The Struggle for Self-Definition in Boys and Girls by Alice Munro

Self discovery is at the root of many stories. It is easily limited by external and internal factors. Tales about self discovery are often called a bildungsroman. A bildungsroman, essentially, is a coming of age novel. Both Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison are considered a bildungsroman. In the case of those two novels, there is one unique concept that contributes to their examples of self discovery. Double consciousness is that idea. It emphasizes how a person may struggle to adapt to more than one varying identities in order to fill a role within society. Double consciousness is present in both novels through the mindset and actions of characters who try to conform to the gender and racial roles placed upon their lives but find themselves in conflict with their limitations.

Although the daughter’s shame in her mother is evident, she is also prideful of her as well. The strong love that the mother and daughter share is pervasive throughout the story. The story is being told by the daughter after she is all grown up. The fact that Jones uses such vivid detail on the mother’s preparation for her daughters first day of school shows that the daughter loved her mom and all that she did for her. The daughter recalls that her mother spent a lot of time preparing her when she says, “My mother has uncharacteristically spent nearly an hour on my hair that morning, plaiting and replaiting so that now my scalp tingles.” (Jones) She also remembers that her “pale green slip and underwear are new, the underwear having come three to a plastic package with a little girl on the front who appears to be dancing.” (Jones) The daughter having remembered details like these illustrate that she has an immense love and takes pride

Women today have unprecedented rights and opportunities. We can vote, get a job, be a boss, be a mother, and the list continues. The roles women once had have drastically changed; however, there is no doubt that today women still face inequality. The novel Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro is set in the small Ontario town of Jubilee in 1940s. The main character is a young woman named Del who narrates her upbringing. The novel expresses many feminist views, and the prominent characters are mostly female. The modern views of what a female is or the rights she should have are not yet established. The theme of the novel is the distorting effects that a women’s oppression has on their sexual identity and ideas of what sex is. The three most prominent examples in the text are Del’s mother’s abuse from her brother, Del’s experience with Mr. Chamberlain, and Del’s relationship with Garnet. Each of these relationships shows how the oppression they faced limited either Del or another female character,in her development and opportunities and tarnished or distorted her views on sexuality and how a woman should behave.

The line between being an acceptable and unacceptable parent is often blurry and is seen on different perspectives when it comes to class, culture, and generation differences. Based on the two stories of Amy Tan’s, “Two Kinds” and Tillie Olsen’s, “I Stand here Ironing” we see these two perspectives that derive from different maternal upbringings of the children in the stories. What is found between them is the conflict of being too little or heavily involved in a child’s life has had more negative outcomes during their childhood than positive.

Connections Essay The Glass Castle is a memoir surrounding the events of Jeannette Walls’ unorthodox childhood. Among the many issues discussed in the novel, the effects of parentification, child abuse, and relocation are some of the most relevant and prominent issues in today’s society. As a result of their father’s regularized absence and their mother’s lack of motivation and responsibility, Jeannette and Lori Walls are forced to take care of the family’s budget, income, upkeep, and health.

She thinks her father’s work is exciting while school is boring. Her father seems to have a large influence on her.

He learned to hunt as well as he could for his mother’s sake, but he had it hard without Sounder. One night he felt if he brought one of the foxes his share of supper, maybe it could be their new dog. He’d never had so many scratches. The child remained strong for his family most of the year, but he missed his father at Christmas time more than ever. He missed the way “his father would go to the back door of houses along the street and say ‘Ma’am, would you need some trimmin’s?’ and hold up the biggest spring of mistletoe left in his grain sack.” He missed how even during the toughest times, his father would scrape together some money to get them Christmas presents. He wished his big brother had not gone away to school, and he wished his father still came home for

From the start the girlchild was given gifts that stained in her mind as what she was suppose to become in life. With the little dolls, GE stoves and irons, and lipstick her parents put this ideal image of the perfect woman in her head. With these types of presents the girlchild is already learning her role in society.

“One of the most neglected virtues of our daily existence is appreciation. Somehow, we neglect to praise our son or daughter when he or she brings home a good report card, and we fail to encourage our children when they first succeed in baking a cake or building a birdhouse. Nothing pleases children more than this kind of parental interest and approval (27).”

Three of her duties revolve around her family, “have clothes that keep us dry…pay our rent and…set a good example for the children” (16-18), while three of them revolve around maintaining her own reputation, “not swear in the street…have friends to

In the early beginning of time, gender roles have exited in society. Women are assigned to participate in the food preparation, and taking care of kids, while men participate in activities that require physical strength. Hardship against society norms and ideas of how gender roles should be, or threats of a feminist influence on those gender roles are found in the “Boys and Girls” written by Alice Munro. This story introduces an unnamed girl who faces the daily challenges and awaking truth of developing her identity in the society that is ruled by men.

Munro uses the foxes the father raises as another symbol of how the narrator is feeling. Even the foxes have names, which reiterates the fact that the narrator herself is nameless. “Those my father named were called names like Prince, Bob, Wally and Betty. Those I named were called Star or Turk, or Maureen or Diana” (Munro 304). The names the narrator picked were much more imaginative compared to the practical names her father, or Laird, chose, suggesting that boys lack creativity while girls possess it in abundance. The foxes serve as an valuable symbol, because a fox doesn’t get named until it served a purpose for the narrator 's father. This shows another connection that in her father 's eyes she serves no purpose, because she is not a male. The foxes themselves are trapped in pens that her father built, which showcases

Growing up, “the girl” desired for attention from her father, therefore, she began to enjoy helping him work outside with the foxes. “My father did not talk to me unless it was about the job we were doing … Nevertheless I worked willingly under his eyes, and with a feeling of pride”(152). Therefore, she began to terrifying bored working in the kitchen with her mother, and began to lose respect for her mother’s inferior position in the household. When describing her mother’s housework it was “endless”(153) compared to her father’s work outside, which was “ritualistically important”(153). This obvious feeling of displeasure for society’s womanly duties symbolizes the protagonist desire to be more than “just a

This is an important lesson for children to learn. Children should never be ashamed of parents who work hard. Parents may not have glamorous jobs, and children should be taught to appreciate their parents no matter their occupation. It is important for young children to support their parents efforts to take care of their

One of the most diverse, self-discovering times in many lives is transitioning from childhood to adulthood. For some, this change comes with ease and excitement, while for others it can be a time filled with bewilderment, dread, and questions. For Edie in “How I Met My Husband” by Alice Munro, her transformation into a woman is not easy. Edie experiences a time in life filled with confusion and unease as she evolves from a child into an adult.