In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, this is a complicated
In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, this is a complicated
To a certain degree, the short story is presented to the readers as a compilation of life instructions from mother to daughter on how to conduct herself in a way such that she does not jeopardize her future social status. Almost vehemently, the mother wants to be sure that her daughter has all the possible information that she can pass on to her. The mother wants to minimize the risk of her daughter failing in life by not knowing all the details that are involved in becoming a proper lady in the post-colonial, Antiguan society in the late 1970s. In this fashion, the mother pushes her commanding instructions onto the girl to the point of overstepping boundaries. Next, the mother starts degrading her daughter when she practically accuses her of being improper by saying, “.…
The child is at a stage where they wish not to be apart from their mother or to carry out tasks on their own. They are at the stage of needing someone, a constant support for them. In “To Any Reader” in contrast to “How to be Gravity”, it is quite obvious that the mother is aching for a younger version of her child “For, long ago” (Stevenson line 13). This mother’s child has clearly grown up and she is attempting to grasp the memories of her darling child when she was their world and she knew everything that her child was up to. This is exactly what the second mother is somewhat dreading – not knowing about everything about her child.…
In addition, the author has successfully illustrated the role of mother in the society in bringing up the girl child. The author illustrates that mothers are responsible for advising their daughters. However, daughters can at times go against the wishes of their mothers. He also eludes the fact that parenthood is a tough responsibility and that the society expects parents to impart good morals to their…
Therefore a conflict between Jing Mei and her mother is created within the story that leads to more conflicts as her mother wants her to be someone that is not her. The conflicts in the story are person vs. person, person vs. self, and person vs. society. First of all the main conflict (person vs. person) Tan presents is Jing Mei’s mother trying to make her daughter be perfect, and Jing mei refusing to be perfect. For example, “Why don’t you like me the way I am? I’m not a genius!” (45).…
She yearns to be remembered for something extraordinary. It is because of this that the girl aspires to live a different life. As the mom follows the girl, she wipes away her writing which symbolizes the mother wiping away the daughters dreams. However, from the mother’s point of view we see her urge to protect her daughter from the unknown. The daughter views her mother 's actions as a way of keeping her in, but in reality the mother is simply doing what she knows.…
She is pressured to help Emily become a certain women yet; she is financially restricted. The mother is told that Emily has a gift. An ideal mother would be ecstatic and overjoyed knowing their daughter had a unique characteristic which set them apart from everyone else but, Emily’s mother is sad knowing she can’t do much about it. Jennifer Baxter and Michael Alexander claim that “the interplay between the work and home environments is crucial” (196) it is important for the mother to balance work life and home life. The mother’s limitations make it nearly impossible for her to balance the needs of her daughter and the need to…
In today’s society family relationships are very important factors to how we as humans develop. However one of the most important relationships for a daughter is the one between her and her mother. In the past this relationship was more so to prime and prep the daughter to grow up and become a proper woman and mother. This can be seen in the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid’s where the mother is literally teaching and molding the girl the way the mother thinks a women should be, and the daughter listens obediently. But in the short story, “Saving Sourdi” by May-Lee Chai you see a mother-daughter relationship that resembles more of today’s society expectations, where the mother raises the child to believe they should grow up a certain way…
As she ranted off about what to do I realized it was a lot of women tasks so I see it as her mother wanting her to have a good social status as women so she doesn’t end up single. Kincaid was a single woman when this story was published and her experience might have influenced the story’s perspective and contributed to wanting her daughter to be the greatest. What she said that struck me to realize she was giving tips/directions on how to become a woman with high social status would be when she mentions, “don’t squat down to play marbles- you are not a boy, you know”, she is sure to cover many topics from cleaning, fixing things, and acting in a correct manner she clearly cares about her daughter’s whole future (Kincaid 185). This is even more clear when she says, “this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you”, letting her know exactly what it is when a man is treating you the way he shouldn’t so she can back away when she needs and if she needs to protect herself from a man how to do so (Kincaid 185). She doesn’t want to see her daughter end up alone, because of her experience being single.…
We even mentioned in class that Mr. Dombey compared them to be “like sisters.” I believe that Edith was overall scared of becoming a mother to Florence because of her own painful experiences with her own mother. Edith wanted to protect and love Florence as best as possible. I think this idea of them appearing to have a more sisterly relationship is because of this fear that Edith holds. She does not want to destroy Florence’s life the same way Mrs. Skewton destroyed her own, so she took care of Florence the way an older, more experienced sister would take care of a younger, naïve sister. Her love that shone on Florence gave her step-daughter happiness for a short while, and Florence’s happiness was one of the only things Edith truly cared about in the world.…
Both Jeanette’s mother and Adora are presented as phallic mothers, whose engulfing tendencies menace to absorb completely their daughters. They do not seem to have any genuine bond with their offspring, who are exploited to pursue their own objectives. By creating a perfect instrument of God, Jeanette’s mother is willing to demonstrate the exactitude of her ideas and claim for her the girl future she could not have for herself. Adora used her children to play the role of the perfect mother and gain the respect and admiration of the Wind Gap community, trying to compensate for Joya’s detachment with strangers’ admiration. The daughters’ reaction to their mothers’ demands are profoundly different too.…