Boys and Girls, Alice Munro

Only a Girl Alice Munro’s short story, "Boys and Girls," explores the different roles of men and women in society through a young girl’s discovery of what it means to be a girl. A close examination of the elements of a short story as they are used in "Boys and Girls" helps us to understand the meaning of the story. The story is set in the 1940s, on a fox farm outside of …

…well to demonstrate the theme of the story. The narrator’s conflict between filling a masculine role and accepting a feminine one, the contrast between her mother and her father, and the setting that is divided between the mother’s domain and father’s domain all build the effect of the theme well. This story gives a fresh look at the question of women’s role in society through the eyes of a young girl.