The texts “If” by Rudyard Kipling and “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid are what I will be comparing and contrasting in this essay. Both of these poems share common themes with each other. One, Both of these poems have a mom giving her child advice for when they grow up. The second, in both of these poems we do not ever learn what the character’s names are. Finally, both of these stories have a mom in them. One similarity is that Both of these poems have a mom in them. In “Girl”, the older and wiser character that is giving advice to the younger character knows a lot about what the expectations for a lady are. This shows that It is a mother and not a father. Also in the poem If the mom is talking the whole time. In the poem “If”, we now that the character giving advice is a mother because she does not know as much about being a man as a father would and she also is probably giving different advice to the son then what a father would. That is the first similarity between these two texts. In both of these poems we do not learn any of the character’s names. In the story girl the mom is talking the whole time except for one line and she never addresses her name or her daughter's name. All that we know is there is a mother and a daugher having a conversation. In the text “If” we have the same thing, …show more content…
We know this because in the poem “If” the text mother says to the son “Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!” This shows that the mother is giving the son advice for how to become a man. Also in the poem “Girl” the mother is giving her daugher advice for when she goes into the real world. “ This is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child;” This is what most of the line in the poem are like because the mother is showing the daugther how to become ready for the world. Just another similarity for these two
The first difference is the tone the parents use in their letters. In “Girl” the mother puts her whole letter in one sentence. This gives off a very demanding feel. On the other hand “If” rhymes which makes it sound like the parent is very wise. In “Girl” the mother says, “this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before
Both poems are set in the past, and both fathers are manual labourers, which the poets admired as a child. Both poems indicate intense change in their fathers lives, that affected the poet in a drastic way. Role reversal between father and son is evident, and a change of emotion is present. These are some of the re-occurring themes in both poems. Both poems in effect deal with the loss of a loved one; whether it be physically or mentally.
Both authors use figurative language to help develop sensory details. In the poem It states, “And I sunned it with my smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles.” As the author explains how the character is feeling, the reader can create a specific image in there head based on the details that is given throughout the poem. Specifically this piece of evidence shows the narrator growing more angry and having more rage. In the short story ” it states, “We are below the river's bed. The drops of moisture trickle among bones.” From this piece of text evidence the reader can sense the cold dark emotion that is trying to be formed. Also this excerpt shows the conflict that is about to become and the revenge that is about to take place. By the story and the poem using sensory details, they both share many comparisons.
The mother and daughter have a very distant relationship because her mother is ill and not capable to be there, the mother wishes she could be but is physically unable. “I only remember my mother walking one time. She walked me to kindergarten." (Fein). The daughter’s point of view of her mother changes by having a child herself. In the short story the son has a mother that is willing to be helpful and there for him, but he does not take the time to care and listen to his mother, and the mother begins to get fed up with how Alfred behaves. "Be quiet don't speak to me, you've disgraced me again and again."(Callaghan). Another difference is the maturity level the son is a teenager that left school and is a trouble maker. The daughter is an adult who is reflecting back on her childhood by the feeling of being cheated in life, but sees in the end her mother was the one who was truly being cheated. “I may never understand why some of us are cheated in life. I only know, from this perspective, that I am not the one who was.” (Fein). The differences in the essay and short story show how the children do not realize how much their mothers care and love
... motif of distance from the father. The narrators in both poems, children, focus on their fathers and consequently the distance between each of them. In “Not Bad, Dad, Not Bad”, the daughter with the fun enjoying “Dad” that swims and leads to the “Icy ocean between us” (Not Bad, Dad, Not Bad 14) to symbolize the distance between the two literally and in their relationship. In “In the Well”, the daughter goes down the deep dark well close to the water where she could “taste fear” (In the Well 4-5), which then in the end she comes back up the well and comes to the “Light” (20) and her “Daddy”(15) where she is safe and at peace. Both poems depict the clear understanding of distance and the closeness of a parent to child relationship at even the simplest of occasions.No matter how far away the child is, the parent, in this case the father, is always there for support.
