The idea of a safety zone invented by the two siblings also gives us an idea of the room. Large and spac!.
ious, very bare and probably very chilly at night with only a small area used for the two children's beds. .
The narrator also goes on to explain the barn area where she assists her father in work. She also has many childhood memories of events with her younger brother in the barn. She tells us about the foxes cages and uses the imagination of a child when describing them:.
Alive, the foxes inhabited a world my .
father made for them. It was surrounded .
by a high guard fence, like a medieval .
town, with a gate. (367).
We also see strong characterization throughout the story "Boys and Girls". A character, according to Beaty and Hunter, is someone who acts, appears, or is referred to as playing a part in a work. Characterization is defined in our book as the "art, craft method of presentation, or creation of fictional personages" (Beaty 104). In this story we learn early on that our main character has a very round personality, that is, she is very major character with an interesting and full persona, which we learn more about as we read along. We are especially lucky in this story because we have a very dynamic character, or one in whom we can see changes in as the story goes on. There are many examples throughout the story that give us a clear idea that the narrator is changing and maturing.
Early in the story the narrator talks about how each night before she drifts off to sleep she spends some private time daydreaming about herself. Most of her dreams at this point in the story include the daring heroine rescuing people from bombed buildings and using a gun to protect innocent people from rabid wolves. These types of dreams go to show us what kind of person is narrating the story. Our narrator seems to be the girl raised as her father's farm hand, in a way, the boy her father had not yet had, therefore, many of her daily actions can be considered tomboy-like.
