Family Differences In Alice Munro's Boys And Girls

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In the short stories Responsibility written by Russell Smith and Boys and Girls written by Alice Munro both deal with family mishaps between parent and child. Each family in both stories face many similarities when dealing with traditional life classification. The daughter in Munro’s story Boys and Girls who is unnamed wants to live life as she pleases instead following the normalities females are perceived to live by. James the main character in Smith’s Responsibility story is also faced with the same situation on wanting to live life how he wants and pursue his dreams but is faced traditional fallacies on how a men should live their life. There is also similarities between the attitude James and the daughter have with their parents. Also …show more content…

The daughter wanted to live a carefree childhood instead following the normalities of society. Before the daughter claimed acceptance of her self-identity, growing up she sought after acceptance from her father. She did this by helping him with work outside in their pen with the foxes which was out of the normal and a responsibility her brother laird a synonym for lord would fulfil once he gets bigger “Wait till Laird gets a little bigger, then you’ll have real help (Munro, Alice “Boys and Girls” sussexmiddle.nbed.nb.ca. 1964.). James also faced with some of the same discrepancies the daughter faced throughout the story. James also a carefree young man who wants to live life how he likes is faced with gender traditionalism. With minimal responsibilities in life James is very keen in writing aspirations to one day become a successful author. He too is living in a world where people view the typical man a person with a lot of responsibilities married with children and providing for his family. James mother keeps asking if he and his girlfriend are going to have kids and live a typical life “well, not right now she doesn’t. She’s trying to get her career going, she’s in the same boat as me” (Russell Smith Responsibility, 38) James replied. Both character show that life should be lived on their own

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