...In Jamaica Kincaid's story 'Girl' we see that the mother is very disciplined in what to do and what no to do in order to be a proper lady. What kind of personality would one expect in this woman? Perhaps one that is harsh? Or perhaps one that is caring? If we take a close look at 'Girl' we will be able to answer this question with more clarity. Immediately we see that the mother is instructing her daughter on how to be a proper woman. The tone used in this story can help paint a picture in the reader's mind. The reader can imagine the mother sitting before her daughter, speaking in a firm, yet gentle voice. The language and instructions that the mother are giving can make the character appear flat and stale. When reading the story the same tone of voice can be heard coming from the mother. Throughout the story there is no change in the mother's language....
Words: 708 - Pages: 3
...Girl By Jamaica Kincaid Reading Response Question: What does this story suggest about the ideas of womanhood and femininity? The short story Girl by Jamaica Kincaid has many suggestions on how exactly womanhood be. The mother is very convinced that her daughter is going down a road of promiscuity and if she doesn’t change her ways, a slut she shall be. The instructions the mother gives are specific and they come quickly. Throughout the entire story, the daughter only responds once. Both responses prove that the daughter is naïve. She says, “but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all, and never in Sunday school,’’ and she says at the end, “but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?” The exact responses prove that the daughter is trying to take the information in at her best ability but she is too young to get that full message that her mother is sending her. Her mother continuously says, “the slut you are bent on being,” because of how she acts which seem to be just childish acts that all children go through at a young age. Her mother’s obsession with femininity comes into play when she says, “ don’t squat down when you play marbles,” and “this is how you love a man.” She wants her daughter to find her womanly identity and master the art of womanhood without have to depend on a male. Not once did he r mother mention the help of a man when catching food or fixing things around the house. The mother believes strongly in independence and she feels that her daughter...
Words: 421 - Pages: 2
...In Jamaica Kincaid’s story “Girl” we can see it is about a mother, or possibly grandmother, telling a girl how she should behave and carry herself in the Caribbean society she lives in. The speaker lists what the girl should and should not do in different areas of her day to day life. We get the impression the speaker believes that the girl will inevitably become a slut. She hints at many things that will lead to the listener becoming a slut and tells her what to do to avoid being a slut or being viewed as one. The very first thing mentioned in the speakers’ long list is clothes. This word is particularly interesting to me because it is the fourth word mentioned, the first thing the speaker brings up in telling the listener how to do things,...
Words: 1779 - Pages: 8
...Raising a Young Woman Through the story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, the narrator who happens to be the mother of the girl is giving her daughter advice on duties a woman must do. As the mother is telling her child what she must do and act she is also advising her to not become a slut. The story may come off as if the mother is demanding but it is a lecture she is getting across to the child as she becomes a young lady. The way the mother comes across is harsh and demanding but she is only preparing her daughter to become a well-mannered young woman. In the Kelly Falla essay it also mentions the “frustration within the mothers tone and demeanor.” As the lecture begins the mother is rambling on about how a woman needs to up keep, cook, clean, do certain number of things, and behave around others. The young girl appears to not speak through-out the story, it may be because of how the mother is coming on to her or she is retaining the information that is being given to her. When the mother mentions the father in the story she is referring to all men in...
Words: 546 - Pages: 3
...In the passage Girl by Jamaica Kincaid consist with writing that comes with a list of rhythm but also giving instructions on what this girl should be doing or even acting. The mother who is giving her daughter advice and commands in order for her not to become a “slut”. The tone is straight forward but also a little rough so her daughter could be afraid of committing inappropriate acts. But also this passage gives advice mostly in a way of a list, things the girl need to accomplish. As a reader you can also sense how between the mother and daughter there is tension. The girl might not be disagreeing with the mother but because she's not saying anything and the conversation is stiff just her mother talking seem there is conflicting feelings....
Words: 473 - Pages: 2
...Creative Paragraph for “Girl” We lived in a small New England town, one of those towns where everybody knows everybody, but not in a good way. She was a good friend of mine; we became friends at church, although we also went to the same high school. She was a nice girl, a sweet girl. But as our friendship grew stronger and the more time we would spend together, the more time I would spend at her house, with her and her family, her mother rather of had us there then anywhere else. It quickly became quite evident that my friend was leading two different lives. At school and around friends she was very outgoing, very talkative, and even a bit flirty with the boys in our school. She was always singing and dancing as well. At her home she was much, much different. She had a mother who believes whole heartedly that women hold a certain place in this world, and there for should act accordingly. She had her own extensive and very peculiar set of policies and procedures when it came to being a woman. Do this, don’t do that. Personally I would find it very hard to live that way, but it soon became clear to me, that she did as well. She often questioned the things her mother had told her, it’s not that she didn’t want to learn from her mother, she did, very much so, she just didn’t want to be forced into it; she was a girl who liked having choices. I often wondered why her mother was like this, why was she so set in her ways when it came to who she wanted her daughter to...
