Boys and Girls by Alice Munro, Summary and Exercise

Alice Munro (1931–2024) – A Canadian short-story writer

Themes: Gender roles and identity through the eyes of a young girl growing up on her family’s fox farm in rural Canada.

The story “Boys and Girls” is about a young girl on a fox farm. She learns that adults value her and her brother differently. Boys are praised for their strength and usefulness, while girls are trained to do household work.

The narrator, an eleven-year-old girl, lives on a fox-breeding farm with her parents and younger brother, Laird. The girl's father is a fox farmer. He has hired a man named Henry Bailey to help him. The father kills the foxes that he raises and sells their pelts. All her father’s work is a normal and everyday part of life to the narrator; however, it disgusts her mother.

The narrator and her brother are uneasy in their upstairs room at night. They sing songs to help them feel safe. After her brother falls asleep, she tells herself stories about the world that present opportunities for courage, boldness, and self-sacrifice.

Both the narrator and her brother help their father with his work. She is proud to be part of her father’s work. Her mother tries to get her to help with housework inside the house. She complains that once her son gets older, her father will get support from him, and she can keep her daughter in the kitchen.

One winter, the family has two horses in the stable until they are killed for meat for the foxes. They are named Mack and Flora. Mack is an old, black, indifferent horse, whereas Flora is a sorrel (reddish-brown) mare.

When spring comes, the narrator’s father decides to kill Mack so he can feed his foxes. She feels very uneasy about the death of the horse. Two weeks later, it will be time for Flora to be killed.

When Flora is brought out of the stable, she breaks away from Henry. She runs free in the backyard. The men shout to the narrator to run and close the gate. Instead of closing the gate, she opens it as wide as she can.

In a truck, the men along with Laird pass through the gate to catch Flora. The girl thinks that she will be in trouble for letting the horse out. During dinner, when her brother tells everyone what happened, her father asks her why she did that. She is overcome, and tears flood her eyes. She waits to be sent away from the table, but her father only says the words, “She is only a girl.”

Answer these questions.

a. What did the narrator and her brother Laird do at night to cope with their fear in the unfinished upstairs room?

The narrator and her brother sang songs while lying on their beds to cope with fear. They followed safety rules such as staying on the worn carpet when the light was on and staying in bed when it was off. After Laird fell asleep, the narrator used the quiet time to tell herself heroic stories about her future self.

b. What happened to the fox bodies after their pelts were removed?

After the pelts were removed, the fox bodies were put into a sack. Without their fur, the bodies looked small, mean, and rat-like. They were slippery and no longer had their heavy coats. The sack of bodies was taken to the dump, where the bodies were buried.

c. Describe the narrator’s changing feelings about and relationship with her younger brother, Laird, as they both grow older.

At first, the narrator feels protective and superior to Laird because he is younger and depends on her. She enjoys leading him, teaching him things, and sharing games and fears with him. As they grow older, Laird begins to be treated as more important because he is a boy. The narrator feels hurt and betrayed when Laird starts to side with adults and reports her actions. By the end of the story, their relationship becomes distant, and she feels emotionally separated from him.

d. Discuss the significance of Flora’s escape. Why do you think the narrator chose to open the gate for Flora?

Flora’s escape represents the narrator’s inner conflict between obedience and compassion. By opening the gate, the narrator silently rebels against her father’s world, which is based on control, killing, and male authority. Flora symbolizes freedom and resistance, and helping her escape is an emotional and instinctive act rather than a carefully planned decision.