Boys and Girls

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…her brother symbolize the roles of males and females in that society. The narrator is forced into doing jobs that she doesn't enjoy doing, namely that associated with women's work at the time. Laird is allowed to do what he pleases. Laird is the lord, as a male he is deemed as the more important of the two, simply because of his sex, while the narrator cast into her womanly role, being of secondary importance.