Essay on Short Story Analysis of Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

Kincaid doesn’t bother with throwing everything into quotations and the entirety of the story is essentially one sentence joined by semicolons. This style gives the work an overall matter of fact tone. The nagging voice is immediately evident in “Wash the clothes on Monday and put them on a stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on a clothesline to dry…” (Fader/Rabinowitz pg. 66). The reader can also get a sense of the cultural expectations of the main character through the domestic imagery throughout the text. The girl is expected to uphold certain roles within her home and is instructed as to how to behave and not draw attention to herself. Her mother assumed that her daughter’s behavior was inappropriate and any protest she offered to defend herself was shot down. Kincaid drives her point home effectively when in the very last line: “...you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?” (Fader/Rabinowitz pg. 67). The reader can see the mother’s surprise towards her daughter’s innocent question. The girl was unable to learn how to be adult and conduct herself properly, even after all of her mother’s speeches and

A mother’s words are the ones that ring loudest in a child’s ear, are passed down from generation to generation, and the one’s that hold a special place in a child’s memory and heart forever. Expectations and guidelines are set at a young age. Morals and values are learned throughout the years, and life lessons are taught through the wisdom passed down from a mother to a daughter. Every mother has a wish for their daughter to be the best they can be. But at what point does instruction and wisdom become simply words that have been said one too many times? The short story “Girl,” written by Jamaica Kincaid is presented to the reader as a list of instructions from a mother to a daughter on how to live life to the

Society has developed the gender role of women to be caretakers of their children and the household. In her poem “Girl”, Jamaica Kincaid writes a short narrative of a mother giving her daughter advice about how to behave and her responsibilities as a woman. The mother tells her daughter how to do several of the traditional housewife’s duties, such as washing clothes, preparing meals, and cleaning the house. She also instructs her on how to behave when men are present. According to her, the daughter must smile to men she likes, dislikes, despises, and is unfamiliar with. The mother informs her daughter about abusive and

Elena Gonzalez Hoggatt-Abader Engl 101 September 29, 2015 The Demands of Womanhood Society plays a key role in determining how people are supposed to fulfill their roles in society—specifically their gender roles. This means that typically the norm is that men are to be the head of the house and are to be the financial supporters while women are typically categorized as being the homemaker and caretaker. The complexity and importance of being a woman the “right” way is shown through Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”, a short story reflecting her growing up in Antigua.

Kincaid’s poem “Girl” uses the mother/daughter relationship and the strict commanding tone of the story to show what the culture of the 1980’s were like and how certain beliefs are passed down from generation to generation. Although the setting was not directly told by the narrator in the story, it gives you a idea in which the culture was written. The story gives a “sneak peak” into how strict parents were to their children in the 1980’s. In Kincaid’s story there is no introduction of the characters, no action, and no description of setting,but it does supply a insight of the relationship between the daughter and the mother.

Authors Jamaica Kincaid and John Steinbeck show the consequence gender roles have by illustrating the everyday with symbols of entrapment and showing the damage inflicted to the individual by having their characters attempt to resist gender roles but, inevitably, crushed beneath them. Jamaica Kincaid begins painting her image of the harmful side effects of gender roles by showing how the innocence of youth is tainted and damaged. In the story “Girl” the reader is privy to what seems to be verbal instructions and lessons from a mother as she teaches them to her child. The lessons range from mundane housekeeping tricks to more unsavory topics.

Jamaica Kincaid's capricious one-sentence, no frills account is a start tale about a young lady's transitioning set right now of division between the period of honesty and the befuddling, changing passage into grown-up understanding. It is the account of a mother's endeavor to prepare her youthful little girl to learn suitable social traditions and more imperative, the guidelines of social conduct, particularly that of legitimate sexual lead befitting an all around raised young lady.

Jamaica Kincaid was a celebrated Antiguan- American novelist, gardener and essayist, but the basic role of she is girl. In her early age, she had a very complicated relationship with her mother. The story “girl” is ostensibly a series of instructions from her mom gives to her. Like every mothers’ no breathe nagging in the real world. She tells her daughter about cleaning, cooking, behaving like a lady and how to on getting a man, etc. Unluckily, her daughter is not an active listener. She interrupted to her mother twice to ask her mother some question in order to defend herself. Retrospect from ancient times to the modern world, we can see too many mothers and daughters conflict and misunderstanding is far too common. The main reason that causes this situation is the mother usually believe herself is the only person who can control her daughter’s life. It affects everything from her daughter’s health and self esteem.

Literature can be written in three different points of view. First person, the character narrates the story of events from his or her own perspective. Third person, the narrator tells the point of view of one or more characters, but is not present in the story. The final main point of view is second person, in which the narrator instructs someone on how they should do something. The short story “Girl” written by, Jamaica Kincaid is presented in second person. The mother which is also the narrator, makes an impact on how the reader perceives the story.

A mother is to raise her child in a loving way, not a psychologically harsh way. During the short story “Girl,” written by Jamaica Kincaid, it is told in the first person by a mother antagonizing her daughter. She tells Girl about cooking, cleaning, men, and keeping up with her reputation with one admonishment after another. For this Girl, it is mentally destroying due to the mother’s harsh words and criticism. The Girls psychological state is corrupted by her mother’s criticism of femininity, sexuality, and sexual identity, and her society and class.

A mother-daughter relationship is viewed as the most effective relationship in a woman's life. There is nothing as powerful as, a mother's protection, and nothing as recuperating as a daughter's spirit. However, this is not always the case. In the story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, a reader observes the negative tensions that are most fundamental in Kincaid’s work - or perhaps her own relationship with her mother. It is the realistic portrayal of a black mother with a limited and passive upbringing who either raises her daughter into agreeing to the preferred navigation of black women or into creating conflict with the societal norms. With the use of found themes in “Girl”, the author provides a powerful message regarding the effects of the traditional

In “Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid, the mother is warning her daughter about what to expect, and how to act, in society. The story represents a time when the daughter knew that her mother loved her enough to spend the time to give her the advice, but is also emotionally distant. I believe this to be representative of Kincaid’s life, and how after her brother’s were born she felt that her mother did not have enough time for her.

Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl explores these controversies and writes a long form poem that includes a list of rules for young girls to follow as advice that will help them be more likeable and become a reputable “woman”. These rules are delivered in a direct emphasis with strict undertone. The guidelines given to the young girl can be inferred as a mother teaching her daughter who is at the age of adolescence. Jamaica Kincaid’s long form poem Girl highlights the stereotypical social responsibilities of young girls which is heavily defined by language, culture, and mothers. In the poem the mother figure covers everything from how to

As the story progresses, the mother gives advice applicable to daughters of an older and older age group. One of the first pieces of advice the mother offers to her daughter describes how to wash clothes properly: “Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the

In Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl,” the narration of a mother lecturing her daughter with sharp, commanding diction and unusual syntax, both affect the evolution of a scornful tone, that her daughter’s behavior will eventually lead her to a life of promiscuity that will affect the way people perceive her and respect her within her social circle. As well as the fact that it emphasizes expectations for young women to conform to a certain feminine ideal of domesticity as a social norm during this time and the danger of female sexuality.