“Boys and Girls”
Alice Munro
by Darrell Dobson, Ph.D.
“Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro
Alice Munro (born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian author. Munro's fiction is most often set in her
native Huron County in southwestern Ontario. Her stories explore human complexities in an
uncomplicated prose style. Munro's writing has established her as one of the greatest contemporary
writers of fiction. Awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature for her work as "master of the
contemporary short story", and the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for her lifetime body of
work, she is also a three-time winner of Canada's Governor General's Award for fiction.
Pre-reading:
1. In your family, what jobs or tasks get done by men? By
women?
2. Give examples of how your family members have
‘taught’ you to be a man or a woman.
3. Have you ever resisted this kind of expected role playing?
If so give examples; if not, why not?
4. Define the following words: derisive, supplicate, placid,
trundle, exquisite, malevolent.
Normal School is where one used to go to study to be a
teacher. Directly out of high school a person (usually a
woman) would take one year of study at Normal School
and then become a teacher.
Post-reading Questions:
1. Often the ending of literary stories is bittersweet. In what ways is that true of this story?
2. Which part (or parts) of the story evoked the strongest reaction (positive or negative)? Why?
3. Look up the word laird. Why is it significant that the boy’s name is Laird? Why is it
significant that the girl’s name is never mentioned?
4. Describe the physical and social setting of the story.
5. Point of view. What is the point of view of the story? How do you know?
6. Who is the protagonist? Is there an antagonist? If so, who?
7. Plot.
a. What is the problem of the story?
b. What is the initiating incident?
c. List three major events of the rising action.
d. What is the climax? Explain why it is the climax.
e. List two events of the falling action.
f. Describe the resolution. How is the problem that started the story addressed?
8. For the protagonist…
a. What does the character want?
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b. List three qualities of the character’s personality (i.e. brave, silly) and for each give an
example from the story as evidence.
c. How does the character change?
9. Theme. What is the theme (or main idea) of the story? You can create a main idea statement
by asking yourself what does the author want you to believe? Refer to three specific details
from the text to support your answer.
10. Are girls still damaged by the process of gender socialization?
11. There has long been a question or debate about the extent to which gender identity is
biologically determined and the extent to which it is learned or socially constructed.
a. Answer the question using only details from the story.
b. Answer the question using your own thoughts or ideas.
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