The Woman Who Fathered Me: A Caribbean Woman's Role in the Family

In Annie John the author, Jamaica Kincaid, transforms the novel from a piece of fiction to a lucid, convincing story of a young girl all can relate to. The main character Annie is depicted as fiery, free-spirit being torn apart by both ambiguous love from her mother and the constraining expectations surrounding her. Kincaid’s work addresses the wrenching, communal struggles shared by a large demographic. The novel Annie John explores the prevalent themes of the double standard of Antiguan gender roles and a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship through the life of the protagonist.

Poverty vs. wealth plays a huge factor in the role of women. According to the US Agency for International Development, the participation of women in the labor market in Honduras had a significant increase in the 90’s from 30% to 45%. There happened to be a huge increase in demand for agricultural equipment, and women were able to find jobs outside of the home. Unfortunately, the pay rate was not at all

In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, we have a mother conveying important life advice to her daughter in order for her to adapt to cultural customs and most important to learn the rules of social behavior. Her mother's advice is not only intentionally told in order for her to become the proper antiguan woman she believes in raising, but is also told to criticize her actions and everyday doings. Her mother makes it very clear, in order to live a proper antiguan life, there are many rules that one must follow. With deeper interpretation of Kincaid’s work we come to the realization that her overall message suggests the idea that women as a whole should be domestic and should behave a certain way in our society in order to avoid being viewed as a promiscuous woman.

The issue of gender roles is one of the central themes of this novel. All the main characters of the novel spend their whole lives trying to conform to the standards of masculinity and femininity expected of them by the society. The inability of the main character of the book to meet the expected stereotypical roles not only causes them personal turmoil but also makes their social life miserable. They try to fit in the ascribed gender roles of their Dominican culture, but are simply incapable of doing that. However, the society does not understand their incapability and makes them pay for their nonconformity.

Unlike in the United States women in Haiti suffer from the lack of rights and privileges available to women in most western countries. Gender inequality seems to continue to be a

The stories she reports and critiques are characterized by 1) a fundamental circumvention of agency for the appropriated test subjects--primarily, working class Puerto Rican women and the placing of all blame for social problems upon "them"; 2) though she doesn't name it as such, a historical employment of misconceptions of genetics and hereditary in exerting control over "colonized subjects," "the poor," and women's reproductive and sexual histories**; all of this located in a "transition away from frank colonialism" (198). This is also a story of the displacement of poverty caused by colonialism onto disease, difference, "over-population", and the need for public health regulation from the mainland U.S among others

In many Caribbean islands, men are seen as the powerful one. Being from Jamaica, it is not a doubt that Grace experienced this as growing up beside her experience with Bill. CITATION FOR CARRIBEAN Grace brings in her traditions from both her Jamaican descent and American experience as part of the way she decides to raise Moore and his siblings

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.

Specifically, Dominican women tend to have higher levels of education than Dominican men (Gilbertson, 1995, p. 665) but still struggle with earning a living and supporting their family as single parents. The extent of single Dominican mothers is substantial: “40 percent of all Dominican households with children under the age of 18 in New York City are female-headed, and more than half (52 percent) of these are living below the poverty line” (Foner, 2001, p. 255). Also, Dominican women work largely in “ethnic-owned firms, such as nondurable manufacturing, retail trade, and restaurants” (Gilbertson, 1995, p. 658). Many of these ethnic enclaves actually marginalize the Dominican woman more than they help her mobility in

She traces the colonial relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico using these debates and themes as her framework. The sexuality of women on the island became the object of worry beginning before the United States became the colonizer. This worry began with fears of the “tropical” or venereal diseases that prostitutes on the island could spread to soldiers stationed there. Briggs argues that North American missionaries, physicians, feminists, nationalists, and finally Puerto Rican feminists used the problematic sexuality of the women on the island as a rhetorical and political tool. The sexuality of women was seen as the root cause of the problems of poverty, disease, and nationhood in Puerto Rico. After the legislation about disease and its international context, Briggs delves into the history of birth control on the island. She argues that although pushed upon the women, birth control and eugenics could be appropriated by Puerto Rican feminists. Her chapters on sterilization focus on the idea that feminists in the United States could undercut Puerto Rican feminists when critiquing sterilization practices in Puerto Rico. The other forms of birth control that were widely available were available in quantity, not necessarily quality, and for Puerto Rican women, sterilization offered a solution,

This included the ability to vote, the ability to freely attend institutes of higher education and the right to enter the workforce. According to a 2005 to 2009 survey conducted by Migration Policy Institute, “black Caribbean women (73 percent) are more likely than black African-born females (68 percent) and all U.S. born females (68 percent) to participate in the workforce”. Though some of their demands were met, others equal pay is far from achievable. When it comes to the issue concerning women’s role outside the home of black migrants, all the informants holds no offense, they embrace the idea and feel that all women are free to make their own choices, they also feel that women should be independent. “Being a single mom with five children, I have no regrets doing what I have to for my girls. If I don’t provide for them, then no one will (Pilgrim, N)”. The migration from the West Indies has always been male dominated, this was because men, even in the Caribbean were looked upon as the bread-winners even if women contributed to the household. “In recent decades, the migration of women to Canada and the United States has been partly a response to the demand for domestic servants. Thus, a large share of Caribbean women enters the labor force in these countries at the very lowest level (Palmer,

Family power is significant to understand how families functions as a unit. It helps the family to make important decisions about how to manage their lives, whether it financially, about where to live, educational choices, or even about leisure time, and so on. In Haiti, women play a major role in the culture. They referred to them as the “Central Pillar” They endure most of the burden of childcare, making sure that the children are well fed and healthy, and keep the house cleaned. They also work in the agriculture. They cultivated goods, carried them in their head, and walked miles to sell at the supermarket to pay for their children’s school

She discusses in the previous chapters how the women have virtually no rights, and how their impact on the colonies was minimal. However she opens up the next chapter discussing how people believed the arrival of Iberian women was “paramount” because it would lead to the “transformation of colonies into permanent settlements” . If the women did not have much of a political or religion role in Latin America, then why were they seemed as valuable? She mentions how these women represented “rootedness” and would help teach “manners” to the men who are currently living there. Though the majority of the facts in that time do support and have led to the creation of the view that women were relatively useless, except for minimal chores, she should make more of an acknowledgement of a women’s intended role, rather than sticking with the stereotype that is already often presented to the historical readers, of female

In the Caribbean, it is traditional for a female to grow up learning from her mother what has been passed down to her to develop herself into what we know as the Caribbean woman. The female is the head of the household and the family unit, while the men work outside of the home to provide for the family. As the head of the household, her children’s fate depends on ingraining ideals within their identity. In Elizabeth Nunez’s Bruised Hibiscus readers are presented with a young, mixed Trinidadian woman who was raised without her biological mother. Bruised Hibiscus is set in Trinidad and part of the storyline shadows Rosa’s struggle with her identity since she is the product of a love affair with a black man.

Feminization of poverty is defined as, “A societal-level process over time in which the poor are increasingly made up of women and children” (Eshleman, 2010, p. 588). According to Lauren Abbate of Mount Holyoke College, “Feminization of poverty is the phenomenon in which women experience poverty at rates that are disproportionately high in comparison to men” (Abbate, 2010). It appears that,