Analytical Response

Society is often seen to have different biases or perspectives on topics such as the role and perception of women. The short story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, consists primarily of a catalog of commands and instructions, the purpose of which is to make sure that the mother’s daughter is constantly in check and not getting into any trouble. Jamaica Kincaid utilizes a wide range of techniques such as symbolism and diction in order to showcase the theme of how the depiction of women rely mainly on how they present themselves in the public and how they are so easily described as impure or filthy.

A Doll’s House and The Importance of Being Earnest were both written in the late nineteenth century at a period in time when gender roles in society were not only significant to the structure of society but were restrictive and oppressive to individuals. This was particularly true in the case of women who were seen as the upholders of morals in polite society and were expected to behave accordingly. A Doll’s House and The Importance of Being Earnest challenge society and its inclination to categorise and expect certain behaviour of individuals based on their gender.

“Girl” is a short story in which the author, Jamaica Kincaid, unofficially presents the stereotypes of girls in the mid 1900s. Kincaid includes two major characters in the story “Girl”, they are the mother and the girl. Although the daughter only asks two questions in this story, she is the major character. The mother feels like her daughter is going in the wrong direction and not making the best decisions in her life. The whole story is basically the mother telling her daughter what affects her decisions will have in the future. The mother believes that because her daughter isn’t sitting, talking, cleaning, walking or singing correctly it will lead her to a path of destruction. “Girl” is a reflection of female sexuality, the power of family, and how family can help overcome future dangers.

At the time this novel was published, women did as they were expected to by society.

During the nineteenth and twentieth century there was a number of changes made in America. Woman were looked at as less than back then and to a certain degree they still are today. There was a number of women that died or went insane because of the standards that they had to meet in order to be considered good women. In this research paper I will talk about the experience of the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper and Blanche DuBois from the story A Streetcar Named Desire. It will be shown within these pages how the moral and societal standards for women were far different than they were for men, and how the standards changed over the years. Furthermore it will be shown how this effected the women of those two stories.

In Jamaica Kincaid’s story, Girl, a mother is talking to her daughter about all the proper things she must do to be considered a good girl to her family and to the public, and when she grows up, a proper lady. She must follow the rules that are given to her by her own mother and by society. The mother also teaches the daughter how to act when things don’t go her way. She is told that along with being a proper lady, she must also be able to get what she wants and be independent. This story was written in the late 1970’s and gender roles, for women, back then were not being “followed” because women wanted equal opportunities (Women In the Workforce). “Gender stereotypes are beliefs regarding the traits and behavioral characteristics given to individuals on the basis of their gender” (Deuhr). This essay will discuss the gender roles that were given to women in the story, during the late 70’s, and in today’s society.

The book Crescendo takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions. In the book Patch is hanging out with Marcie Miller more than Nora. Everywhere Marcie is she sees Patch right behind her. Nora was snooping around Marcie’s room to find out the secret relationship between Patch and Marcie. In this journal I will be evaluating, predicting, and visualizing.

From the start the girlchild was given gifts that stained in her mind as what she was suppose to become in life. With the little dolls, GE stoves and irons, and lipstick her parents put this ideal image of the perfect woman in her head. With these types of presents the girlchild is already learning her role in society.

     At the same time, the readings of the women's masculinity and androgyny must be similarly reconsidered. While Irving reads Lena as one who "conforms more readily than Ántonia" and assimilates in a manner "too complete" in that "she, like Jim, is lethargic" (100), I would argue that Lena's refusal to marry and her achievement of the independent, successful life she sought belie any ready categorization of reinforced hegemony, undermining standard patriarchal demands; and her success can be contrasted with Jim's loveless marriage and the vague reference to the "disappointments" that have failed to quell his "naturally romantic and ardent disposition" (4). Similarly, as Gilbert and Gubar highlight, the happiness of the "masculine" hired girls stands in stark contrast with the emotional restriction to which town wives are subjected: "Energetic and jolly, Mrs. Harling must stop all the activities of her household so as to devote herself entirely to her husband" (197). While it may be true that "their disturbing androgynous qualities, and their unwillingness to accept traditional female roles" position the hired girls as "outsiders" (Wussow 52) and that these facts can be read as critical of the feminine, it seems more

