Preview

Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
464 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Jamaica Kincaid's Girl
Alice delphino
ENG1101
Mrs. Harris
18 August 2009 In Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl,” the mother is very disapproving of her daughter’s attitude towards life. She wants to educate her daughter about developing into a respectable woman, domesticating herself and proper etiquette in the presence of men. The relationship between mother and daughter depicts a traditional Caribbean “dictatorship” in which the mother shows her love in a controlling manner and the daughter’s only option is to follow her mother’s instructions. It appears that the mother is very old fashioned, and in her mind she knows how a young woman should behave. In her culture, there are certain routines she is trying to instill in her daughter. For instance, she
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Shun-Wai's Hypocrisy
    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Shun-Wai's Hypocrisy

    The mother's Christian values alienate her from her family not only through her actions (like saying grace) but also through her beliefs, such as her belief that Shun-Wai's are inappropriate. "When my mother saw the Shun-Wai, she tried to take it apart in the name of Christianity."…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jamaica Kincaid's Girl
    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

    She doesn’t teach her daughter how to do it in the modern ways but now in the traditional ways. She says “ Cook pumpkin fritter in very hot sweet oil,” : Soak salt fish overnight before you cook it,” Just the way the mother uses her words and the tone given you can tell the writer wrote so the reader could tell that the mother really believes the work in the kitchen such as cooking is a women’s…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Adam And Eve Poem
    • 1741 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Adam And Eve Poem

    “Adam and Eve” by Ani Difranco and “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid are two literary works that speak to the issue of how important it is to have a mother in a daughter’s life. It is the life experience(s) that can only be communicated to a daughter by her mother. The emotions, feeling and understanding of the female experience of what a woman goes through in life. When a young lady does not receive this information for the female prospective is the difference between socialites view and becoming of a “bad” or “good” girl. It is critical to have a mother in the life of a daughter to provide emotional balance, feeling and understanding from a woman’s point of view.…

    • 1741 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Murielle Minard's "The Gift"
    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Murielle Minard's "The Gift"

    There are two different ways, in my opinion, to interpret this piece. Firstly and most obviously, it is that the mother is training the daughter in how she ought to act…

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Why Compare Kincaid's "Girl" and Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing"
    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Why Compare Kincaid's "Girl" and Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing"

    Why compare 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 was born and raised up to the age of seventeen in Antigua, a former colony of Great Britain. 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, an American writer of Russian-Jewish descendent. 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 time, they share the theme of poverty. On the one hand, “I Stand Here Ironing” is set in 1950s in the USA. However, it also gives some account of 1930s and 1940s as it follows the life of the author from birth till early adolescence. During this period the USA suffered one of its deepest crises and also participated in WWII. We can easily presume how poor the conditions of life in America were at…

    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Jamaica Kincaid Girl Essay
    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Jamaica Kincaid Girl Essay

    Throughout the story it is clear that the mother is essentially trying to teach the daughter how to conduct herself in the proper manner. Therefore, this short story can also be seen as a parable as its theme takes the form of a series of lessons. The mother, who can be perceived as the main speaker of the story, relays advice that seems both helpful and chastising towards her daughter. The mother relays lessons that can teach her daughter how to effectively run a household and how to uphold herself. On the other hand, in between her words of knowledge the mother implies that her daughter has attributes like that of a “slut” scolding her only in fear that her daughter will take on a life of promiscuity. Some examples include how she reprimands her little girl for the way she strolls, the way she plays marbles, and how she identifies with other individuals. These constant reprimands bring up the underlying theme of gender identity and demonstrates the amount she desires her little girl to understand that she is "not a boy" and that she needs to act in a way that will win her regard from the group. The daughter who stays attentive to her mother, only speaks when she feels the need to defend herself, for her mother’s chastising that suggests the daughter…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Provoking the Inevitable Change: an Analysis on Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl
    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Provoking the Inevitable Change: an Analysis on Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl

    Girl, a narrative written by Jamaica Kincaid, is a short story written in a dialogue style and stream of consciousness narration. The speaker is an authoritative female figure who teaches a girl about traditional living and the obligations of a girl to society. The narrative is basically one large sentence. Its ideas are separated by semicolons instead of the usual periods.…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis Jane Welty
    • 640 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Rhetorical Analysis Jane Welty

