Boys and Girls Essay

pursuit for Identity in Boys and Girls In Alice Munros Boys and Girls, she tells us a story about a young daughters ri twaddle to the womanhood prescribed by a golf-club which has class views toward both(prenominal) sexes roles and individualism operator in society. The story takes place in the 1940s when women shake off non gained so much equal rights as today, and they are ease perceived as attached to males. The story is set is a hoax family of Jubilee, Ontario, Canada, a rural area and the point of view of this story is beginning person I.The teller is the female protagonist whose name has never appeared in the story directly, which symbolizes her lack of identicalness in a olden society compared with boy children. There is a character whose name is tending(p) to us, the narrators br other(a) with the name of Laird, meaning Lord in the Scottish language. The choice of name can truthfully reflect womens role and societal position at that succession as closely as mens priorities in a way.Although women had no identity or social position at time, they are honorable the angel in the house as what they are expected to do, the narrator has never accepted this position and this unfairness easily and satisfactorily. She rebelled against those expectancys the society had put on women. She assay hard to hunt club for her identity in the society, to be to a greater extent that unspoiled a girl. The search of identity is the major al-Qaida of Zhang 2 this little story, and such search can be high hat reflected on the narrator but in addition on her little sidekick.Here, the fountain of this thesis will try to analyze the respective process of their search, and the results for search of identity will not be the same because of the difference in gender roles. The narrators search for identity can get around be represented in the following scenes. Firstly, her nightly stories. Her trust and breathing in for acting like a hero to protect others in these false stories are the reflection of her burning desire to be not just a girl and her wish for freedom that was just recognizable hers. earlier bedtime, she loved to sing the song Danny Boy, differently from her brother who would sing Jingle Bell whether it isChristmas or not. I arranged myself tightly chthonic the covers and went on with one of the stories that I was telling myself, when I had gr aver a little older they took place in a world that was recognizably mine, yet one that presented opportunities for courage, boldness and self-sacrifice, as mine never did (Munro, 115). The anatomy she fabricated in these stories represented her ideal self, a girl, powerful independent, not just a girl, the complete opposite of the stereotyped girl, which her family wanted her to become and society expect her to become.It represents her desire to transcend the stereotyped role prescribed to women. In the second place, her ungirly behavior can also represent her rebelliou s search for identity. This obvious resentment for societys womanly duties symbolizes the narrators desire to be much than just a girl. For example, even after her grandmother criticized her with commands like, Girls keep their knees together when they sit down (Munro, 121). And Girls dont slam doors like that (Munro, 121), She continue to slam doors and sit awkwardly because she felt that it kept her free.In other words, she has not been prepared to accept and claim her gender identity. However, gradually, she began to take the identity of a girl. She began to decorate her room, her bed, pay more attention to her appearances when she communicates with her peers. In fact, after a long process of rebellious search for identity, she finally began to wee-wee her identity as a girl, but a girl who is more than just a girl, a girl that finally achieves or so freedom in her construction of identity. Thirdly, her desire to be alfresco of the house.She is lacerate between the outside where her father introduces her to and the warm inside where her mother well-tried protecting her from the brutal outside. In that time, girls were expected to be a avail mate to mothers, doing housework, cooking and cleaning and so on. However, she totally rebels against this household identity of women. She will escape from the house before her mother yelled her to do housework, and enjoys working beside his father. I worked willing fully under his eyes, and with a felling of reserve ( Munro, 120).Her father erst introduced her to others as new hired hand. In this sense, her insubordination does make most difference in her life and she get many recognition in being not just a girl. Fourthly, the narrators association with and her identification with works also symbolizes her own thrust for freedom in metaphorical sense. The family would sometimes kill well-informed plys that no longer had any use because the father fed his Zhang 4 foxes with horsemeat, and Flora was one of these horses, a beautiful female horse, violent and rebellious.In an accident, Flora broke away and ran wildly in the barnyard. When her father tried to catch it and shout to her to close the door, she got there just in time to close it, but instead she held it open for Flora. It was exciting to see her running, whinny-ing, red up on her hind legs, prancing and threatening like a horse in a Western movie (Munro, 126). The act of her opening the ingress and setting Flora free is a rebellious act against the berth of her father and her pursuit for freedom in metaphorical sense.In the story, Boys and Girls, the narrator is not the only one who has come to terms with identity finished search. Her little brother Laird also went through a process of peeping for identity. Laird began in the story like a girl who is very timid, very obedient, just like his mother. In the beginning, he enjoyed more of the house than the outside world. He sings Jingle Bell before bed. However, gradua lly, he also developed her identity as a boy, perhaps under the aid of his elder sister whose desire for excitement drove her to do something fascinating and thrilling.She once made Laird climb the ladder to the top beam, persuaded him to look how the old flutter a horse. In the end of the story, there is a scene in which Liard commented his sisters singing as you sound silly and other scene in which he told his sister that we shot old Flora. All these demonstrate that she has found the identity a boy should produce in a society. In the end, he has developed a desire to do the masculine things around the house, as expected to be make by boys.Zhang 5 From the above analysis of the narrators and her brothers search for identity in a society which tend to stereotyped the role of men and women, it is found that pure rebellion against the expectation does not make a girl more that just a girl, people should also try to come term with the society in a certain degree, because the con struction of identity is a social integration, a social process. However, it does not mean to say that the narrators search did not have meaning. Actually it did help her to get some freedom and some peace in the heart.