Compare and Contrast "Boys and Girls"

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Compare and Contrast Essay In many ways, the female protagonist from Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” and David from Ernest Buckler’s “The First Born Son”, are similar. Both characters are struggling to overcome boundaries placed on them by, in David’s situation, his father. And in the female narrator’s situation, her family as well as society. They both do however, differ greatly as well. David is the son of Martin, who is a farmer and had been all his life. Martin had never had a problem “plowing the land for long hours.” David however, is nothing like his father. Where he is expected to carry on working their family farmland, he’d rather live in the city, David longs for the excitement that “seemed to stir in the busy pavements.” In contrast, the female narrator in “Boys and Girls” enjoys the work her father gives her, she waters the foxes proudly and cherishes the time she is allowed to spend working with her father, instead of staying in the house working with her mother as expected. She does not want to grow into her respective gender, she’d love to work as her father does for as long as possible and be treated equally. The difference between the genders of the two is obvious, but the roles they play in both stories are huge. The female narrator in “Boys and Girls” is criticised for the way she’d rather stay outside and fetch water the foxes, or secretly watch the horses get shot. She is expected to work in the house canning fruits, cleaning and cooking with her mother, though this does not appeal to her at all. She is not treated as an equal as “she’s only a girl”, she is viewed as a disposable next to her brother, Laird, who would eventually become her replacement. The already fragile relationship she shares with her father is solely based around the interest she shows in his line of work, losing the work means losing what little relationship they

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