Theme Of A Conversation With My Father

From a young age, our interactions with our parents play an instrumental role in how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. The short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid exhibits the relationship between an Antiguan mother and her daughter in a patriarchal society where the list of rules and regulations for women is exhaustive and almost never-ending. By analyzing the unique and often tense dynamic between the mother and daughter, “Girl” showcases the direct influence mothers have on their children, and how traditional and patriarchal customs can influence that relationship. The main themes are represented by the subjects the mother spends the most time on as well as the overall tone of the piece and how it relates to the mother-daughter

The character was illiterate and thus excluded her from others. In the beginning of the story, the shame from the daughter and others was made prevalent as the author wrote “I learned to be ashamed of my mother” (58). The shame and prejudice began to grow when the mother goes to the school to register her daughter. The mother needed and asked for help when she was filling out the forms that were required for her daughter to go to school. The author wrote “The women asks my mother what she means . . . The women still seem not to understand. ‘I can’t read it. I don’t know how to read or write,” (60) showing that the women the mother was asking for help, did not understand her question, because her ignorance of other people. Her poor understanding of the question clearly made the mother feel even more ashamed of herself. The author goes on to write “My mother looks at me, then looks away. I know almost all of her looks, but this one is brand new to me.”(61) exhibiting how the mother never felt so ashamed and embarrassed in front of her daughter. Once the woman realizes that she was on a higher “level” than the mother, she agreed to help, the author wrote “and suddenly appears happier, so much more satisfied with everything”(61). The mother was being ridiculed and humiliated by the second, as the other

Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour” and Gail Godwin’s “A Sorrowful Woman” are similar pieces of literary work. Both stories offer a revealing glimpse of extremely unhappy marriages due to being forced into stereotypical roles. Both stories portray women, who are trapped in their marriages and trapped in their socially expected matriarchal characters. They are identified by their role as a wife and mother.

In the short story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, the narrator commands a list of orders to her preadolescent daughter in one single sentence. The author includes figurative language to emphasize her points and demands upon her daughter. Although the mother is stern throughout the entire short story, it explains the type of relationship she shares with her daughter and the expectations she holds for her future. Kincaid expresses her expectations for her daughter through strict similes and powerful themes, in order to impact readers and deliver the importance of femininity.

Few relationships are as deep as those between child and parent. While circumstance and biology can shape the exact nature of the bond, a child’s caretaker is the first to introduce them to the world. And as they grow and begin to branch out, children look to their parents as a model for how to interact with the various new situations. Through allusion, potent imagery, and nostalgic diction, Natasha Trethewey constructs an idolized image of a father guiding their child through life’s challenges only to convey the speaker’s despair when they are faced with their father’s mortality in “Mythmaker.”

A phenomenal, strong, and intelligent woman. I introduce myself in such ways because I am a daddyless daughter, however being a daddy-less daughter does not define who I am. It does not take away the hard work, and achievements I have encountered in my 20 years of living.

Comparing Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” and Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” Daughter and mother relationship is an endless topic for many writers. They meant to share the bond of love and care for each other. Nevertheless, in the real world their relationship is not as successful as it ought to be. The stories “Girl” and “I Stand Here Ironing” are examples of this conflict. The author of the short story “Girl” Jamaica Kincaid use her life story to reflect in the story. In her short story “Girl”, Kincaid presents the experience of being young and female in a poor country. The story is structured as a single sentence of advice that a mother gives to her daughter. The mother expresses her resents and worries about her daughter becoming a woman. The author of “I Stand Here Ironing” is Tillie Olsen, similarly her story portrays powerfully the economic domestic burdens a poor woman faced, as well as the responsibility and powerlessness she feels over her child’s life. Moreover, the woman is grieving about her daughter's life and about the circumstances that shaped her own mothering. Both stories have many features in common. Not only do they explore the troubles that could exist in the relationship between mother and daughter, but also they raise questions about motherhood, especially when a mother lives on a shoestring, the stories explore the difficulties that a young mother has to endure while raising her child in poverty. Although the two stories refer to different place and

Annoyed at this, I turned once again and lay on my back. I took a deep

Romance novels are typically based in a set pattern and Karen van der Zee’s A Secret Sorrow is no exception. Meanwhile, in Gail Godwin’s “A Sorrowful Woman”, the romance aspect is not nearly as focused on. While A Secret Sorrow is a nice, easy romance novel, the short story “A Sorrowful Woman” is a much better example of literature, and portrays a much more unique message. The two stories differ greatly when compared by their theme, by the role of motherhood and children, and by how they are written.

Before analyzing “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “The Birth-Mark” by Nathanial Hawthorne, it is important to understand the role that women played in society during the time the short stories were written. In each of the stories the theme relates directly to the expectations that women were held to during that time in history. After reading both of the stories, it is clear that there were several literary elements used to portray the domestic responsibilities of women in society at the time. Analyzing theme, symbols and point of view allowed me to understand how utilizing several different literary devices can make the moral of the story even more understandable.

Sandra Cisnero grew up in a large family; she was the only daughter with six brothers. She had to try extraordinarily hard to prove that she was worthy and not only a girl but a human being. “Being only a daughter for my father meant my destiny would lead me to become someone’s wife.” When Cisnero was in grade five she informed her father that she was going to go to school. Surprisingly Sandra’s father approved of this notion but not because he was proud of her, but because he figured it was an ideal place to find a husband. Sandra worked hard in her studies and became a published author, but to her father’s dismay she was still unwed. Her father felt that she had wasted her education.” I wanted my father to understand what it was I was scribbling,

The short-story “A Conversation with My Father”, by Grace Paley, combines several themes and the author uses the elements of abandonment, denial, irony, humor and foreshadowing, to bring this emotional story together. This story is mainly about the relationship between a parent and his child. The primary characters are a father, and his child. There is no mention of whether the child is his daughter or son. The tone of the story and the conversations made me believe that the old man has a daughter, and hence I will refer to the child as his daughter.

Why is this event important to the author? This narrative follows a girl, growing into a woman, wishing to be an author. More than this, she wishes to be accepted by her father as an author. It follows her struggle to validate her education to her family, and overcome the stigma attached to her non-married lifestyle. In the end, she brought a story she had written to her ailing father, who was not only delighted to read it, but also wanted to share her work with the whole family.

Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” is the story of a girl whose mother advises her daughter on different aspects of being a proper woman. The mother has antiquated even repressive ideas about what a woman is supposed to be. The mother focuses on two main categories in her guidance, social manners and domesticity. “The mother does most of the talking; she delivers a long series of instructions and warnings to the daughter, who twice responds but whose responses go unnoticed by the mother” (Short stories). First, she defends herself against what her mother argues she has done,

The mother-daughter relationship is often scrutinized, publicized, and capitalized on. Whether from tell-all biographies, to humorous sit-coms, or private therapy sessions, this particular relationship dynamic gives some of the most emotion-activating memories. When female authors reflect and write about their relationships with their mothers, they have a tendency to taint their reflections with the opinions they have as an adult, reviewing the actions of their mother when they were young. These opinions set the tone of the story independently and in conjunction with the relationship itself and manifest in creative literary styles that weave an even more intricate story. Case in point, when reviewing the two literary works “I Stand Here