Munro



Alice Munro, "Boys and Girls" __ Vocabulary __ Placidly - serenely free of interruption or disturbance Ingenious- marked by especial aptitude at discovering, inventing, or contriving Malevolent- having, showing, or arising from intense often vicious ill will, spite, or hatred Tarpaulin- a piece of material (as durable plastic) used for protecting exposed objects or areas Monotonously- uttered or sounded in one unvarying tone Sorrel- a light bright chestnut horse often with white mane and tail

Point of View: First Person, Past Tense -Henry Bailey: suffered from bronchial issues. He was hired by the family and collected sacks containing the remains of the foxes. -Mother: She was not involved in the farming; she didn’t want to know what was going on at the farm. She was responsible for the main house which included cooking, cleaning, and making the house presentable for her family. -Narrator (Girl): She is always curious about her fathers work on the farm. Although her help was not needed, she always wanted to help her father. She feels like she is not needed because she is a girl. She did not agree with the killing of animals, therefore she let a horse loose in hopes to save her. She was jealous of Laird because he was allowed to work with their father. -Father: He is very secretive. He doesn’t like to share stories about his childhood. When it comes to his daughter, he doesn’t allow her to be involved with the farm work because she is a girl. -Laird: He was more involved with his father’s farm work because he is allowed. He lost his trust with his sister by telling his family that she let the horse go.
 * Characters:**

Setting and Themes “Boys and Girls” is set on a farm somewhere in the north where winters are cold. The family raises silver foxes and the father kills them for their pelts to sell to Hudson’s Bay Company or Montreal Fur Traders. The themes we saw were the role of women, trust, innocence, respect, and guilt. This story is about a girl that at first hates her mother’s opinion on the role of women. She is in a constant battle with herself and her mother over what she should be as a girl. The stereotypical role of a girl came up and at first the girl fights it by the end she comes to possibly excepting it. The girl always wants to go with her father and work with butchering the foxes and helping around in the barn. She wants to gain his trust and respect as she is slowly gaining in the beginning. By the end after she lets the horse free he loses all respect for her and says she is “just” a girl. She is very young in the start of the story. She thinks that that she wants to work in the barn and wants to see all the animals being killed. She thinks nothing of death of animals, but after she sees her father kill the horse she loses her innocence and realizes that she actually does agree with her mother. Plot: The narrator, the girl, grows up on a farm where she helps her father work the farm. She is content with her life and finds solace in the quiet of night. She describes her dealings with the foxes that her father raises on his farm. She works just as a man would and is generally regarded as so up until she is forced to try to keep the horses from escaping. When her father is trying to catch the horses which he will slaughter and feed the foxes with, she must close the gate to keep them in the pasture. She instead opens the gate and lets the horses run freely. When her father finds out what she has done, he shrugs and comments that she “is only a girl."