Maturity and Self-Identity in Munro’s Boys and Girls by Alice Munro

719 Words2 Pages

Maturity and Self-Identity in Munro’s Boys and Girls

In Alice Munro’s story "Boys and Girls" the main character/narrator disobeys her father without her father knowing. She does this because she is starting to become her own person. Her maturity and capability to make her own decisions are pointed out distinctively as the story develops. Therefore she continued to do little things against the beliefs of her family, because as she said, "I kept myself free" (1008).

You can tell that she was an outcast from the rest of her family, due to the fact that she did not act like a girl as her grandmother continued to try and point out to her. Her grandmother kept nagging her continually saying, "Girls don’t slam doors like that. Girls keep their knees together when they sit down" (1008). Day by day she kept on getting hassled. It seemed to me as if she was constantly getting picked on by the rest of her family.

There is a keyword in this story, and the word is "girl." That word is brought up all the time in front of her, as though her family thought she did not act enoug...

Show More
Related

  • The Grandmother in Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find

    448 Words  | 1 Pages

    Although this story is told in the third person, the reader’s eyes are strictly controlled by the meddling, ever-involved grandmother. She is never given a name; she is just a generic grandmother; she could belong to anyone. O’Connor portrays her as simply annoying, a thorn in her son’s side. As the little girl June Star rudely puts it, “She has to go everywhere we go. She wouldn’t stay at home to be queen for a day” (117-118). As June Star demonstrates, the family treats the grandmother with great reproach. Even as she is driving them all crazy with her constant comments and old-fashioned attitude, the reader is made to feel sorry for her. It is this constant stream of confliction that keeps the story boiling, and eventually overflows into the shocking conclusion. Of course the grandmother meant no harm, but who can help but to blame her? O’Connor puts her readers into a fit of rage as “the horrible thought” comes to the grandmother, “that the house she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee” (125).

    Read More

  • Postpartum Depression Essay

    521 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pregnancies are often correlated with the assumption that it will bring happiness to the household and ignite feelings of love between the couple. What remains invisible is how the new responsibilities of caring and communicating with the baby affects the mother; and thus, many women experience a temporary clinical depression after giving birth which is called postpartum depression (commonly known as postnatal depression) (Aktaş & Terzioğlu, 2013).

    Read More

  • A Rose for Emily by Charles Faulkner

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    As the story begins you see that her father had perhaps set her up to expect too high of standards, as no suitor had been good enough for her until after her father’s death. The fact that for most of her life the Negro man, who had been her manservant, was the only person she had contact with and he shows the secretive life that she had lived. As literature and common society outlook gives society distaste for loners, it automatically gives people suspicion of them. Rich, gentle old maid or not.

    Read More

  • The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    The theme that has been attached to this story is directly relevant to it as depicted by the anonymous letters which the main character is busy writing secretly based on gossip and distributing them to the different houses. Considering that people have an impression of her being a good woman who is quiet and peaceful, it becomes completely unbecoming that she instead engages in very abnormal behavior. What makes it even more terrible is the fact that she uses gossip as the premise for her to propagate her hate messages not only in a single household but across the many different households in the estate where she stays.

    Read More

  • Postpartum Depression

    1249 Words  | 3 Pages

    Having a child can be the happiest moment of a person’s life. A sweet little baby usually gives new parents tremendous joy. That joy can be accompanied with anxiety about the baby and the responsibility the new parents are faced with. The anxiety, in most cases, fades and joy is what remains. For some new mothers, however, the joy is replaced with a condition known as postpartum depression. “Postpartum depression is a serious disorder that until recently was not discussed in public…Women did not recognize their symptoms as those of depression, nor did they discuss their thoughts and fears regarding their symptoms” (Wolf, 2010). As such, postpartum depression is now recognized as a disorder harmful to both mother and infant, but, with early detection, is highly treatable with the use of psychotherapy, antidepressants, breastfeeding, and other natural remedies, including exercise.

    Read More

  • Thoughts on THE GIFT

    973 Words  | 2 Pages

    This story is about the friendship of too girls from very different families. Carlotta is a darker skinned girl whose family is "new money".  She wants to go to Scared Heart Academy for her high school education.  Scared Heart does not let in girls of her skin tone. The school has been financially struggling and Carlotta's father donates money to the school, which in turn get her accepted in to the school.  Since she is new money she was not "locked up" in her home her whole life. She knows the town and tells her friend Merceditas all about the way things are there.  The other girl, Merceditas come from a very wealthy family who has been this way for gene...

