Yang, Chirstina
Prof. Robert
ENC 1102
Date: October 22, 2015
Title: “Boys and Girls”
Author: Alice Munro
Characters: The father, the mother, the sister, Laird, Henry Bailey, the grandmother, Flora
Setting: The house, the barn
Plot Summary: The sister is hurt that she’s defined by her gender, and the stuff she enjoys are considered boys stuff. Laird is expected to do all the manly stuff even if he don’t enjoy them.
One aspect of the story that I really enjoyed: I enjoyed when the sister purposely let Flora leave.
One aspect of the story that I found puzzling of that I did not understand: Was Laird jealous of his sister? Why the mother felt like her daughter shouldn’t be trusted? What made the sister let Flora go?
Three-Paragraph analysis:
The story was about a sister and a brother named Laird that were always being compared to each other. Everything the sister truly loved and enjoyed to do was considered a man’s job. It was hard for anyone to take her seriously because she was a girl and only expected to act like a lady. Laird on the other hand, had a hard time because everything he did wasn’t good enough or wasn’t as good as his sister. Laird was expected to be or manly since his a boy. They both had a hard time growing up since Laird had to always help his father, and the sister wanted to be with the father but her mother would force her to help her instead.
The sister would have dreams of her a little older rescuing people from a bombed building, shooting two rabid wolves who were hanging around a schoolyard. Then she would ride a horse through the town and everyone would acknowledge her as the town’s hero. She enjoyed helping her dad by carrying the water, cutting the grass, and flowering the money musk that grew in between the pens. The sister would feel hurt when her mother would make remarks about waiting until Laird gets older, and how more