Words: 333 - Pages: 2
...Comparison and Contrast of “Girl” and “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” Over a lifetime a person is forced to make many decisions. The way a person lives their life is that individual’s decision. Often times, one choice is better than another, yet society doesn’t always support what is best. In the poem “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” by Adrienne Rich, and the short story "Girl" written by Jamaica Kincaid, illustrates the ways women reacts to a society dominated by men, and how their lives are molded by different decisions they make. A woman can simply ignore the restraints they face and suffer the consequences, or she can take a stand, challenge her authority, and enjoy the life she deserves. In Adrienne Rich’s poem, "Aunt Jennifer’s Tiger,” one could assume that the poem is about a woman, who is saddened by her husband’s death. So, the woman knits a magnificent panel that has tigers on it to remind her of her husband because she misses him. But actually, Aunt Jennifer is creating this panel because she desires to be brave, just like a tiger surviving in the wild. Tigers have energy. They are fearless creatures that are free to roam and do not fear men. Aunt Jennifer’s is a woman whose soul burns with creative fire and passion; but she has been defined by the rules of others for some time that she is unable to express herself. Her role in society is decided by a patriarchy; which means society is male dominated and women should occupy the margins (Webster). Aunt Jennifer feels like she is...
Words: 1775 - Pages: 8
...LITR 301 February 18, 2014 Girl Compared to a Barbie Doll Women were considered the subordinate gender that was expected to have this stay at home homemaker attitude. They were supposed to powder their noses and look pretty. Women are discriminated against in society. Women have stereotypical gender roles they are supposed to uphold. As suggested in the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy the Barbie doll is the idealized image of a woman and is considered to have long legs, perfect skin, small waist and a slender figure. The Barbie doll speaks for itself. It says that women should be domestic workers and maintain a feminine outer appearance. These type of values affect young girls because they are taught early that this is what a woman should look and act like. The Barbie doll has a lot of appeal and popularity for the past several years so it is difficult to alter the ideas of womanhood suggested by this doll. These ideas to be like and do as a Barbie doll cannot be overthrown because it has already been deeply planted in our society. In contrast, the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid suggests that women are condemned to patriarchy because of socially constructed gender stereotypes. She criticizes the idealized patriarchal norms and pressures which overshadows the lives of women. Young girls are exposed to the pressures and expectations of how they should live. They are also brainwashed in believing that their role as a women is to become a domestic homemaker and that...
Words: 2378 - Pages: 10
...through thick and thin. Without having a family, no person is complete and the completeness comes with good family bonding. I consider that family values is a compilation of specific events and qualities that are really important to maintain a family. And this can be seen in “Girl” by Jamaica Kinkaid, “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, and “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara. The story “Girl”, Jamaica Kincaid shows love and family togetherness by creating microcosmic images of the way mothers raise their children in order to survive. It is a guide on how live the right way. The narrative is presented as a set of life instructions to a girl by her mother to live properly in Antigua in the 1980’s. While the setting of the story is not expressly stated by the author in the narrative, the reader is able to understand the culture for which “Girl” was written. Jamaica Kincaid seems to be the passive narrator, receiving the instructions from her mother on how to live in their present social setting. The mother figure focuses on two main categories in her guidance, social manners and domesticity. First, guidance is given for a child’s stage in life, on household chores such as washing clothes and cooking fish (Kincaid 118). This indicates a social status that is probably not upper class...
Words: 1436 - Pages: 6
...Christy Mondesir Mrs. Shah English 11 6 April 2015 Learning to let go of mommy’s hand: Nothing is more special than the relationship between a mother and a daughter, but nothing is more tragic than when that relationship falls apart. Jamaica Kincaid’s “Annie John” is about the relationship between a mother and a daughter that slowly breaks apart in postcolonial Antigua. Their relationship deteriorates, because Annie (Miss Annie Victoria John's daughter) is coming of age and is exposed to death at a young age, which causes her to become distant from her mother since she does not tell Annie much about death and Annie is eager to know. Kincaid shows that death, coming of age, and post colonialism are important themes that are explored throughout...
Words: 2017 - Pages: 9
...relationships” Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” (1978) is a short story; single sentence of advice a mother imparts to her daughter. Her daughter only twice interrupts the mother to ask a question and defend herself. The advice is meant to be useful but it is also demeaning. It seemed to be meant to help her daughter to have a productive life but also to scold her at the same time. In general, a mother tends to think highly of their daughters and wants to teach them all of the important aspects of life. The reality of the matter is that a Mother can only teach her child from her own experiences, weather the experiences are positive or negative. This is why I feel that “Girl”, shows the various ways that a relationship between a mother and daughter can be complicated. A mother’s womanhood, self-esteem, vulnerability and education all plays a major roles on how she instructs her daughter. The online resource enotes.com, “Girl: Introduction”, states that Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson in 1949. Native of Antigua, in the British West Indies, but changed her name when she started writing because her family disliked her career choice. She went to New York at the age of 17, taking a job as a nanny. During this time she met New Yorker columnist George S. Trow, who eventually helped her publish in the magazine. Much of Kincaid’s work deals with the ramifications of Antigua’s history as a colony of Great Britain. Like all of Kincaid’s fictions, “Girl,” deals with the...
