The struggle for self-definition in boys and girlsWhen we are teenagers we see the world through the eyes of our parents. We struggle to define ourselves within their world, or even to detach ourselves from their world. Often, the birth of our "self" is defined as a moment of truth or a moment of heightened self-awareness that is the culmination of a group of events or the result of a crisis or struggle in life. In the literature we refer to this birth of the “self” as an epiphany. Alice Munro writes in "Boys and Girls" about her struggle to define herself. She is torn between her mother's "internal" world and her father's "external" world. At first his father's world prevails, but in the end his mother's world invades his heart. Although the transformation is not complete, he begins to understand and define his "self". Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls" immerses us in the rural countryside of Jubilee, Ontario, Canada, and the life of an eleven-year-old boy. - old tomboy. The story tells of how she struggles to become herself while growing up on her parents' farm. His father raises silver foxes as the family's meager source of income while his mother takes care of their home. Let's first look at the world she is fascinated by at the beginning of her story. Initially, the father is his world. While she helps him take care of the foxes, she doesn't call him dad; she calls him Father. The name Father demands respect and formality. Munro writes: "...I was shy with him and never asked him questions. Yet I worked willingly under his eyes and with a feeling of pride" (112). Although eager and happy to spend time with her father, Munro reveals here that she does not have a close relationship with her father… halfway… earning from her mother, she will define herself as GOOD. It's actually not easy to grow up. It's painfully difficult to challenge the person you admire most, in this case your father. But at some point in our young lives we must free ourselves from the conformity of our parents' world to give birth to our “self”. This is what Alice Munro shows us through "Boys and Girls". Works Cited and Consulted Carscallen, James. The Other Country: Patterns in Alice Munro's Writing. Toronto: ecw 1993Heble, Ajay. The Tumble of Reason: Alice Munro's Speech of Absence. Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1994 Munro, Alice. "Boys and girls." Norton's introduction to literature. Eds. Carl E. Bain, Jerome Beaty, and J. Paul Hunter. 6th ed. New York: Norton, 1995. Martin, W. R. Alice Munro: Paradox and Parallel. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press 1987