Jamaica Kincaid Analysis

The United States has always prided itself on offering everyone the opportunity to succeed. This “American Dream” was achieved by the award-winning author Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson, who is better known by her pen name Jamaica Kincaid. Growing up in Antigua, Kincaid was subjected to a rough life of poverty and colonialism (Paravisini-Gebert 2). Other conflicts for Kincaid, were racial prejudice and gender inequality. Kincaid 's mother supported the sexist attitude towards women, and imposed these values onto Kincaid. But Kincaid vehemently opposed those views. Instead of conforming to the unjust gender roles expected of her from her community and mother, Kincaid defied the social norms and actively spoke up for women 's rights. After

Smyth explores how well Jamaica Kincaid 's work fits into Chodorow 's model. She finds that Kincaid 's work has somewhat of a natural fit to the Chodorow model, because Kincaid 's literature largely involves the theme of a mother-daughter relationship (Smyth 79). “I have a sense of destiny because of my mother, who was an extraordinary person but a terrible candidate for mother.” Kincaid said to Oprah Winfrey in an interview (Oprah). The idea that Jamaica Kincaid fits this model extends my premise that Kincaid 's work is largely impacted by her mother, and adds to that, by stating that even her personality is greatly influenced by her mother. In other words, without her mother that she despises, Jamaica Kincaid would not be the woman she is today, and there is a real possibility that she never would have become an award-winning

The mother in “Girl” tells her daughter the long list of chores she needed to be able to perform, as well as what was expected of her in almost every aspect of life. “ ...try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming.” This line from the mother alerts us that the appearance of “not looking like a slut” is more important than whether or not her daughter actually becomes one (Bailey 110). The mother was attempting to push her own ideals and values onto her daughter, in hopes of “saving” her. This story seems all too familiar, because it of course seems to be loosely based on the relationship between Kincaid and her own mother. Although I do not think it was necessarily her intention, this work has been viewed by many as a literary work of feminism (SOURCE). From birth we are all socialized, and there is no bigger influence in our lives than our family, specifically our parents. The gender roles that are forced into the minds of children are too often misguided and clearly unfair. In Kincaid 's case, we see that her expected role as a woman in life was terrible. How a woman walks or dresses should not matter, and becoming a stay-at-home male caretaker is not a job description I think anyone would enjoy signing