How Style, Tone, and Characterization in Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” Show the Universal Pressures on Woman in a Patriarchal Society "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid reveals the overwhelming pressure on young women to look and act in certain ways in order to please men and society. Through the use of the literary elements style, tone, and characterization, Jamaica Kincaid is able to place the reader into the shoes of a young Caribbean girl as her mother describes to her what she must do in order to protect her reputation and grow into a respectable woman. Gender and gender-roles are a main theme in this work as scholar Carol Bailey writes in her article, Performance and the Gendered Body in Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” and Oonya Kempadoo’s Buxton Spice,
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At first glance, this short story may not appear to be a short story at all, barely one page in length, “Girl” does not use the traditional format seen in most short stories as it is one long sentence within one large paragraph. The use of this format causes the reader to feel overwhelmed with information. It also creates a feeling of urgency while reading, which in turn causes the reader to read through the story quickly, perhaps missing some information and needing to re-read the short story a second or even third time. In her article, The Rhythm of Reality in the Works of Jamaica Kincaid, scholar Diane Simmons describes Kincaid’s style of writing as “manipulative” in how it how it draws in the reader (467). This style of writing and the feeling the structure of the story gives to the reader is symbolic of the pressures felt by young women as they are told over and over again how to behave within and navigate through …show more content…
The daughter is portrayed as timid, and consequently only speaks twice, in which she defends her innocence to her mother: “But I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school…” (Kincaid 483). The mother does not respond to the daughter adding to the dismissive characterization of the mother. The instructions the mother gives show the girl “how to perform and protect oneself from discrimination when she is under the proverbial watchful eye of this patriarchal community,” (Bailey 111). In this society, female power is limited, and it is made evident that women only control their domestic responsibilities and their sexuality. It is clear the daughter does not have power in this relationship which echoes a woman’s power in this patriarchal society and the dismissive nature of men. Scholar Liz Brent writes in her essay, Overview of “Girl”, that the real power is in the mother’s dialouge and that they “envelop the daughter within the strict confines of her own set of values and expectations,” (para. 3). The daughter is characterized as being oppressed, and as the reader we can feel the pressure to satisfy the mother and her demands which echoes the pressures felt by all
At first glance, this short story may not appear to be a short story at all, barely one page in length, “Girl” does not use the traditional format seen in most short stories as it is one long sentence within one large paragraph. The use of this format causes the reader to feel overwhelmed with information. It also creates a feeling of urgency while reading, which in turn causes the reader to read through the story quickly, perhaps missing some information and needing to re-read the short story a second or even third time. In her article, The Rhythm of Reality in the Works of Jamaica Kincaid, scholar Diane Simmons describes Kincaid’s style of writing as “manipulative” in how it how it draws in the reader (467). This style of writing and the feeling the structure of the story gives to the reader is symbolic of the pressures felt by young women as they are told over and over again how to behave within and navigate through …show more content…
The daughter is portrayed as timid, and consequently only speaks twice, in which she defends her innocence to her mother: “But I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school…” (Kincaid 483). The mother does not respond to the daughter adding to the dismissive characterization of the mother. The instructions the mother gives show the girl “how to perform and protect oneself from discrimination when she is under the proverbial watchful eye of this patriarchal community,” (Bailey 111). In this society, female power is limited, and it is made evident that women only control their domestic responsibilities and their sexuality. It is clear the daughter does not have power in this relationship which echoes a woman’s power in this patriarchal society and the dismissive nature of men. Scholar Liz Brent writes in her essay, Overview of “Girl”, that the real power is in the mother’s dialouge and that they “envelop the daughter within the strict confines of her own set of values and expectations,” (para. 3). The daughter is characterized as being oppressed, and as the reader we can feel the pressure to satisfy the mother and her demands which echoes the pressures felt by all