Boys and Girls Questions and Answers
Boys and Girls
When writing an essay, do you have to italicize the name of the author as well as the book title?
The author or authors' name or names are never italicized. Adhering to the rules of capitalization, authors' names are written in the normal way. There are several academic writing styles--and one,...
Boys and Girls
What are the main characters in the story "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro?
Boys and Girls is a story about growing up on farm, but it is also a story about gender, and how the way ideas about gender can determine identity.The story is told from the point of view of the...
Boys and Girls
Where and when does the story "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro take place?
"Boys and Girls" is a short story by Nobel-Prize-winning author Alice Munro. The setting of the story is a fox farm in the countryside. The narrator's father raises silver foxes in pens on the farm...
Boys and Girls
How does the narrator in Boys and Girls change over time?
The narrator of "Boys and Girls" experiences quite a profound change over the course of the story. Initially, she's something of a tomboy, preferring to spend time with her brother and her father...
Boys and Girls
How is the essay topic "the significance of an individual's attempt to live unconstrained by convention or...
All the texts treat the theme of individualism or living "free from convention" problematically. One way to approach writing the essay is to pick a text, and move from the particulars of the text...
Boys and Girls
What is the theme of "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro?
One of the themes of the story is that even though you want something badly, it might not turn out to be as good as you thought. Most children have to struggle with gender identity a bit as they...
Boys and Girls
How is irony used in "Boys and Girls"?
The biggest irony in the story is the fact that the eleven-year-old girl narrator eventually becomes what she'd always despised. Previously, she'd always been a bit of a tomboy, gladly helping her...
Boys and Girls
What is the conflict in ‘‘Boys and Girls’’?
The conflict in the story is character-versus-society. In Boys and Girls, the unnamed narrator is a girl who lives on a fox farm. Her father is a fox farmer, while her mother is a homemaker. The...
Boys and Girls
I need a good thesis statement for a literature review on "Boys and Girls" by Munro. Is this a good thesis statement?...
A strong thesis statement is a critical part to writing a cohesive essay! There are three essential components to a thesis statement: 1. The subject (informs the reader who or what the essay will...
Boys and Girls
What are 6 symbols and images in the short story "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro?
In "Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro, there are two sets of contrasting themes: life and death and masculine and feminine—or boys and girls. The author goes into detail discussing the foxes that the...
Boys and Girls
What does the narrator mean when she talks about the meaning of the word "girl" in "Boys and Girls"? "The word girl...
The narrator now feels a negative connotation to the word “girl” as she develops a better understanding of gender roles. Part of growing up is determining your place in the world. Gender roles are...
Boys and Girls
Near the end of "Boys and Girls," the narrator chooses to open the gate to let Flora escape. What are the...
I think as much as the similarities between her and Flora, the possibility that Flora represents for the narrator also make her let the mare escape in Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls”...
Boys and Girls
How did the narrator change when Mack died in "Boys and Girls"?
The narrator of Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls" identifies with her father and wants to help him in every way possible. She enjoys working on his fox farm, where he has two horses, Mack and Flora....
Boys and Girls
What perspective does she (narrator) have on the event in the story "Boys and Girls?"
At the climax of “Boys and Girls,” the unnamed narrator acts out of a place of both rebellion and resignation. The story takes place as she’s coming to understand the gender roles to which she is...
Boys and Girls
Why does the narrator assist Flora in her escape?
During the course of the story, the narrator gains more awareness of her identity and situation, in part through her own perception and in part through reaction to her parents' and brother's...
Boys and Girls
What is symbolism in Boys and Girls?
The workings of the farm where the little girl lives and on which her family works could be said to symbolize the rigidity of gender roles. This is a place where everyone has a specific function:...
Boys and Girls
In the short story "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro, why is it significant that the girl or narrator is not named in...
It could be said that the narrator is unnamed because the author wants to make general points about the nature of gender roles and relations between the sexes. In other words, the experiences of...
Boys and Girls
To what extent may we say that the narrator and Flora were similar?
The narrator and the horse named Flora share a few traits but are more different than they are similar. Both are female, and both seem high-spirited. The narrator is young during the period of the...
Boys and Girls
How does the story “Boys and Girls” show men’s work as distinct from women’s work?
Throughout “Boys and Girls,” a strong gender division of labor and comportment is revealed as the protagonist grows up and is expected to confine herself to appropriate gender patterns. On the...
Boys and Girls
What is the publication information for "Boys and Girls"?
"Boys and Girls" is a short story by Canadian author Alice Munro that first appeared in Dance of the Happy Shades, a collection of fifteen short stories by Munro published in 1968 by Ryerson Press.
Boys and Girls
How does the setting have an impact on the interaction of the characters in the story "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro?
“Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro is set on a fox farm in the early twentieth century, where a young girl lives with her parents and younger brother Laird. On a traditional farmstead, the roles for...
Boys and Girls
In Boys and Girls, what is the girl feeling about each of her parents? What is motivating those feelings and how...
Ultimately, the narrator learns that neither of her parents (or even her brother, Laird) are to be trusted. She takes sides with her father and takes pride in her work on the farm doing chores, but...
