Hardships in Boys and Girls by Alice Munro :: Boys and Girls Alice Munro

In her story, Boys and Girls, Alice Munro depicts the hardships and successes of the rite of passage into adulthood by dint of her portrayal of a young cashier and her brother. Through the narrator, the subject of the profound unfairness of sex- case stereotyping, and the effect this has on the rites of passage into adulthood is presented. The protagonist in Munros story, obscure by a name, goes through an extreme and radical initiation into adulthood, similar to that of her younger brother. Munro proposes that gender stereotyping, relationships, and a loss of innocence put to work an extreme, and often-controversial role in the growing and passing into adulthood for many young children. Initiation, or the rite of passage into adulthood, is, according to the theme of Munros story, both a mandatory and necessary experience. Alice Munros creation of an unnamed and therefore undignified, female protagonist proposes that the narrator is without identity or the prospect of power. Unlike the narrator, the young brother Laird is named a name that means "lord" and implies that he, by virtue of his gender alone, is invested with identity and is to become a master. This stereotyping in names alone seems to suggest that gender does play an grand role in the initiation of young children into adults. Growing up, the narrator loves to help her father outside with the foxes, rather than to aid her mother with "dreary and peculiarly depressing" work through with(p) in the kitchen (425). In this escape from her predestined duties, the narrator looks upon her mothers assigned tasks to be "endless," while she views the work of her father as "ritualistically important" (425). This view illustrates her happy childhood, filled with dreams and fantasy. Her contrast between the work of her father and the chores of her mother, illustrate an arising struggle between what the narrator is expected to do and what she wants to do. Work done by h er father is viewed as being real, while that done by her mother was considered boring. Conflicting views of what was fun and what was expected lead the narrator to her initiation into adulthood. Unrealistically, the narrator believes that she would be of use to her father more and more as she got older. However, as she grows older, the difference between boys and girls becomes more clear and conflicting to her.