...In the short story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid the female authority figure’s advice will result in the girl living an unhappy life. When talking to the young girl the narrator’s voice does not sound so kind. It sounds as if she is taking all of her anger out on the girl. It is very easy to tell that the female is not a good mentor for the young lady. One example of this, “this is how you throw away a child before it even becomes a child.” (Kincaid, 70) When the narrator says this it implies that she has had an or many illicit relationships with other men. The narrator says over and over again about how the girl wants to live to be a “slut.” The girl does not speak very much throughout the story, but when the narrator scolds her daughter and...
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...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 to have the best place everywhere”. Kincaid’s character...
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...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...
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...ENGLISH 102 01/28/2014 Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” is a one paragraph story about a how a Caribbean mother teaches her daughter to be independent in her own way. Written in 1978, “Girl” teaches the lessons of a typical Caribbean woman in her short literary pieces. Kincaid’s story explicitly defining the roles of a woman in a manner to Kincaid’s may appear sexiest and seem to limit what a woman cannot do. However, Kincaid’s piece empowered allots various degrees of power, freedom and control to woman. In the story, a mother was giving her daughter advice about life, cooking, cleaning, men, and keeping up her reputation. Firstly, the mother stressed on woman and ferminity. She said “ this is how you iron your father’s Khaki pants so that they don’t have crease; this is how grow okra-far from the house, this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house, this is how you sweep a yard” (14). Here the she meant that ferminity means hard work but not just makeup and high heels but rather cleaning the house; keeping the house nice and neat. Accoording the mother being a woman synonymous with keeping a house clean and wants to pass it from generation to generation. Although ironing, preparing food, and house cleaning are traditional feminine roles and may seem insignificant, it should be not be forgotten that these roles cannot be ignored as a woman in Caribbean culture and some part of the world. The mother...
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...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...
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...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...
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...Analytic comparison According to society, a woman is often described as a feminine and delicate flower. During the earlier times women were depicted as weak and in need of a man to rescue them from life’s problems. Women were expected to do household chores and take care of children. As an infant, gender roles were assigned to children and certain games showcased the roles that women had to follow. In Jamaica Kincaid’s short narrative “Girl” the duties and responsibilities that are associated with being a woman are discussed, and Junot Diaz’s “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” dictates how to date women that are ethnically and racially different. These two stories, share some similarities such as point of view but are...
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...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...
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...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....
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...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...
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...Parent–Child Relationships As a child, my father and I didn’t have a good relationship. I’d hardly get to see him due to him working all the time. Whenever I did get to see him he would be so tired he’d easily get irritated and usually scold me. But as I got older we spent more time together and we got to learn more about each other. I learned that we had many things in common. We both liked soccer and working on cars. I realized that what made our relationship work was spending time together and getting to know each other better. Of course not every parent-child relationship is great, some have bigger faults than mine did. But there are also those which have flourished into really meaningful relationships. In the book The Bedford Reader there are many short stories about all types of parent-child relationships, some good ones and some bad ones. In “Arm Wrestling with My Father” by Brad Manning, Manning remembers always trying to beat his father at everything as a child. Be it correcting his verbal mistakes or beating him in a physical competition. Until he lost that competitive drive and realized that all he had with his father was a physical relationship. He realized that they never spent time together without it turning into some competition. He realized that his father never showed any fatherly love. His father always provided for them, kept a roof over their heads, and kept them safe. That is how his father said “I love you” to his family. The one time his father showed...
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...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,...
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...Resources for Teaching Prepared by Lynette Ledoux Copyright © 2007 by Bedford/St. Martin’s All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. 2 1 f e 0 9 d c 8 7 b a For information, write: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116 (617-399-4000) ISBN-10: 0–312–44705–1 ISBN-13: 978–0–312–44705–2 Instructors who have adopted Rereading America, Seventh Edition, as a textbook for a course are authorized to duplicate portions of this manual for their students. Preface This isn’t really a teacher’s manual, not, at least, in the sense of a catechism of questions and correct answers and interpretations. Because the questions provided after each selection in Rereading America are meant to stimulate dialogue and debate — to generate rather than terminate discourse — they rarely lend themselves to a single appropriate response. So, while we’ll try to clarify what we had in mind when framing a few of the knottier questions, we won’t be offering you a list of “right” answers. Instead, regard this manual as your personal support group. Since the publication of the first edition, we’ve had the chance to learn from the experiences of hundreds of instructors nationwide, and we’d like to use this manual as a forum where we can share some of their concerns, suggestions, experiments, and hints. We’ll begin with a roundtable on issues you’ll probably want to address before you meet your class. In the first section of this manual, we’ll discuss approaches to...
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...critical theory today critical theory today A Us e r - F r i e n d l y G u i d e S E C O N D E D I T I O N L O I S T Y S O N New York London Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN © 2006 by Lois Tyson Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business Printed in the United States of America on acid‑free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number‑10: 0‑415‑97410‑0 (Softcover) 0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑97410‑3 (Softcover) 978‑0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data Tyson, Lois, 1950‑ Critical theory today : a user‑friendly guide / Lois Tyson.‑‑ 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0‑415‑97409‑7 (hb) ‑‑ ISBN 0‑415‑97410‑0 (pb) 1. Criticism...
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