~ Excerpt from Samuel Beckett's Murphy

The "you" in Lorrie Moore's "How" is almost the completely opposite of the stereotypical roles we have assigned to men and women. "You" is assumed to be a female, mainly because of the fact that the other partner in the relationship is a male. Moore never specifies whether "you" is a female or male but because of the American view of a relationship, readers assume that "you" is a female. The narrator leaves you wondering how the characteristics of "you" contribute to the epigraph from Beckett. If the "you" is a female, then the epigraph explains why the female acts the way she does.

"You" does several things, which are normally viewed as masculine. After meeting the male, "you" begins to feel bored with the relationship. The narrator suggests to "make attempts at a...