Girl By Jamaica Kincaid And Small Great Things By Jodi Picoult

The world is very diverse, as different cultures believe and value a variety of things, many still have their own opinion on how others should act and try to force others to act and believe what they believe. When the short story Girl by Jamaica Kincaid and the novel “Small Great Things” by Jodi Picoult were both written “culture” was different. As for the women during that time period should stay in the house and clean, like in Girl and in “Small Great Things” Ruth was having a rough time at work for being black and the girl was getting in trouble for ‘acting out of line’. Although both of these “cultural” issues have changed since the time these books were written, both still happen today. While both books cover controversial differences, …show more content…
But what if how the girl interpreted from what the mother said wasn’t how the mother meant for her daughter to interpret all of their “talks”. The way the daughters sees what her mom is saying, is that she is being too wild and carefree and that she needs to consider what her actions will make others think about her and her family. But what if the mother thought she was just giving her daughter loving motherly advice. Girl was written during the 1900s, when women were stereotyped as people who stayed at the house and did all the cleaning while men did all the hard work. If a woman chose not to act a certain way, she would not be respected anymore. The mother constantly accused the girl of doing many inappropriate things. The accusations from her mother affected the way she has perceived her mother throughout the years. While Girl does partially show the different sides of different cultures, “Small Great Things” goes into more depth about different …show more content…
But in “Small Great Things”, we read how people are affected by others opinions. Like how the dad is affected by Ruth, how Ruth gets affected by the dad’s reactions to Ruth, and how Ruth’s son, coworkers, and lawyer are all affected by what one person believes. The dad, Turk, believes all black people are bad from the experience with his brother, but by the end of the book his whole perspective changes. Ruth is affected because she is left without a job while being accused of being a murderer. In the book “Small Great Things” Ruth end up needing a Lawyer, so when it gets to the trial she doesn’t have one. But when Ruth’s trial came up, a lawyer named Kennedy McQuarrie ended up being in the courtroom and helping ruth out. So, all in all, the book “Small Great Things” is told by many different Perspectives, but specifically by Ruth, Turk, and Kennedy. Besides the different perspectives in both the stories, they both are ended