In her story, Boys and Girls, Alice Munro describes the difficulties and successes of the rite of passage into adulthood through her portrayal of a young narrator and his brother . Through the narrator, the theme of the profound injustice of stereotypes on sexual roles and the effect that these have on the rites of passage to adulthood is presented. The unnamed protagonist of Munro's story goes through an extreme and radical initiation into adulthood, similar to that of her younger brother. Munro proposes that gender stereotypes, relationships, and the loss of innocence play an extreme and often controversial role in the growth and transition to adulthood of many young children. Initiation, or the rite of passage into adulthood, is, according to the theme of Munro's story, an obligatory and necessary experience. Alice Munro's creation of a nameless and therefore undignified female protagonist proposes that the narrator is without identity or life perspective. energy. Unlike the narrator, the young brother Laird is named—a name meaning "lord"—and implies that he, by virtue of his gender alone, is invested with identity and will become a master. These stereotypes in names alone seem to suggest that gender plays an important role in young children's initiation into adulthood. Growing up, the narrator enjoys helping her father out with the foxes, rather than helping her mother with the "sad and particularly depressing" work done in the kitchen (425). In this escape from her fated duties, the narrator views the tasks assigned to her mother as "endless," while she views her father's work as "ritualistically important" (425). This vision illustrates his happy childhood, full of dreams and imagination. Her contrast between her father's work and her mother's chores illustrates an emerging struggle between what the narrator is expected to do and what she wants to do. The work done by his father is considered real, while the work done by his mother is considered boring. Conflicting visions of what was fun and what was expected lead the narrator to her initiation into adulthood. Unrealistically, the narrator believes that she would be more and more useful to her father as she grew up. However, as she grows up, the difference between boys and girls becomes clearer and more conflicting for her.