The poem gives me an understanding that even though a mother can give us the privilege of life in this world, they cannot control their children 's life for eternity. They cannot control the time or prevent their children the phases of adolescence. As they are referred to "the rebel days. " The mother is realizing that her daughter 's life and ideas are no longer in her hands. The change is symbolized by her daughter 's haircut.…
Society has always had a slight disgust and misconception of a women. The negative approach of society towards a female figure is always directed towards a female’s body, what a female wears and what she does degrades her image of being the delicate goddess she was created to be. In the poem “The Lady dressing room” by Jonathan Swift and an essay titled “A Modest Proposal” also written by Jonathan swift. He uses tone, form and style to share a social problem of the time in which women are being morally attacked and degraded by man.…
In the article by scholar Carol Bailey, his focus is on the idea “preserving the self” Bailey states that readers of “Girl” only observe only the fictional representation of how to educate a child. Bailey points out how the speaker of “girl” provides many guidelines of living and lectures to the girl, but the girl has no room for discussion to defend herself. The idea that there is no room for discussion comes from the repetitions of “This is how” in Kincaid’s work “Girl” (Bailey 108). The constant nagging to a child of “This is how” gives the child no sense of just simply learning from her mistakes, instead she has to always strive to be correct. In order for women to be successful they need to appropriately perform their gender based on their culture, constantly being judge whether they do or…
From the beginning, specific gender roles can be viewed in numerous occasions shown to depict the time period of which the movie is presented. In the commencement of the movie, a dinner scene examines a young girl as her mother instructs the proper self presentation at a dinner table. During the early 1910’s, gender roles provided a specific etiquette for which a female should present passive and submissive qualities. Moreover, women demonstrated unique skills that may be associated with cultural expectations and social class…
The story “Girl” revolves entirely on the mother berating her daughter and teaching her what she’s expected to become and the role she has as an Antiguan women. The reader can infer that the author could possibly be talking about her own life when she was a small child. It’s obvious that as a woman in that time period, one had to live up to certain expectations. For example, the mother tells her daughter that she has to sweep the whole house, set the table for dinner, sew and iron clothes, along with many household chores. Perhaps the author was told this by her own mother out of fear for her child.…
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,…
Harriet Jacobs was born a slave in Edenton, North Carolina but died a free woman and abolitionist (HJ XXI). She was unaware of her status as a slave until she was about six years old while living with close relations to her mother, father, brother, and grandmother (HJ 5). Throughout Jacobs’ life, the struggle with religion was apparent in her novel, constantly torn between the belief and doubt in a good higher power. Harriet Jacob’s views of religion wavers throughout her lifetime.…
“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,…
“Girl”: The oppressive attitudes exhibited in a mother-daughter relationship In today’s society parenting styles are more on the side of trial and error, however twenty years ago parenting styles were of a dominant demeanor. In this short story, the oppressive, arduous manner of the mother reflects back to how parents nurtured their children. “Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid, employs the structure of word choice to capture the commanding tone which creates themes: that depict the mother- daughter relationship.…
In reading world literature, it becomes abundantly clear that the reality of women being subjected to different and sometimes harsh treatment by society is not a regional or even a national truth. It is a theme that is extended from the beginning of time until present day in literary works. While there are many examples of this truth, Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” is exceptionally poignant. Kincaid’s careful use of form and character identities work in perfect tandem to convey the truths of human femininity.…
Since the 20th century, feminism has brought on a perspective of interpreting literature which emphasizes equality for women. In Anita’s Dance by Marian Engel, the critical feminist perspective of the writing, in my opinion, shows the struggle of how women struggle to find the respect and therefore equality of males. Showalter's approaches: the French, the American, and the female sub-text of tragedy that answer the different questions to what men see the role of women being and how this restricts the advancements and evolution of females. Then there is the 3 stages of feminism which women utilize to find the long ignored equality between the genders. Anita’s Dance is a short story which depicts the struggle of a women to break free from the stereotypical and victorian definition for the ‘role of a women’.…
As the story continues, it seems as if there is another struggle for this girl. The struggle often unseen to the rest of the male driven public. The struggle of being a girl or a woman. This is a struggle many can’t comment on because they haven’t lived it, but Kincaid has. One of the more attention-grabbing lines, “On Sundays walk like a lady and not the slut you are so bent on becoming” let’s one know that there is something inside of a woman that she fights every day.…
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, “. . .…
Shortly after being hired, Kincaid published her first piece, “Girl,” in which a girl is given advice about how to act, dress, and work to ensure the girl is not viewed as a poor mother and husband. The topics addressed in this short story reflect…
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).…