Putting Girls in Boxes
Both Jamaica Kincaid and Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote with the purpose of informing others of the difficulties faced by women. Kincaid’s short story “Girl” expresses the way a mother places her daughter in a box and expects her daughter to remain there. Similarly in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator’s husband John diagnoses the narrator with a mental illness and expects her to remain within her room resting and not doing anything. Through the development of the characters, point of view, and conflict, both of these stories portray women who are affected by the boxes they are placed in.
In “Girl” there is only two possible characters: a mother and her daughter. In the dialogue from the mother to her daughter …show more content…
In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator is supposed to lie there not taxing her mind or body so she can heal. While in “Girl”, Kincaid shows the expectations of mothers for their daughters. What differs the most is how the conflict is handled, while the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” tries to defy some of the restrictions placed upon her, the daughter in “Girl” only questions some of the things her mother says. The mother’s words also sound like what someone lists off when they are trying to remember something. Thus creating a sense that the girl wants to follow her mother’s advice but still has confusion about the advice given to her. Contrastingly, the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is fully aware of the reasons her husband and her sister-in-law keep her locked up; but she goes against their wishes by writing. The narrator writes about the wallpaper and how she wishes John would change it or she could leave, but she can’t and it drives her insane. Once the narrator has a mental breakdown, she sees herself as a woman from the wallpaper. The narrator was placed in a room that was figuratively a box and then found her own way out of it: losing her
Both Jamaica Kincaid and Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote with the purpose of informing others of the difficulties faced by women. Kincaid’s short story “Girl” expresses the way a mother places her daughter in a box and expects her daughter to remain there. Similarly in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator’s husband John diagnoses the narrator with a mental illness and expects her to remain within her room resting and not doing anything. Through the development of the characters, point of view, and conflict, both of these stories portray women who are affected by the boxes they are placed in.
In “Girl” there is only two possible characters: a mother and her daughter. In the dialogue from the mother to her daughter …show more content…
In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator is supposed to lie there not taxing her mind or body so she can heal. While in “Girl”, Kincaid shows the expectations of mothers for their daughters. What differs the most is how the conflict is handled, while the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” tries to defy some of the restrictions placed upon her, the daughter in “Girl” only questions some of the things her mother says. The mother’s words also sound like what someone lists off when they are trying to remember something. Thus creating a sense that the girl wants to follow her mother’s advice but still has confusion about the advice given to her. Contrastingly, the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is fully aware of the reasons her husband and her sister-in-law keep her locked up; but she goes against their wishes by writing. The narrator writes about the wallpaper and how she wishes John would change it or she could leave, but she can’t and it drives her insane. Once the narrator has a mental breakdown, she sees herself as a woman from the wallpaper. The narrator was placed in a room that was figuratively a box and then found her own way out of it: losing her