“Girl” written by Jamaica Kincaid is an unusual writing that portrays a mother’s list of rules that her daughter must obey in order to be accepted in society. Having no knowledge about what culture or time period this was, the reader can understand about how a woman must portray herself to the outside world. The reading also concentrates on a variety of issues including gender, social class, and feminist criticism between mother and daughter. Also, the reader can easily identify that the story is about a mother telling her daughter how to become a traditional woman in all of the common things a household wife would do to survive. Overall, the mother expresses a strict relationship by the tone the author portrayed on her towards the daughter,
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The mother stated, “this is how you 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” (483). The reader can see how important it is for the mother on what the outside world thinks of her daughter while walking the streets, therefore showing the strict relationship, or tough affection, she has towards her daughter. Carol Bailey stated on the article “Performance and the Gendered Body in Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl””, that these instructions connect mainly to domestic chores, but also include instructions for social instructions and good behavior. This can go back to how society pretty much portrays a woman and being afraid of rejection. “This is how you set a table for breakfast”(483), “this is how to behave in the presence of men”(483), and “always eat your food in such way”(483) can be some illustration on how women are expected to behave, especially with the male gender. It can be assumed, that the mother indeed learned a valuable lesson during her young age and now is trying to make her daughter provide a good example by presenting her to what can be called the role of a woman or the community of women, which can be something she did not have the opportunity to …show more content…
The mother tells this harsh word to her daughter, however it can be infer that the mother never directly told her that she was actually a slut, she was simply trying to tell her to change her attitude and behavior, otherwise she would actually be heading there. She was not sleeping around, but the reader can predict that she was a very provocative girl by the many advice the mother would give her, such as behaving properly in front of a male. This can show the strict relationship both of these had and the mother was trying to discipline her by being tough and difficult to deal with. Other than that, the mother still loved her daughter, in her own way, and was trying to make her life to something better than what the daughter was heading
The mother stated, “this is how you 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” (483). The reader can see how important it is for the mother on what the outside world thinks of her daughter while walking the streets, therefore showing the strict relationship, or tough affection, she has towards her daughter. Carol Bailey stated on the article “Performance and the Gendered Body in Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl””, that these instructions connect mainly to domestic chores, but also include instructions for social instructions and good behavior. This can go back to how society pretty much portrays a woman and being afraid of rejection. “This is how you set a table for breakfast”(483), “this is how to behave in the presence of men”(483), and “always eat your food in such way”(483) can be some illustration on how women are expected to behave, especially with the male gender. It can be assumed, that the mother indeed learned a valuable lesson during her young age and now is trying to make her daughter provide a good example by presenting her to what can be called the role of a woman or the community of women, which can be something she did not have the opportunity to …show more content…
The mother tells this harsh word to her daughter, however it can be infer that the mother never directly told her that she was actually a slut, she was simply trying to tell her to change her attitude and behavior, otherwise she would actually be heading there. She was not sleeping around, but the reader can predict that she was a very provocative girl by the many advice the mother would give her, such as behaving properly in front of a male. This can show the strict relationship both of these had and the mother was trying to discipline her by being tough and difficult to deal with. Other than that, the mother still loved her daughter, in her own way, and was trying to make her life to something better than what the daughter was heading