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n Boys And Girls I n the short story Boys and Girls, the narrator experienced a change over a period of time. In the first ten years of her life she was a bit of a tomboy, she worked outside with her father doing farm work, and enjoyed it very much. Her mother would rather her be inside helping her with the house work, but it just wasn t for her. When her mother made an unexpected visit to the barn it made the narrator very angry. Her mother complained that Laird should be helping with the farm work and the narrator should be helping her with the house work.
After watching Mack get shot the narrator was calm, as if she had seen it done a million times before. It had long term effects though, that she didn t expect. During the first ten years of her life the narrator loved helping out with the farm work. Her little brother would always look up to her and help her out with her chores, the best he could.
Her most favorite thing to do when she was growing up was to help her father on the farm; feeding the foxes, cleaning their water etc. She would never go into the pens though, only her father did because foxes can be very vicious. Even though she enjoyed helping her father with the farm work it wasn t the proper thing for a young girl to do. For example, when her grandmother visited, the narrator overheard her say, Girls don t slam doors like that. Also, Girls keep there knees together when they sit down. Many people thought it was wrong that a girl helped out on the farm, when she should be in the kitchen helping her mother.
This doesn t really seem fair because even though she s a girl she s a really good help to her father. It was odd to see her mother at the barn, she only ever went outside to pick potatoes or put clothes out on the clothes line. One day when she was at the barn, the narrator overheard her mother saying she should be inside helping her with the house work rather then being outside on the farm. She said things like, Wait till Laird gets a little bigger, then you ll have a real help.
This made the narrator feel upset, because she thought she was a great help to her father. She hated being stuck in the kitchen, it was always so hot and dark. She helped her mother now and then but as soon as she turned her back the narrator would run outside. Some days her mother thought she didn t even have a daughter.
It is possible that all of her mothers nagging could make her father realize that a girl really is no help on the farm. After the narrator and Laird snuck into the barn and watched their father and Henry shoot Mack, her legs felt shaky and she was glad that it was over. After they got down into the hey the narrator made Laird promise her he would not tell on her for letting him watch Mack get shot. The narrator understood the necessity of killing the horse, without killing the horse they could not feed the foxes, and with no foxes they would have no money. At this point of her life she is maturing quickly and she felt ashamed of her father for killing Mack. From this point on she had a grudge towards her father and his work.
When the time came to kill Flora, the narrator would have nothing to do with it, or even watch it. Seeing the killing of a horse was a one time thing for her. Henry and her father had a struggle with Flora and she escaped into the large L shaped field. Her father had shouted to her, Go shut the gate! . She ran as fast as she could to the gate, and she made it in time to get it closed. As she saw Flora running up the hill towards her she had a sudden change in heart, and she quickly opened the gate back up.
She knew Flora wouldn t be able to outrun her father and Henry if they got into the truck and chased her but did it anyway. Later on when the men returned home, they had good news that they shot old Flora. At the dinner table, Laird said, Anyway it was her fault Flora got away. Her father was disgusted with her, and as she waited to be dismissed from the table she started to cry. Throughout the story the narrator changed and matured. In the beginning she was a tomboy and didn t care about doing girly things.
As the story unfolded she began to become more feminine and have more feelings. She realized that all the comments that everyone had made were really true, and like her father said, She s only a girl.
Free research essays on topics related to: farm work, didn t, first ten years, years of her life, boys and girls
Research essay sample on First Ten Years Years Of Her Life
