Boys And Girls

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay. 

Scaffolded/Short-Answer Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the story over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. How do animals relate to humans across the story?

• What is the connection between animals and humans in this story? (topic sentence)
• How are animals used as a metaphor in the story?
• Conclude with a statement on how animals relate to humans across the story.

2. Munro does not make much use of dialogue in this story. Why does she tell the story mostly from the narrator’s perspective? Where dialogue is present, how does it communicate what the narrator cannot?

• Why does Munro tell the story mostly from the narrator’s perspective? (topic sentence)
• In places where Munro uses dialogue, how does the dialogue communicate what the narrator cannot?
• Conclude with a statement about the powerful yet sparse way Munro uses dialogue.

3. Describe the narrator’s relationship with her brother. Does their relationship evolve or change across the text? Which specific moments, in your eyes, define their relationship?

• Characterize the narrator’s relationship with her brother. (topic sentence)
• Does their relationship evolve or change across the text? Which specific moments, in your eyes, define their relationship?
• Conclude with a statement that identifies the relationship between the narrator and her brother.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Although the narrator seems to gain some kind of understanding of a new role by the end of the story, how would you describe the change that occurs in her? Does she seem confident in a new position? Has she lost, or gained, identity by the end of the story?

2. The physical space of the farm seems charged with importance for the narrator. Pick one space—the house, the barn, the fox pen, or another—and describe the narrator’s relationship to that space. How do her interactions with and experiences  of this space tell the reader about the way she thinks about the world?

3. What are the natural life cycles that Munro uses to tell the story of “Boys and Girls”? Do they seem “natural” to the narrator? Why or why not?