    Read More

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder vs Generalized Anxiety Disorder

    1304 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the PTSD Fact Sheet ”PTSD was once considered a psychological condition of combat veterans who were “shocked” by and unable to face their experiences on the battle field” (Fact Sheet Page 1). Over the years with additional research and discoveries PTSD has now become a much more common diagnosis for many anxiety sufferers. According to the National Center for PTSD “Anyone who has gone through a life-threatening even can develop PTSD. These events can include: combat or military exposure, child sexual or physical abuse, terrorist attacks, sexual or physical assault, serious accidents such as a car wreck, or natural disasters.” (National Center for PTSD). Each individual is different and not everyone who lives through a traumatic event will developed PTSD. Some of the determination factors if an individual will develop PTSD vary based on how intense a trauma was, if the individual lost someone they were close with, how strong the individuals reaction was and how much support the individual received after the event. (National Center for PTSD)

    Read More

  • Causes and Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

    943 Words  | 2 Pages

    PTSD is a debilitating mental illness that occurs when someone is exposed to a traumatic, dangerous, frightening, or a possibly life-threating occurrence. “It is an anxiety disorder that can interfere with your relationships, your work, and your social life.” (Muscari, pp. 3-7) Trauma affects everyone in different ways. Everyone feels wide ranges of emotions after going through or witnessing a traumatic event, fear, sadness and depression, it can cause changes in your everyday life as in your sleep and eating patterns. Some people experience reoccurring thoughts and nightmares about the event.

    Read More

  • Postpartum Depression Essay

    1437 Words  | 3 Pages

    After reading the “Yellow Wallpaper” this year my curiosity was fixed on a common yet highly misunderstood disorder known as Postpartum Depression. Extremely common in the United Stated, postpartum depression is single handedly the most common disorder that many women tend to have in their life and can often lead to suicide. Throughout this paper we will explore the causes, the symptoms, and the recovery of the deadly disorder known as Postpartum depression.

    Read More

  • Postpartum Depression

    2252 Words  | 5 Pages

    Despite the physical changes that a woman is to expect during her pregnancy, a major concern that requires attention is a period of expected feelings of depression that a woman may encounter known as baby blues. Although normal, and expected baby blues can lead into post partum depression that involves a myriad of emotions and mood swings. If not addressed postpartum depression can lead to a more severe form of baby blues known in the clinical world as postpartum non-psychotic depression that requires professional intervention. The therapeutic goal during this time is to prevent the new mother from committing suicide where she poses a danger to both herself and her newborn.

    Read More

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

    1078 Words  | 3 Pages

    Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD as it is more commonly referred to, is defined by the American Psychiatric Association as an anxiety disorder. (American Psychological Association.) It has specific criteria that need to be met in order to be diagnosed. Foremost there needs to be a traumatic event of some kind. Examples of such events are as follows. Being involved in a situation where there was death or near death, sexual assault, or physical harm. There have also been cases were the stressor was second hand. Such as harm that happened to a close family member. People who have PTSD can exhibit a myriad of symptoms. Symptoms include flashbacks, which are a vivid recollection of the event. As well as anxiety resulting from recall of unwanted memories of the event. Many also experience a heightened sense of awareness known as hyperarousal, a state in which the body is prepared to respond to a threat.

    Read More

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

    897 Words  | 2 Pages

    “PTSD was first brought to public attention in relation to war veterans, but it can result from a variety of traumatic incidents, such as mugging, rape, torture, being kidnapped or held captive, child abuse, car accidents, train wrecks, plane crashes, bombings, or natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes.” (NIMH)

    Read More

  • A Pair of Tickets by Amy Tan

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    influence all her life and struggles to accept her true identity. Through the story you can

    Read More

  • Coming of Age in Alice Munro’s "Boys and Girls"

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    The young girl in the story is struggling with finding her own gender identity. She would much rather work alongside her father, who was “tirelessly inventive” (Munro 328), than stay and work with her mother in the kitchen, depicted through, “As soon as I was done I ran out of the house, trying to get out of earshot before my mother thought of what to do next” (329). The girl is torn between what her duties are suppose to be as a woman, and what she would rather be doing, which is work with her father. She sees her father’s work as important and worthwhile, while she sees her mother’s work as tedious and not meaningful. Although she knows her duties as a woman and what her mother expects of her, she would like to break the mould and become more like her father. It is evident that she likes to please her father in the work she does for him when her father says to the feed salesman, “Like to have you meet my new hired man.” I turned away and raked furiously, red in the face with pleasure (328-329). Even though the young girl is fixed on what she wants, she has influences from both genders i...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Ophelia In Hamlet

    1165 Words  | 3 Pages

    brought up to be always following all orders and rules, she can only accept her father 's belief,

    Read More

More about Maturity and Self-Identity in Munro’s Boys and Girls by Alice Munro

Open Document