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Gender role in literature
Gender role in literature
Girl by jamaica kincaid full story
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In her story “Girl”, Jamaica Kincaid describes the multitude of tasks the unnamed girl must complete, as listed out by her mother. The story, being short and not containing a single period, showcases the continual pressure the girl faces to avoid the incessant danger of being deemed a “slut”. It also highlights the internal tension the mother apparently feels to help her daughter avoid this title. One may find the story to be hauntingly familiar of another time, despite its’ age difference. By making use of a commanding tone, definitive word choice, and blunt sentence structure, Kincaid shows what it takes to become the “right” kind of woman to ultimately show the absurdity of these stipulations. To convey her message, Kincaid sets up …show more content…
All of the mother’s statements have a definitive nature to them. Each statement begins with “don’t”, “you mustn't”, “always”, and most often: “this is how”. This choice of phrasing on Kincaid’s end shows the mother’s experience. This knowledge has, presumably, been learned from years of a certain kind of treatment. The main concern of the mother is that the daughter will not be respected by society and will be deemed a “slut”. This is evident by the repetition of the strongly connotative word, as it appears three times throughout the brief text. Each time it is said, it escalates, almost coming across as anger. Within the first use, “...the slut I know you are so bent on becoming”, the mother is assuming that without direction, the girl will become one. It is also said right after a comment about walking “like a lady” and not like a slut. This dual sided view- that a girl is either a lady (invokes a feeling of being proper, respected), or a slut- is not the type of lesson a loving mother would teach her daughter just because. It is instead from fear that the mother so desperately wants to teach her daughter how to be a lady. One could even go as far as to say that the culture is having affect on the mother, as in each use she assumes her daughter is “bent on becoming” a slut. The noticeable burden the mother feels to enlighten her daughter shows the …show more content…
In the modern world, gender and gender roles are a controversial subject, gaining a large amount of publicity in the last few years. In a time when our country’s citizens are so divided, it is important to recognize the necessity of viewing from the other person's perspective. In the case of “Girl”, the female represents all young girls. And although not all things the girl must do relate directly to the world today, it is the message that remains universal: that a number of things a girl must do to avoid being looked down upon is unreasonable. Kincaid goes a step further by critiquing “slut” as a word to insult. She begs the audience to ask, how can something as simple as squatting to play a game make a girl slut? With this, she also forces us to question the definition of “slut”, a woman’s sexuality, and society’s place to judge that sexuality. These are the types of points that a progressive society must bring up, especially in times like these, and hopefully with a conviction as strong as
In “Girl,” Jamaica Kincaid’s use of repetitive syntax and intense diction help to underscore the harsh confines within which women are expected to exist. The entire essay is told from the point of view of a mother lecturing her daughter about how to be a proper lady. The speaker shifts seamlessly between domestic chores—”This is how you sweep a house”—and larger lessons: “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…” (Kincaid 1). The way in which the speaker bombards the girl overwhelms the reader, too. Every aspect of her life is managed, to the point where all of the lessons she receives throughout her girlhood blur together as one run-on sentence.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus in his quest to validate his claim that the world was round and that it should belong to his Spanish patrons, the king and queen of Spain, set sail on his ship Santa Maria. He soon discovered the “New World”, which was new to him, but not to the Antiguans who lived there. Cultural imperialism was one of the most prominent means Western countries like Spain and Britain used to colonize other parts of the world at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Cambridge dictionary defines cultural imperialism as one “culture of a large and powerful country, organization, etc. having a great influence on other less powerful country.”
In the short story, "Girl," by Jamaica Kincaid, the character of the mother can be seen as tyrannical. This oppressive trait of hers is reiterated several times throughout this story. It is first displayed in her initial remarks, rather than asking her daughter to do things, she lists things in a robotic manner, "Wash the white clothes on Monday, wash the colored clothes on Tuesday." Not only is she robotic, but she appears to believe that she has been sent to save her daughter from promiscuity. Her narcissistic viewpoint of being a savior is one that is consistent with that of a tyrant. This perspective is evident through commands such as "try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming." She abuses her parental power
The selected passage from Jamaica Kincaid’s novel Lucy: A Novel emphasizes an explicit conflict between the narrator’s immediate and expected joy over being able to experience relative luxury for the first time against the implicit force of her inner schock and realization of her past situation as it ties into and shapes her identity and perspective of the world at large. The first paragraph details the specifics of her past situation through direct thoughts of the reader and her way of describing the luxury she’s in as presented through slightly clumsy, almost uncomfortable syntax, whether she “got into an elevator, some [she] had never done before,” (1-2) or when she was “eating food just taken from a refrigerator.” (3) She says that the experience in the apartment, compared to her home, “was such a good idea that [she] would grow used to it and like it very much.”
