In the story “Girl” we see the author talking about the things that a young girl should do and learn so that she can be accepted by society. She starts by saying the in beginning that washing cloths is only a task for women, starting on Monday “Wash the white cloths on Monday”. Then goes on to talk about doing more chores on Tuesday that should only be done by a woman. I believe that the gender of this story is of a mother talking and teaching to her young daughter. With some of the wording I can assume that this is surely an African American or Caribbean mother. Kincaid is trying to show us how differently young boys are treated than the same aged girls and how they are looked at differently for doing the same activities. It is not lady-like
In this article, East Carolina University English professor Dr. Margaret Bauer makes the claim that one cannot solely rely on the reputation on the writer in order to fully comprehend the meaning of a certain text. This is the precisely the case with Ernest Hemingway as he was well-known to scholars to have his short stories filled with male-chauvinist characters either abusing or disregarding weak and helpless women. However, Bauer, a professor of English and women’s studies, believes that the characterization of Hemingway as an abuser and having a blatant disregard of women is almost entirely created by the scholars and readers of his stories. With an analysis of Hemingway’s “Indian Camp” and “Hills Like White Elephants”, Bauer attempts to bring her own feminist perspective to Hemingway’s notoriously misogynistic texts to prove that there are more to his female characters than there is on the surface and to possibly emasculate his reputation of portraying women as powerless and one-dimensional characters.
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
Have you ever wished that someone had given you a guide on how live the right way? Jamaica Kincaid does just that in her short story, Girl. The narrative is presented as a set of life instructions to a girl by her mother to live properly in Antigua in the 1980’s. While the setting of the story is not expressly stated by the author in the narrative, the reader is able to understand the culture for which Girl was written.
In the short story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, you hear about the many words of wisdom, or advice that a mother is attempting to pass on to her daughter. The condescending tone of the story is portrayed by the use of semi colons, showing a steady stream of advice and preaching of the mother onto the daughter. The story follows an almost poetic or lyrical style of writing that flows from basic advice like how to sweep a corner to advice like how to handle a man bullying you or how to have an abortion. Although a lot of the advice given to the daughter may be useful in her life and in the culture they live in, it is delivered in a way that seems very callous, and is said with a stern tone, much like a dictator. The daughter in the story tries to speak up only twice throughout the entire thig, only to be completely unheard as the mother continues her chant. The only time the mother’s advice is repeating is when she refers to her daughter as a slut, or her inevitable “becoming of a slut”, which occurs four times throughout the work. The story is written with no real chronological timeline and does not have the traditional beginning, middle, and ending.
Jamaica Kincaid was born in West Indies, which is located in Antigua. When the author writes you can tell she's from an island, on the way she uses to describe the ways a women should act. Kincaid usually writes about mother-daughter relationship. Her writing has a lot of feminist perspectives. The way Kincaid writes, she has an amazing way of making you visualize, they way she goes in depth with the topic.
“Fine. I’ll take her, but only if you have Dad legally sign the company branch I work at over to me.”
Society has created in their minds the way a woman is supposed to act and the things they are allowed to do. In Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”, we see a young woman being forced to live by the likeness of the society in which she dwells. Although this is not the life she wants to live, she has no other choice than to become the woman she was made to be.
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.
As the woman has no name which right away states she is not important in the story this reflects how the man would see things and how it seems to be more about him. The characterization helps out with narration because it is using the characters acts to back up the dialogue between the two, which both are shown to be diverted into strong and weak as so does dialogue all this mixed in brings the frustration. The characterization of the woman shows her weakness as she accepts the fact that she will get this done while her narration shows some what of a hesitant vibe coming about her. The writing technique Hemingway uses detaches the character from any type of personality or “important role”,the woman in the story has no name for most of the reading in a way this creates tension as it shows how she is seen as nothing but mainly the man is shown to not understand that this is emotionally hurtful. in pg 355 the man is trying to act very convincing and this is where he calls her by her name, this shows that he wants something ( the operation done) so to create a dynamic bond he calls her by her
In order to properly view a story from a feminist perspective, it is important that the reader fully understands what the feminist perspective entails. “There are many feminist perspectives, and each perspective uses different approaches to analyze and interpret texts. One is that gender is “socially constructed” and another is that power is distributed unequally on the basis of sex, race, and ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, ability, sexuality, and economic class status” (South University Online, 2011, para. 1). The story “Girl” is an outline of the things young girls
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”.
In the story Girl, The author Jamaica Kincaid uses point if view to show how the mother teaches her daughter how to be the proper or perfect woman for a man. She also uses” This is how”shows how the mother teaches the daughter how to be sophisticated.
In the short story “Indian Camp”, by Ernest Hemingway, many controversies arise about the idea of feminism in the text. Feminism is a general term used to describe advocating women’s rights socially, politically, and making equal rights to those of men. Feminist criticism is looked through a “lens” along the line of gender roles in literature, the value of female characters within the text, and interpreting the perspective from which the text is written. Many of Hemingway’s female characters display anti-feminist attributes due to the role that women play or how they are referred to within a text by him or other characters. There are many assumptions that go along with the
What is considered a proper way for a woman to act in general society and who has the correct answer? Jamaica Kincaid’s story “Girl” is fundamentally an instructional writing where a mother is primarily caring for her daughter’s future. The story is performed in fiction where the child needs to get prepared to confront the world as a woman. Most of the commands the mother gave to her daughter are ambiguous; there is not enough content, however, it can be assumed that the mother is helping the girl evade any major consequences from not being properly prepared for society. The mother, with several recommendations, tried to make her daughter understand her gender and how her behavior and appearance should be seen through other people’s eyes. Most of the mother’s instructions are related to moral conduct and social relationships that follow an old fashion model of womanhood. “This is how you behave” and “This is how you bully a man” (Kincaid) are some of the pointers that the mother provided to the daughter in hopes of guiding her actions. The piece offers serious coming-of-age advice from a narrator who has much experience to give (Smith, 152). The mother’s main goal is to cement her daughter’s place in society as a respectable woman. Throughout every stage, the mother clearly shows how the girl was growing fast and how she needs to be prepared to confront life.