One of Munro’s major themes in “Boys and Girls” is the loss of innocence. This loss of innocence happens differently from Laird and the narrator, based on their gender. The central event, Mack’s shooting, effects them both and leads them both to confusion. But the way that the boy and girl move forward from that event shows how the loss of innocence works differently for boys and girls.

Laird’s loss of innocence brings him closer to the “blood and animal fat” that the whole family smelled and participated in at the beginning of the story (Paragraph 2). He shows off “a streak of blood” on his arm after he helps his father and Henry Bailey shoot Flora (Paragraph 46). Almost abruptly, Laird ceases to be afraid of anything, as he once was when trapped on the highest rung in the barn. He no longer needs or wants to sing to dispel the fear of the dark, as he and the narrator did when they were young.

The narrator, on the other hand, seems more reluctant to lose her innocence. She still tries to sing before she sleeps, and she still tells herself stories, though those stories change shape.