English 1205 Quiz 3: Analysis of 'Boys and Girls' and 'The Boat'

This assignment analyzes two short stories, "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro and "The Boat" by Alistair MacLeod, focusing on the themes of gender roles and sacrifice. In "Boys and Girls," the narrator grapples with societal expectations and her evolving understanding of her identity as a girl, ultimately accepting her assigned role. The analysis examines how the narrator arrives at the conclusion expressed in the final line, "Maybe it was true." The assignment also explores the theme of sacrifice in "The Boat," particularly through the son's commitment to his family and the potential sacrifices made by his father. It references specific textual evidence to support the argument that sacrifice is the central theme of the story. The analysis considers the characters' internal conflicts, societal pressures, and the impact of their choices, providing a comprehensive understanding of the stories' central themes and the authors' narrative techniques.

The last line of "Boys and Girls" is "Maybe it was true." Explain how the narrator arrived at
this decision and discuss what this line means in the context of the overall theme.
"Boys and Girls" establishes a seemingly everlasting gap that separates men and women.
Through the conflicts that the narrator has with her family, internally, and with Flora, she slowly
begins to accept and understand her value and role in society as a "girl." Initially, the girl is naive
and is unable to distinguish the distinct boundary that isolates boys and girls into their
classification. Instead, she finds herself, unknowingly, resisting the clashes with her gender role.
This results in an even greater hidden dispute between her and her mother. Despite the interests
of the narrator, the mother is unyielding, encouraging her daughter to quit her unacceptable
"male" pursuits for her to start working in the kitchen: "then I can use her more in the house...I
just get my back turned, and she runs off." (Munro, Atlantis Films, Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation, & Beacon Films, 1983). Only later does Munro reveal that when the girl views
herself as a gendered person, she no longer associates herself with heroic qualities that will
eventually lead to a more significant societal effect. The stories she tells at night changes slowly;
although they begin the same, the narrator finds herself being the maiden in need of rescue. Even
her thoughts and opinions similarly take on the same femininity: old lace curtain as a bedspread
and a dressing table with a skirt. This occurs when she purposefully opens the gate to let Flora
free. "Instead of shutting the gates," she says, "I opened it as wide as I could. I did not make any
decisions to do this, it was just what I did." (Munro et al., 1983)
At this very moment, the narrator realizes that she can never be a boy and work with her
father forever on the farm. She accepts her fate as a "girl" and understands that her female
instincts will never match the ones of a male. Later, when Laird tells the father what the narrator
has done, the only thing the father says is, "Never mind... She's only a girl." While her father

dismisses her actions somewhat humorously; as a result, the narrator is condemned to live like a
lady. By the end of the story, the brother and sister both accept their distinct roles in society: the
boy will become a man and work; the girl, on the other hand, will become a woman forever
burdened by femininity.
Sacrifice as the main theme of "The Boat."
It is possible that the father killed himself so that the son's promise to "fish with him for
as long as he lived" wouldn't hold any more; perhaps the father sacrificed his life so that the son
could go to university rather than stay with him.
The son feels that he has to stay with his family and fish because he's the last child in
their family, the only boy, and all his older siblings have left. He leaves university to be with his
father in his fishing expeditions. He has to be there for his family and feels obligated to do so. "I
am not telling you to do anything,' he said softly, 'only asking you." The father says this to the
son about his going back to school; this almost makes the decision even harder for the son now
that his father had specified that he was asking, not telling. Now the son doesn't have an
obligation but does feel that he has an obligation to make his father happy.
The father uses his room to live for a brief time the life he wished he would have had,
that he sacrificed to provide for his family through the tradition of fishing (MacLeod, 1968). The
father would have hoped for a better and different life but instead opted for a simple life of
fishing (although he did not like it) to fed for his family. The father kept his other clothing—that
which wasn't worn for fishing—separate, describing it as uncomfortable, but he doesn't keep his
work clothes nicely either. This symbolizes how he doesn't love either part of his life and is torn
between what he wants and what he's "obligated" to do.
Many parents are you sure I caught up with the diamond of whether to separate or

divorce their partners after their marriages end up being unhappy conflict-ridden or abusive.
However, some parents choose to remain in their marriages for the sake of their children. In the
reading, the excerpt "She had stopped sleeping in it after I was born" (MacLeod, 1968) while
referring to his father's bed insinuates that his mother and father no longer have the desire to be
together. Still, perhaps they sacrificed their marriage to make their life work for their children.
Many issues are negative that have been documented in the past face children whose parents and
that pretty such as fear distress anxiety, academic problems, and disruptive behaviors, among
others. On the contrary, The Boat shows how the parents have sacrificed for the family in
question.

References
MacLeod, A. (1968). The Boat. The Massachusetts Review, 9(2), 247–266. Retrieved from
JSTOR.
Munro, A., Atlantis Films, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, & Beacon Films. (1983). Boys
and Girls. Retrieved from http://archive.org/details/boysandgirls_201705