Louisa May Alcott's novel, Little Women, tries to illustrate a favorable portrait of the honourable lives that four young girls and their mother lead in their allotted roles in this patriarchal culture. The book becomes almost an instruction of how young ladies should act in order to gain respect, find husbands, and then experience happiness in their further lives. In Little Women, one of the March girls, Jo, is the most resistant to bind, this social opinion. At a very young age, Jo dislikes the restrictions put on her by being a female; "I can't get over my disappointment at not being a boy...I can only stay at home and knit like a pokey old woman" (Clark,

Girls, young women, and mature mothers. Society has consistently given women strict guidelines, rules and principles on how to be an appropriate member of a man’s society. These rules are set at a young age and enforced thoroughly into adulthood. When not followed accordingly, women often times too many face reprimanding through means of verbal abuse, physical abuse, or social exile. In the midst of all these strict guidelines and social etiquette for girls, a social rebellion started among girls and women and gender roles were broken, however the social rebellion did not and does not affect all girls and women. For instance, in less socially developed places, young girls on the brink of womanhood are still strongly persuaded to be a man’s idea of a “woman”.

Throughout the evolution of the world’s societies, the roles of women seem to act as a reflection of the time period since they set the tones for the next generation. Regardless of their own actions, women generally appear to take on a lower social standing and receive an altered treatment by men. In Mark Twain’s pre-civil war novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, lies a display of how society treats and views women, as well as how they function in their roles, specifically in regards to religion and molding the minds and futures of children. The novel’s showcase of women affords them a platform and opportunity to better see their own situation and break away with a new voice.

The classic tale of “Little Woman” has taken a place on many bookshelves throughout the world. The story follows the March girls through 15 years of their lives and is written in a very pronounced omniscient voice. Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy live with their mother in New England. Their father is away serving as a chaplain in the war, and the sisters struggle to support themselves and keep their household together. In the process, they become close friends with their wealthy neighbor, Theodore Laurence, known as "Laurie." As the girls grow older, each faces her own challenges in life. Jo, the main character, wishes to have the freedom of a man but she also must learn to be a lady while pursuing her ambition to be a great writer in the male dominate word. Meg, the oldest child, puts away her love for finer things in order to marry the one she loves. Beth, the third born, must learn to be more out-going, and Amy, the youngest, must learn that it’s not all about her and she must learn to think of others. The girl’s mother, "Marmee," sets an example of a perfect house wife. Meg falls in love with John Brooke, Laurie's tutor. This seems to spark Laurie’s emotions and he reveals to Jo that he has fallen in love with her, but she refuses him, saying that she cannot care for him the way he wants her to. Jo goes to New York as the governess to escape the awkward situation at home and tries her hand at professional writing. Meanwhile, Amy travels through Europe with the March’s wealthy

The first volume Little Women was an immediate commercial and critical success prompting the composition of the book’s second volume Good Wives which was successful as well. The publication of the book as a single volume first occurred in 1880 and was titled Little Women. The novel chronicles the lives of the March family; Father, Marmee, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy and it details the struggles of the March women to find sustenance for their family and identities of their own in a masculine society. The novel is a manifestation of four sisters embodying four models of femininity, possibly even four models of

In Victorian England, “the bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation” (Engels). This upper middle class, the bourgeois, was divided into separate spheres determined by their “natural characteristics” such as being male or female (Gender 1). The bourgeois society’s main concern was their outward appearance and materialism while gaining respectability among their social class. A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, criticizes Victorian bourgeois society and their strict adherence to gender roles. As Nora Helmer walked away from her family, she generated a “door slam heard around the world” (“A Doll’s House” 1).