Alice Munro Equality

The sexes in each species of being... are always true equivalents - equals but not identical.” –Anniette Brown Blackwell, who was a strong believer in feminism. Equality drove her integrity into influencing women rights. In Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls” has countless of detail portraying what drives our need to belong. Set in the early 1900’s when women didn’t have the same equality as they do nowadays; the author characterizes a young girl who is places unto society’s unwritten rules about women. The girl had a brother whose name was Laird; the author chose it as a synonym for lord. The brother’s name gives him superiority, which demonstrates how the parents treated the male child with care than the young girl. Its takes us on

Women were to grow up, get married and have kids. They would have to stay home and be horse wives while the men went to work. Society made girls have no ambition if life. The author wanted to change the ways of society because her goal was not typical. She didn’t want to become what society wanted her to become. . “I hated the hot dark kitchen in the summer.” (p. 530). Her drive was generated by the need to belong to working society. Wanting to do what men did, but was forced to not even try. The male was the dominant figure in the house, with the wife being obedient. The mom in the story usually only came out of the house to hang dry cloths, and maintain to her garden. The narrator had issues coming to agreements with the role she was suspected to live out. When she tried she looked out of place, with her bare lumpy legs, which have never seen sunlight, her apron still damp on the stomach from washing the dishes. She wanted to prove she was worthy, but her father wouldn’t let her. He made her proceed with society typical women’s life. In his eyes she was of no help to him “Wait till Laird gets a little bigger, then you’ll have a real help” (p. 530).” She was driven to prove her importance I society. The author didn’t want duplicate her mother life. She had her own goals and values in

She was treated differently due to the fact that she was a girl. Laird was allowed to go out and do activities. When Flora, the family’s horse, gets out and runs away, Laid is invited by his father to go out and try to capture it. The father makes the author stay home with her mom. She reflected on times where she would try to get her brother in trouble, but she would wind up with the parents getting mad at her instead. In the parent’s eyes, Laird couldn’t do any wrong, and cared about him a little more than they did to the author. This is generated by the time society was in. Men were always right, displayed here “My father came, my mother came, my father went up the ladder talking very quietly and brought Laird down under his arm, at which my mother leaned against the ladder and began to cry. They said to me, “Why weren’t you watching him?” (p. 534). The author’s grandmother was a prime example of how women were expected t act. He grew up with even harsher restrictions on girls. She told the author to do what she was tod because she didn’t know any better. “Girls don’t slam doors like that.” “Girls keep