The way the points of views in each different poem creates a different theme for each poems using different points diction to convey meaning for each of the two poems. In the poem “Birthday” a humorous tone shows a newborn baby in a first person point of view. As opposed to the poem “The Secret Life of Books” which uses a third person point of view for a more serious tone. The two poems would change dramatically whiteout the different points of views because without the humor of the newborn baby being the narrator the poem might take a different spin on the meaning to create a more serious tone. As opposed to “The Secret Life of Books” where the poem is a big personification which if it was not in a third person point of view it might have a a humorous tome in the background. The two poems have many things that help contrast them with each other another one of these being the theme chosen to give each poem a separate identity, while “Birthday” has some background information in some of the diction it uses to World War II “The Secret Life of Books” has no need for the knowledge of background information just the curiosity of the brain
At the beginning the room her brother and she share are undifferentiated, showing how the two have not adapted to their gender roles yet , and when she daydreams, she is the hero of the stories, which is the role that is normally given to the man. She works outside with her father and takes pride in knowing that she is more capable of the work than her brother Laird, as her father gave her the real watering can and Laird was given the one for gardening. Throughout the story, however, the word girl is constantly used as an insult against her. For example, when a feed salesman comes to the father, the father introduces her as a hired-hand, and the salesman laughs and says “ ‘Could of fooled me.’ He said ‘I thought it was only a girl.’” The mother also reinforces that she should not be out there when she talks to the father about keeping the girl inside. The narrator sees her mother in a negative light and does not want to become her; she hates housework and describes it as depressing and endless, despite the fact that shortly after she says that the father’s work is “ritualistically important.” The grandmother also tries to force the narrator to act more lady-like constantly saying, " ‘Girls don 't slam doors like that.’ ‘Girls keep
...ut something the mother is doing for herself, while the second poem is all about the sacrifices the father made for his son. Comparing them shows the mother to be the more "selfish" of the two, in that her child and husband are distractions from her revelry, and they are somewhat burdensome to her. But the father is totally self-sacrificing -- getting up in the "blueblack cold," making a fire with "cracked hands that ached." He takes no thought for his own comfort, except, possibly, when he gets angry. This makes me think if the father had spent some time relaxing like the mother, maybe he wouldn't have gotten as angry. Maybe thinking of yourself every once in awhile is a good thing, I don't know, but it is interesting to note the contrast. I think mother in the first poem is person we can relate to, but the father in the second poem is a person we admire.
Unrealistically, the narrator believes that she would be of use to her father more and more as she got older. However, as she grows older, the difference between boys and girls becomes more clear and conflicting to her.
It is said that a girl can often develop some of her mother's characteristics. Although, in their works, Kincaid, Hong Kingston and Davenport depict their protagonists searching for their own identities, yet being influenced in different ways by their mothers. Jamaica Kincaid's poem Girl, is about a young woman coming-of-age receiving helpful advice from her mother. In this poem, Kincaid addresses several issues where a mother's influence is beneficial to a young woman's character. The mother, or speaker, in Girl, offers advice to her daughter- advice that she otherwise would not learn without being told or shown. The mother advises the daughter about everyday tasks, and how to go about them properly (in her opinion).
... overall themes, and the use of flashbacks. Both of the boys in these two poems reminisce on a past experience that they remember with their fathers. With both poems possessing strong sentimental tones, readers are shown how much of an impact a father can have on a child’s life. Clearly the two main characters experience very different past relationships with their fathers, but in the end they both come to realize the importance of having a father figure in their lives and how their experiences have impacted their futures.
There are no differences in the poems themselves as they are both set in the same scene but different centuries one has a negative point on the poem whereas the other has a positive however they tell the same story but in different words.
Both poems where written in the Anglo-Saxton era in Old English and later translated into English. As well as both poems being written in the same time period, they are both elegiac poems, meaning they are poignant and mournful.
When considering the structure of the poems, they are similar in that they are both written loosely in iambic pentameter. Also, they both have a notable structured rhyme scheme.
They both are open verse which means that these artists did not put a lot of rhythm in them and just let their minds be free and say what they wanted to say. In these two pieces they often use symbolism and allusion. They use these two devices to compare this friend to something. They usually compared that friend to the great memories that they had and how that one friend they had to leave was like gold to them and meant the world to them. Lyrics are also often known to be highly poetic and full of literary devices just like poetry.