Image Expectations: A Comparison
In the nearly not-a-short-story “Girl,” Jamaica Kincaid tells of a girl growing up in Antigua and receiving a long list of rules from her mother, while in the short story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” Karen Russell writes about girls who were raised by wolves until taking in and reformed to fit into human society by nuns. Both stories have significant differences, but despite them, both “Girl” and “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” share the issue of gender and the world 's forced and limiting image of a “perfect” girl. The girls from both stories deal with the pressures of becoming a "perfect" girl through the world’s high expectations of what their appearance, behavior, and relationships …show more content…
To be considered a “perfect” girl they must appear ladylike. Kincaid’s unnamed girl from “Girl” is told multiple times that she must keep up her appearance. An example of this in when she is told by her mother, “…this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming …” (Kincaid 271). The girl in the short story has done nothing wrong, but her mother insists if she does not have the right skirt-length she will become a “slut” or an outcast of some sort. In “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” as well, the girls are expected to keep a ladylike appearance. One of the girls, Claudette, is practicing her walking skills when she mutters to herself, “Keep your mouth shut…Keep your shoes on your feet. Mouth shut, shoes on feet” (Russell 240). She must learn to walk and to hold her tongue to become a proper and prim girl, so when she looks the part she can act the …show more content…
In “Girl” the mother 's final words to her daughter are, “…you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?” (271). This suggests that she will become a slut if she does not follow her mother’s guidelines, and overall will become a disappointment to her. It also becomes clear, in Russell’s short story, that the girls wish to please their mother when Claudette says, “But we knew we couldn’t return to the woods; not till we were civilized, not if we didn’t want to break the mother’s heart” (240). Instead of running away, they chose to become respectable ladies that their mother can be proud of, even if it means sacrificing their own happiness and
In the nearly not-a-short-story “Girl,” Jamaica Kincaid tells of a girl growing up in Antigua and receiving a long list of rules from her mother, while in the short story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” Karen Russell writes about girls who were raised by wolves until taking in and reformed to fit into human society by nuns. Both stories have significant differences, but despite them, both “Girl” and “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” share the issue of gender and the world 's forced and limiting image of a “perfect” girl. The girls from both stories deal with the pressures of becoming a "perfect" girl through the world’s high expectations of what their appearance, behavior, and relationships …show more content…
To be considered a “perfect” girl they must appear ladylike. Kincaid’s unnamed girl from “Girl” is told multiple times that she must keep up her appearance. An example of this in when she is told by her mother, “…this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming …” (Kincaid 271). The girl in the short story has done nothing wrong, but her mother insists if she does not have the right skirt-length she will become a “slut” or an outcast of some sort. In “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” as well, the girls are expected to keep a ladylike appearance. One of the girls, Claudette, is practicing her walking skills when she mutters to herself, “Keep your mouth shut…Keep your shoes on your feet. Mouth shut, shoes on feet” (Russell 240). She must learn to walk and to hold her tongue to become a proper and prim girl, so when she looks the part she can act the …show more content…
In “Girl” the mother 's final words to her daughter are, “…you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?” (271). This suggests that she will become a slut if she does not follow her mother’s guidelines, and overall will become a disappointment to her. It also becomes clear, in Russell’s short story, that the girls wish to please their mother when Claudette says, “But we knew we couldn’t return to the woods; not till we were civilized, not if we didn’t want to break the mother’s heart” (240). Instead of running away, they chose to become respectable ladies that their mother can be proud of, even if it means sacrificing their own happiness and