Kincaid Conventions

Elaine Potter Richardson, more famously known as Jamaica Kincaid, is recognized for her writings that suggest depictions of relationships between families, mainly between a mother and daughter, and her birth place, Antigua, an island located in the West Indies. She is also familiarized with Afrocentrism and feminist point of views. Kincaid’s work is filled heavily with visual imagery that produces a mental picture in readers that helps them connect stronger to the reading. An example of this really shines through in her short story piece, “Girl.” This short story describes the life of a lower class woman living in the West Indies, and also incorporates thick detailing between the relationship between her and her mother. Jamaica Kincaid structures the story as if her mother is speaking to her. She writes broad, but straight to the point, allowing readers to imagine to picture her experience. Kincaid uses visual imagery and repetition consistently throughout “Girl” to reveal the theme and tone of the story; conflictual affair between a mother and daughter.

Zora Neale Hurston and Jamaica Kincaid, both black women writers, give advice to their potential readers. Each writer comes from a different background and time period, yet both writers offer advice for every woman who reads their stories. The stories “Drenched in Light” by Hurston and “Girl” by Kincaid provides advice for the woman who needs to understand how to behave and protect her reputation. The reason for this article is to think about mother/daughter connections in Jamaica Kincaid’s “girl” Zora Neale Hurston’s “drenched In Light,” and Alice Walker’s “everyday use” through a Womanist hypothetical focal point with respect to personality, portrayals in the public arena, and reason.

In the poem “The Writer” by Richard Wilbur and the short story “Saturday Climbing” by W.D. Valgardson, both of them describe children’s growth in parent’s point of view. Somehow, parents realize children always meet difficulty along with their growth, and parents sometimes are unable to help them, whereas both parents and children have to struggle for themselves.

Some discoveries may be the result of significant experiences that one undergoes. In moving on from these experiences, the discoveries can be provoked and have the ability to open the eyes of individuals. Gwen Harwood’s “Father and Child” explores the growth and maturation of a child. Harwood shows the juxtaposition between innocence and maturity and the way that discovering this deepens the perception one has of the world. The

This essay would argue about how this poem quoted at the very beginning of this novel implies the how the author express her sympathy and feeling towards their race and how she reveals the female’s inequality in the marriage. At the very beginning of book Passing, Nella Larsen quotes a poem from Countee Cullen to start her story. The poem is very short, which has only four lines. However, this short poem reveals the motif of this novel and the purpose of this writing—what is Africa to me? This question is not only an inquiry which asks African American about their current living conditions in America and their thoughts towards their ethnical identity, but it also is a reflection of the contemporary society in fields of racial discrimination, gender inequality, interracial marriage and basic human rights.

Cisneros was born in 1954 and grew up as an only girl in a family of six brothers. In Dianne Klein’s “Coming of Age in Novels by Rudolfo Anaya and Sandra Cisneros”, Cisneros states along with growing up as the only girl around boys, she had no women-author role models to look up to as a child. Klein argues, in regards to Cisneros’s childhood, “…she felt impoverished with nothing of personal merit to say” (21). Along

Childhood is an important time in a person’s life, a time where one can be carefree and do as they please without having to worry about what others think of them. During this stage of life, children are groomed and prepared for the transition between childhood and adulthood to be as smooth as possible. However, in Heather O’Neil’s novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, Baby throws herself into the adult world without giving any second thought or even having the proper knowledge to survive or even to manage herself. This causes her to follow the wrong paths and trust the wrong people. Baby grows wise beyond her years, and soon becomes stuck in the middle of the two worlds, as she is too young for the adult world but too old for the child world. This traps her with her having nowhere else to go except continue on the path she is already heading. Baby’s loss of innocence at such a young age showcases that one cannot properly mature and be ready for the future without having a stable childhood. This loss is shown through Jules’ lack of parental ability, her exposure to the adult world at a young age, and her struggle with herself. Adding all three together causes damage to Baby that no one should experience.

Laurence Hill’s novel, The Book of Negroes, uses first-person narrator to depict the whole life of Aminata Diallo, beginning with Bayo, a small village in West Africa, abducting from her family at eleven years old. She witnessed the death of her parents with her own eyes when she was stolen. She was then sent to America and began her slave life. She went through a lot: she lost her children and was informed that her husband was dead. At last she gained freedom again and became an abolitionist against the slave trade. This book uses slave narrative as its genre to present a powerful woman’s life. She was a slave, yes, but she was also an abolitionist. She always held hope in the heart, she resist her dehumanization.

Unlike most people, I did not get to be a carefree child for long. Even though I always said that I could not wait to grow up, now I wish that it all did not happen so fast and early in my life. From eleven to twelve years old—that would be the period I describe as the time I had to put my big-girl pants on and face the real, cruel and unwelcoming adult world. In that time period, I can specifically pinpoint two major events that ended my childhood: my move from Russia to the United States and the birth of my baby sister Toma. To some those might not seem significant enough to change someone’s life to the extent that they changed mine; however those events molded me into the person I am today.

As a child grows, extra care and attention is very essential in order to build the foundation of love and a strong bond. Especially, in today’s society,children are often judged by the act of their parents but in this memoir, written by Miss Jeannette Walls shows how unstainable and dysfunctional relationship Jeannette had with her parents but she still managed to use her tough upbringing for confidence and resourcefulness.

Kincaid, Jamaica.“Girl”. In The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 541-542. Print.

“The hardest part about growing up is letting go of what you were used to, and moving on with something you’re not.” Growing up can be fantastic. Growing up can also be scary. Many people do it on their own time. Others must do it quickly. Some have a nurturing family and a wonderful environment in which to do this. Others still are not as fortunate. The point is that everyone’s situation is different, unique. No matter how similar one situation may seem from another there are countless other things that affect how a child might grow up. One’s own life may seem perfect to those on the outside looking in when in reality, there could be a constant struggle that is known to few or even none. For myself, growing up was something that had to

Many parents agree that their children grow up entirely too fast. The phrase “don’t link” is a common phrase parents’ use as they see their children’s innocence disappearing in front of their eyes. In Sharon Olds, “Rite of Passage”, she presents a mother’s observations of her son and his friends’ mannerisms and behaviors at his birthday party. Through her use of uses of imagery, irony and similes Olds shows how a boy’s exhibition of stereotypical adult behavior, in his attempt to prove he better than his friends, results in a premature his loss of his boyhood innocence.

Like other Jane Austen novels, such as Emma or Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey's primary trajectory is the development of the main female character. Even though Catherine Morland is not a typical female Bildungsroman, her realizations in who she is and who she is becoming are very evident throughout the novel. Webster's Dictionary defines the Bildungsroman as "a novel which traces the spiritual, moral, psychological, or social development and growth of the main character towards maturity." In this novel, the main developments of Catherine being traced are the social, psychological, emotional, and intellectual, in addition to her growth as a fully functional lady of society. This paper will focus on

“ You cannot talk about genre without talking about gender.” Initially, this would appear to be a simplistic statement. On closer analysis, however, one fact becomes evident. It is the representation of gender which informs the genre of the text. Ismay Barwell , in her essay ‘ Feminist perspectives and narrative points of view’ states that “ Every text is gendered since every act of narration…..involves a process of selection….and the nature of that selection implies certain values” ( p.99). She makes the point that “ The desires, attitudes and interests which guide any choices made must be either male or female”( p.98 ). It is within this frame of reference, that the two texts will be analysed.