Boys and Girls
What is a thematic topic in "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro?
Although gender roles are an integral theme in Munro’s “Boys and Girls,” the subplot involving the two horses, Mack and Flora, intimates at other subtle yet essential thematic components of the...
Boys and Girls
Identify and explain the epiphany in "Boys and Girls."
The narrator's epiphany—the sudden awareness or feeling of knowledge of something new—arrives at the end of the story, when she realizes that she cannot "protest" her father's statement that "She's...
Boys and Girls
I need thesis points for “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro.
A good way to begin developing a thesis is to try to remember the parts of the story that made an impression on you and then think about why that was the case. In a broad way, the title of the...
Boys and Girls
In Alice Munro's story, "Boys and Girls," what is learned from the first paragraph that clearly indicates the...
In Munro's story, "Boys and Girls," the first paragraph focuses on the father's work as a fox farmer. The father skins and sells the pelts. They are given calendars of heroes and adventurers to...
Boys and Girls
How do the horses fit in the story? How and why do the genders of the horses matter?
The story "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro is about societal differences for different genders, and the horses' genders are no exception. As a child, the narrator imagines stories about herself that...
Boys and Girls
How would you do a critical analysis of “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro?
A critical analysis of Alice Munro’s story “Boys and Girls” involves looking at each element of the story and seeing how well it helps fulfill the story’s purpose. Let’s talk first about the...
Boys and Girls
What is the significance of the narrator decorating her room with "fancy" things and attempting to separate her space...
The story Boys and Girls is about a young girl who refuses to accept that boys have a certain role in life and girls have a very different role. She refuses to do kitchen work and would rather feed...
Boys and Girls
In the stories “Boys and Girls” by Munro and “The Story of an Hour” by Chopin, a character faces a challenge and...
Comparable features of both stories are that the main character is female and that she undergoes a transformative experience that is related to liberation from gendered expectations. In Alice...
Boys and Girls
In the short story "Boys and Girls", by Alice Munro, how is power shown?
In Alice Munro's story, "Boys and Girls," gender roles are examined and the power between the two genders is highlighted. In the narrator's family, there are two spheres--outside and inside....
Boys and Girls
How is setting used to illuminate gendered experience in "Boys and Girls"?
Setting is used to illuminate gendered experience in "Boys and Girls" by providing a traditionally male-dominated environment against which the narrator's behavior can be analyzed. The setting is a...
Boys and Girls
Explain how the incident with the horse illustrates expectations between boys and girls. Reflect on whether this...
By allowing Flora to escape, a horse due to be shot to provide meat for the foxes on the farm, the girl narrator lives up to the traditional expectations of society concerning how women are...
Boys and Girls
Using the narrator as evidence, how do the expectations of society affect our personal identity?
In this coming-of-age story, the narrator lives in a society that has defined roles for girls. They were expected to be lady-like in their behavior and to learn the skills needed to be a good...
Boys and Girls
What kind of fantasies did the narrator of "Boys and Girls" have as a child? What do they tell us about her?
The narrator tells us that her fantasies always involved riding and shooting, although she has only been on a horse twice. They generally involve heroic acts on her part: she rescues people from a...
Boys and Girls
How does "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro relate to imagination?
In Alice Munro's story "Boys and Girls," gender roles are explored and one of the ways the narrator finds her voice is through her stories. At night after she and her brother sing, she makes up...
Boys and Girls
How does "Boys and Girls" relate to the reader's imagination?
This is an interesting question because it can be answered in two different ways. It can be answered in regards to how the readers can imagine the characters within the story. It can also be...
Boys and Girls
Write a paragraph analyzing a quotation from "Boys and Girls."
The quotation from “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro we're going to analyze is the following: Whatever thoughts and stories my father had were private, and I was shy of him and would never ask him...
Boys and Girls
In "Boys and Girls," the younger character is instructed to do all of these things so that they won’t be called a...
In "Boys and Girls," the ultimate insult is when the father dismisses the narrator as "Just a girl." In the context of the story, being a "girl" not only means that the narrator will be relegated...
Boys and Girls
Can I get three thematic statements from "Boys and Girls" by Alice Monroe? I also need 4 quotations showing the main...
One quotation of course comes at the end of the story with the narrator's father's dismissal of her as "only a girl." The central theme of the story is what being a "girl" really means in the...
Boys and Girls
What is the setting? Give 3 details about where and when the story takes place.
“Boys and Girls” is set on a silver-fox farm situated against a background of black pine forests and rivers. It is a rough and rather primitive environment which is often very cold. Although the...
Boys and Girls
How may we associate the narrator's action of helping Flora escape with her witnessing the shooting of Mack?
Mack is an old horse, and it's common practice on farms for old horses to be taken out and shot when they're no longer deemed useful. Sadly, this is what happens to Mack. His meat is to be used to...
Boys and Girls
How does Alice Munro's identity shape "Boys and Girls"?
Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls” deals with a lot of issues regarding identity, especially that of gender. The fact that Munro is a woman from the same background as the narrator informs...