    Jamaica Kincaid grew up in a world where everything she owned wasn’t hers. While she may have physically owned it, mentally she did not. As her world of Antigua was being eaten alive by England, Kincaids family loved every bit of it. In the essay, On Seeing England for the First Time, Jamaica Kincaid uses several literary elements to explore her negative feelings towards England and England’s influence in Antigua. Three of the main elements used in the essay are structure, ethos, and diction.…

    • 640 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Jamaica Kincaid's Girl
    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

    One other interesting theory is that the girl Kincaid is referring to is actually herself, and that it is her mother teaching her how to act like a lady in their society. Kincaid grew up in Antigua during the time the country was governed by England. Kincaid is well known for her non-fiction stories and novels about Antigua, and it is very likely that “Girl” is a callback to her own childhood experiences (55-56). She was born in 1949, right on the cusp of the housewife movement of the 50s, and at that time, Antigua was under British rule, so they would have been forced to act the English…

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Girl By Jamaica Kincaid Analysis
    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Girl By Jamaica Kincaid Analysis

    Bienna is part of the Antiguans culture which identifies spreading rumors and gossiping under the uncomprehending British people’s noses. Singing bienna is sinful so her mother advises her not to sing. Even though there is a lack of information about the daughter not having any thoughts about benna like her mother, she still focuses on her being a great women and being respectful towards herself and the community. The mother also advices her how to love any man: “ this is how to love a man, and if this doesn’t work there are other ways” (57). This quote is highly important because the mother explains how you should love men.…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Th Real Meaning of Girl
    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Th Real Meaning of Girl

    Kincaid was born in 1949 in St. John’s Antigua, an island in the West Indies (Jamaica). Once ruled by Great Britain until 1981, Antigua is heavily influenced by the Brit’s social norm. “This is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not the slut you are so bent on becoming” (Girl 232), is the monologue of a mother’s voice being replayed in the daughter’s head from Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl”. Kincaid’s life as a child growing up in Antigua clearly reflects in her writing.…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    girl by jamaica kincaid
    • 523 Words
    • 2 Pages

    girl by jamaica kincaid

    Although others may think otherwise that the character who plays girl, is in fact making a mockery of her mother’s commands. In theory people may say that the mother repeated herself so often about her daughter’s behavior and teaching her how to do her responsibilities correctly that the daughter have memorized her mother’s lectures and began to repeat them to herself to show rebellion against these tasks.…

    • 523 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Girl Jamaica Kincaid
    • 669 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Girl Jamaica Kincaid

    Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don't walk barehead in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn't have gum on it, because that way it won't hold up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook it; is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won't turn someone else's stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don't sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn't speak to wharbfflies will follow you; but I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a button-hole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming; this is how you iron your father's khaki shirt so that it doesn't have a crease; this is how you iron your father's khaki pants so that they don't have a crease; this is how you grow okrbafar from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants; when you are growing dasheen, make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat itch when you are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don't like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don't like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don't…

    • 669 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Bella Makes Life
    • 711 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Bella Makes Life

    In the stereotypical Jamaican family hierarchy the women is placed below the man of the household based on authority. The man of the family makes all of the decisions and supports the family financially. The woman is supposed to answer to the man and insure that all of his needs come second to none. Those typical male and female gender roles are the cruxes of the Jamaican family hierarchy; however, in “Bella Makes Life” by Lorra Goodison, Goodison turns these roles upside down. In her short story she explores the masculinity insecurities the protagonist Joseph, faces as the stereotypical Jamaican gender roles shift in his relationship with his counterpart Bella.…

    • 711 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sociology essay female role
    • 846 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sociology essay female role

    In the contemporary Caribbean society, the feminist perspective aids in understanding women’s role in the family. According to this perspective, women provide a cushion to male frustration, acts as a domestic worker and a socialize children in the expected norms of society. Although it explains the female role, it disregards that women have more control over their lives.…

    • 846 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics