Girl By Jamaica Kincaid Analysis

The object of examining gender roles is to answer the question why should women and men be equal and "Are there populations in which men and women are absolutely equal? Are there societies in which women dominate men?" (Gender 238) By understanding the culture in which this piece of literature is written, the gender roles and the rules of behavior for a woman, then the relationships between genders can be realized. The general myth about women and their gender role in the American society is that the mother works in the home and supports her man in every way. For each relationship, the people in that relationship must decide the particular roles that they will play. In the literary work "Girl", Kincaid shows clearly that the woman's role in this work was to serve the family and to work mainly in the house. The mother writing this story tells her daughter that "this is how you iron your father's khaki shirt so that it doesn't have a crease" (Kincaid 489). In this marriage, it is understood that the wife is to do the laundry for the husband. Today's society does not always provide these clear roles since many women work a full time job and the house chores are a responsibility for both to handle. Though the woman is still mainly held responsible for the home. There should be a constant search for equality in gender roles. Kincaid explains how the man is working to bring home the money and the wife supports

In the short story “Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid is told from the perspective of two different people. There is a bonding relationship that is happening between the two people in this short story. The mother seems to be the main character in this essay uses a very strict tone to her daughter. The daughter is being told about how to do things in her life the correct way. The daughter barely speaks during this essay, she is doing more analyzing than arguing with her mother. When the mother gives the daughter advise she was trying to give her words of wisdom. But, at the same time, some of the ideas the mother gave to her child was offensive like “slut”. The mother has different perspectives throughout this essay with a lot of different

The mother also teaches her daughter to cook, clean, and wash which traditionally is up to the women in a household to do. Kincaid makes the reader think and figure out for him, or herself, what point of life the child is in and what gender they are in order to draw them into the story.

The narration of the mother lecturing her daughter with commanding diction leads to the theme of women conforming to domesticity and if they don’t conform then they will lead a life of promiscuity that will affect the way people perceive them. Women in the past believed that a woman’s role was that of a domesticated housewife. The narration of the third point of view in this story and the commanding diction of it places an importance in the reinforcement of this idea, that if a woman doesn’t follow social norms, she will eventually turn to a “slut” one that her family will be ashamed of. She must set the table for lunch and for breakfast that is “how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know [her] very well, and that it the way they won’t recognize immediately the slut that [the mother has] warned her against becoming.”(Kincaid 485) through her commanding diction, the mother is telling her daughter how to set a table, how to cook, she

The poem “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is a lengthy poem describing society and the social structure in the early 50’s from what it sounds. The short story “Girl,” deals with the experience of being young and female in a poor country. This poem describes a time when stereotypical gender roles where a huge part of society women had duties that only women could do such as clean, cook, wash clothing, watch the children and ect. And the men were head of the house hold and preserved as high and mighty, the untouchables by women and children. “This is how you iron your father 's khaki shirt so that it doesn 't have a crease; this is how you iron your father 's khaki pants so that they don 't have a crease;”(Kincaid) is an example of how the poem spells out how the women are supposed to cater to men, how to act in public settings and a variety of other things women were “meant to do” or as ordered by men.

In Kincaids short story “Girl” our narrator is describing the ways a traditional woman must act in West Indian culture. Dominated by males, women are given a set of guidelines that are found to be socially acceptable in their culture. The narrator is given a set of rules to her daughter that she must learn and follow in order to become a proper lady in India. In order to not be seen as a slut she must obey these rules. It is her duty to cook and clean for her household, even act a certain way in the presence of men.

In a stream of authoritative orders of domestic chores, appearance, and behavior, a female in the short story, “Girl”, depicts her overwhelmingly self-conscious actions during her repetitive inner dialogue. All the necessary knowledge and skills the girl must know is a reflection of society’s requirements for women to avoid shame. However, her effort in maintaining a perfect appearance may not guarantee a respectful standing in society. The author, Kincaid, sheds light on society’s judgmental and demanding expectations towards girls through repetition, symbolism, and imagery.

When I first read through Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl,” I’ll admit my first reaction to the piece was relief at the short length. However, as I processed what she was writing, my appreciation for the piece deepened. It is rapid and blatantly lays out the standards that Kincaid was held to during her childhood. It is written as though the reader is on the receiving end of a harsh set of rules, seeing their brutality from Kincaid’s perspective. Originally, I believed Kincaid’s purpose for writing this piece was to highlight the stark contrast in the treatment of men and women.

There are always a “to-do list” and a “how-to-do list” in the life of a female. In a patriarchal society, female responsibility includes “Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry…” (Kincaid 1). At a young age, a mother would trained her daughters several things, so they can become a proper lady. Kincaid inserts “this is how you iron your father’s khaki shirt so that it doesn’t have a crease…this is how you sweep a whole house…this is how you set a table for dinner…this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make good medicine for a cold…” (Kincaid 1-2). The mother controls her daughter and told her to act like a proper lady. The limited talking of the daughter in the story also reveals that there is no talk back, only obey. The instructions for her daughter illustrates the gender formations; the mother want her daughter to act like a lady because she knew if her daughter refuses, she would be called a slut. In a patriarchal society, women’s role is to serve men. The mother trained her daughter so that she was able to serve her future husband

How we should dress, the amount of makeup we should wear, and the way that we present ourselves is very important. This view of society forces women to look a certain way to fit into the acceptance of the world outside. This is can be seen in Kincaid’s short story “Girl”. When speaking to the daughter the mother, who is the narrator, stresses the importance of what is deemed as acceptable to dress with examples such as “how to hem a dress when you see the hen coming down” (Kincaid). This phrase is often linked to the derogatory word “slut”, which is used to negatively describe what could possibly become of the daughter.

While literature to some may be inspirational, compared to others seeing it as lifeless, everyone obtains their own opinions due to having some type of feeling towards the writing. Whether appreciation falls with characters or ends resenting them, you learn how to analyze the material from your own perspective. Likewise, the author's style can impact a reader's interest depending on the setup of the piece, but overall whenever material is read, the reader creates their own opinion on the story. The story being analyzed within is called Girl by Jamaica Kincaid.

Although the story is only 650 words long, analyzing it from the feminist criticism, it has a very deep and vast meaning. It has prevailed around 30 years ago, now the society is changing rapidly and so is the perspective and viewpoint towards the woman. The narrator in this short story is the girl, who can be assumed to be a girl entering adolescence, it can be said so as she is been taught how to do all the household work and how to deal with her sexuality. From the very first line instructions are being given to the girl on how to do the household work “Wash the clothes on Monday…” (Kincaid). It shows that females were expected to do all the work in the house with no doubt and with no questions. They were supposed to do it all by themselves and it was taught as soon as a girl grows as if they were destined to do that in her life. It can be clearly said that there was less or no options for girls. By learning the household work and being perfecting on it, it was believed to be the way to be a good woman or an acceptable woman in the society. Women were treated like a machine, expected to do the work with a less expectation, just like the machine needs fuel, oil to work and handled by an operator, in the same way, women would work with less or no expectation but the acceptability in the society and handled by the society itself.

In the poem Jamaica Kincaid use the Point of view of the mother teaching the daughter how to clean, prepare clothes and prepare food for the husband so the daughter can be a perfect wife for the husband. “ Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to Dry”. This shows the point of view of the mother teaching the daughter on what days she should wash the clothes. On mondays the daughter should wash the white clothes and on tuesday she needs to wash the color clothes and uses a clothespin on a clothes line so it can dry.“This is how you set the table for dinner, This is how you set the table for dinner for an important guest; This is how you set the table for lunch; This is how you set the table for breakfast.” The mother is trying to show the daughter how to prepare the table for the important guest and to prepare the meal and set the table for every meal such as breakfast, lunch and dinner. And Jamaica Kincaid show how her mother did this to her and she learned from her mother teaching her how to set the table for every meal of the day. And setting the table for an important person when they show up.Jamaica

The characters are being viewed are from a first-person narrative since the narrator is telling her story. The story is told in a very lax, kind of stream-of-consciousness voice, and the mother--except for two, speaks every line in the piece.

Since almost the beginning of time, women have a played a much more different role in society than men. They would stay home, clean, cook, and take care of the children while the man in the family would go out and work. While the situation for women has somewhat changed in today’s society, not too long ago, females’ lives were extremely limited with not many opportunities in life. Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” consists of a mother constantly berating her daughter, teaching her how to act and do certain things that she will be expected to know. Although the title’s brevity may be misleading, “Girl” is a very powerful and meaningful story in that it addresses multiple big issues in society, mainly showing how life as a young lady in the 1900s was very constricting.