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

The Struggle for Self-Definition in Boys and Girls When we are adolescents we see the world through our parents eyes. We struggle to define ourselves within their world, or to even break out-of-door from their world. Often, the birth of our self is defined in a moment of lawfulness or a moment of heightened self-awareness that is the culmination of a group of events or the result of a life crisis or struggle. In literature we interest to this birth of self as an epiphany. Alice sake writes in Boys and Girls about her hold battle to define herself. She is torn between the inside world of her generate and the outside world of her father. In the beginning her fathers world prevails, but by the finale, her takes world invades her heart. Although the transformation is not complete, she begins to understand and define her self-hood. Alice sakes Boys and Girls immerses us into the agrestic country-side of Jubilee, Ontario, Canada, and into the life of an eleven year-old tom-boy. The story unfolds how she struggles to become herself while growing up on her parents farm. Her father raises silver foxes for the familys meager source of income as her mother cares for their home. Let us first look at the world she is enthral with at the start of her narrative. Initially, Father is her world. As she helps him care for the foxes, she does not visit him Daddy she calls him Father. The name Father commands respect and formality. Munro writes, . . . I was shy(p) of him and would never ask him questions. Nevertheless I worked leading under his eyes, and with a feeling of pride (112). Although eager and happy to spend time with her father, Munro reveals here that she does not have a close relationship with her fath... ...earning from her mother, she will define herself as well. Indeed, it is not easy growing up. It is painfully stern to defy the person that you most admire, in this case her father. But at some point in our young lives we must break unaffectiona te from the conformity of our parents world in order to give birth to our self. This is what Alice Munro shows us through Boys and Girls. Works Cited and ConsultedCarscallen, James. The Other Country Patterns in the write of Alice Munro. Toronto ecw 1993Heble, Ajay. The Tumble of Reason Alice Munros Discourse of Absence. Toronto University of Toronto Press 1994Munro, Alice. Boys and Girls. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Carl E. Bain, Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. sixth ed. New York Norton, 1995. Martin, W.R. Alice Munro Paradox and Parallel. Edmonton University of Alberta Press 1987