Words: 1202 - Pages: 5
...I will be comparing and contrasting the poems “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “If” by Rudyard Kipling and I will be arguing that the poems are different mostly and only a little bit similar to each other. We will compare and contrast the parents in both of these poems because they are the main people in both of these poems who teach their kids what they want them to be, Their personalities in the poem, and then predicting what will happen to their kids if they follow how they want them to be. In this paragraph, we will start off with our claim saying that the mother in “Girl” is very picky and criticising in the beginning of the poem because in the text of “Girl”, It says,”Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap.” Keep in mind that the mother wants her daughter to follow that rule even when she is moving out of her mother’s own house. And the dad in the poem “If” is motivational to his son and preparing him for the new world. I have evidence because in the text it says,”If you can trust yourself when men doubt you but make allowance for them doubting too.” The dad is trying to say that his son has to trust himself even when people are doubting him. In conclusion, We compared the personalities of the parents in each poem with text evidence....
Words: 499 - Pages: 2
...Compare/Contrast Essay Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” and Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” talks about how hard it was towards being a female for their times. Sojourner Truth gave a speech during the Women’s Rights Convention in 1851, saying that women should deserve the same equality as men. On the other hand Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” talked about how to make a girl into a respectful woman and not a slut. Both dialogues have similarities and differences. The stories are talking about how hard working a woman can be, men being in control, and in religion. Both Truth and Kincaid will talk about how hard working a woman could be. Sojourner Truth speaks about how she’s a hard working lady, someone who doesn’t needs the help of a man. “Look at me! Look at my arms! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well!”(Ain’t I a woman?). “ Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them to the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothes line to dry”(GIRL).Of these both quotes talk about how Truth and the “Girl” character managed to be a hard working woman without a man’s help and managed to get through these rough times. Secondly, both Ain’t I a Woman and Girl talk about how feminist took over during their time period. A man during Truth’s speech said, “Women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and...
Words: 622 - Pages: 3
...Essay One (Fiction) “Boys” by Rick Moody, “Girl” by Jamaica Kinkaid, “Lust” by Susan Minot Even though these stories are different, they are all extremely relatable. They all resonated with me in that each one had different excerpts that I could see myself in. In Ricky Moody’s “Boys” I could see myself in them as they grew up and experienced different circumstances in their lives. I could hear my mother giving me advice while reading Jamaica Kinkaid’s “Girl”. While I have not experienced a lot of what is described in Susan Minot’s “Lust,” I related to trying to figure out what love is. All of these stories have formal aspects in common when it comes to style: repetition. They all contain the use of anaphoras (repeating the same thing at the beginning of each sentence). They all also follow a certain pattern throughout the story. An example of this is how Rick Moody, in “Boys” repeated the word ‘boys’ in order to emphasize the central idea and meaning of the story. Like Moody stated in an interview with Electric Lit, “the goal in “Boys” is to tell the story of the boys, not just to compile variations on the sentence ‘Boys enter the house.’ That assignment would be too easy” (Grief). All three stories use of run-on sentences to create a specific and distinct tone to the story. In “Boys”, Moody wrote as if he was writing everything that came to mind, like he was just writing his thoughts. The style of this story is very descriptive and does not leave many...
Words: 1155 - Pages: 5
...10/28/12 English In the story “Girl” there is a variety of things being said and it is easy to tell this is a mother, daughter relationship going on. I say that because most of things being said by the mother are things that usually only a mother would tell her daughter. The speaker in the story is the mother and the listener in the story is the daughter. In the story the mother is giving plenty of advice and telling the daughter what is appropriate and what is not. I can tell that all the information the mother was giving was too much for the daughter to take in because the daughter did not really say much at all while the mother was lecturing her. The life being described in the story “Girl” is really loose and care free which is why the mother is being strict on the daughter. The location is important because that is where most of the things that the mother is warning the daughter about are happening. I somewhat sensed that about the location in the story when the mother said “On Sunday try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming”. This quote showed me that there is something that the mother does not want the daughter to experience in that location. The advice the mother is giving in the story “Girl” is strict and controlling. The mother is not suggesting that the daughter take the advice, she is actually demanding that the daughter listen to her and take the advice than suggesting that she do so. An example would be when the mother says “Wash...
Words: 488 - Pages: 2
