Boys and Girls

849 Words4 Pages
Reaction to "Boys and Girls" The short story, “Boys and Girls” written by Alice Munro was a suitable read. The story was clear and concise, and it demonstrated the unsympathetic approach of child learning about society’s unwritten rules of gender superiority. In the story, the narrator describes her relationship with her father to be considerably important because she helps her father take care of foxes, which is the family’s main source of income while her younger brother plays aimlessly around the house. In addition, the narrator portrays her mother’s work, who is a homemaker, not as equally important has her and her father’s work with the foxes. The story ends with the little brother being seen as more vital for the household than she was even thought of and the realization that maybe she did belong in the house with her mother. (Munro, 2013) Writer Strategies and Theme Alice Munro used alliteration in the beginning of the story. “The smell of blood and animal fat, which the strong primitive odor of the fox itself, penetrated all parts of the house. I found it reassuringly seasonal, like the smell of oranges and pine needles (Munro, p. 2)”. This example shows how the author used words to engross the reader’s senses. Powerful nouns and verbs were used because instead of saying “the picture of the wall,” the narrator describes the pictures as being the Battle of Balaclava. (Munro, 2013) The theme of this short story is sexism and how it first taught in the home and children demonstrate those same ideas once they enter in the world as adults. The reader can associate herself with this theme because she works in a male dominated-industry. When she first was hired with the company, she knew that she had the skills to effectively do the job. She then realized all of the red tape that had to be crossed because she was a woman and how she was looked at the under

More about Boys and Girls

Open Document