is ironic enough that the name of the main protagonist of the story
is not provided. The character of the unnamed narrator of the tale is of a small girl who is only
eleven years old. The narrator is a mere young girl living in a time when the condition of women
and girls in the society were sadly deprived, and they had to struggle with an apparent lack of
identity, ‘I thought….a girl’, she is dealing with the society's gender biasness and strive to make
a self-identity ‘A girl…..to become’ (Munro 1983).
The narrator’s character holds a distinctive point of view in terms of her own family and
the society’s biasness and rather intransigent and intractable sight towards life. That is why when
her grandmother deprives her of doing several things, for example, girls should not talk loudly
or they must sit adequately, she use to dislikes such deprivations and do precisely the opposite,
which shows the rebellious side of her character. She prefers to help her father in his slaughter
work rather than helping her mother in the kitchen, as she finds household works to be boring,
‘to get……I hated it’. Also, she dislikes her mother's statement that her brother is going to be her

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CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF THE NARRATOR IN BOYS AND GIRLS
father's helping hand once he grows up, ‘With till….real help’, and she will be working only
inside the house, ‘endless….depressing’. She is also mentally strong enough because the vision
butcher activity, blood, skin, and all other frightening sights were regular for her to digest, she
does not feel uncomfortable watching all these, which adds to the brawniness of her character
(Munro 1983).
Having so many substantial and rebellious aspects in the narrator's character, there is
another stubborn she has, and that can be sensed when she let the mare horse Flora flee from the
farm, ‘I did not……..i did,’ even after her father and brother were continually appealing her to
shut the farm gate, which shows that she follows her heart rather than following others orders
(Munro 1983).
Hence, it can be considered the narrator's character has many angles. In the paper it has
been discussed according to some of the segments of the story that offers the stubborn,
protestant, and brawn side of her nature, she is a proper example of a rebellious individual, who
knows how to speak for herself and hate taking other instructions and obeying other orders. The
image of the unnamed narrator that has been offered in the story is strong and dominant, which is
not a common thing considering the period when the story is written.

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CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF THE NARRATOR IN BOYS AND GIRLS
Reference:
Munro, Alice. Boys and girls. Atlantis Films, 1983.