The mother’s instructions to her daughter reflect the ways in which Britain demanded Antigua to act more European. While “Girl” was first published in 1978, the text remains relevant as Antigua continues to suffer the lasting effects of British rule. Kincaid describes her writing as an attempt to understand her origins, saying, “you struggle to make sense of the external from the things that have made you what you are and the things that you have been told are you: my history of colonialism, my history of slavery, and imagining if that hadn't happened what I would have been” (Vorda and Kincaid, 9). She uses her combination of prose and poetry as a tool of making sense of the pain and a way of telling her personal truths. By writing about the experience of being a girl in the postcolonial Caribbean, she is able to recover her identity and tell Antigua’s story from the perspective of the
Girl by Jamaica Kincaid is a piece about a mother speaking to her very young daughter who is entering adolescence, advising her very specifically how to behave. Kincaid’s use of tone, repetition, intensity, and perspective help shape the main idea that being a female is nearly impossible and that women have to act a certain way with everything they do, even if they lack integrity with these actions.
This paper argued that the mother in Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” is loving towards her daughter because the mother is taking time to teaching her daughter how to be a woman, and because she wants to protect her in the future from society’s judgment. Kincaid showed that the mother cared and loved her daughter. The mother wants her daughter to know how to run a home and how to keep her life in order to societies standards. Alongside practical advice, the mother instructs her daughter on how to live a fulfilling
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).
Mary Pipher goes on to say that the problem faced by girls is a ‘problem without a name’ and that the girls of today deserve a different kind of society in which all their gifts can be developed and appreciated. (Pipher,M). It’s clear that cultures and individual personalities intersect through the period of adolescence. Adolescence is a time in a young girl’s life that shapes them into the woman they become. I think it begins earlier than teen years because even the clothing that is being sold for younger girls says sexuality. Bras for girls just beginning in every store are now padded with matching bikini underwear, Barbie dolls are glamour up in such away that these girls believ...
Society continually places restrictive standards on the female gender not only fifty years ago, but in today’s society as well. While many women have overcome many unfair prejudices and oppressions in the last fifty or so years, late nineteenth and early twentieth century women were forced to deal with a less understanding culture. In its various formulations, patriarchy posits men's traits and/or intentions as the cause of women's oppression. This way of thinking diverts attention from theorizing the social relations that place women in a disadvantageous position in every sphere of life and channels it towards men as the cause of women's oppression (Gimenez). Different people had many ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities amound women, including expressing their voices and opinions through their literature. By writing stories such as Daisy Miller and The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic that took a major toll in American History. In this essay, I am going to compare Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” to James’ “Daisy Miller” as portraits of American women in peril and also the men that had a great influence.
middle of paper ... ... Doing so will win the daughter the respect from the community that her mother wants for her. “The slut you’re bent on becoming” and other variations of the line reoccur throughout the text and may be one of the seemingly obvious expressions that propounds the mother’s ramification with the system and illustrates her efforts to shape a daughter who performs her instructions appropriately. Works Cited Fisher, Jerilyn, and Ellen S. Silber.
In the short story, “Girl,” the narrator describes certain tasks a woman should be responsible for based on the narrator’s culture, time period, and social standing. This story also reflects the coming of age of this girl, her transition into a lady, and shows the age gap between the mother and the daughter. The mother has certain beliefs that she is trying to pass to her daughter for her well-being, but the daughter is confused by this regimented life style. The author, Jamaica Kincaid, uses various tones to show a second person point of view and repetition to demonstrate what these responsibilities felt like, how she had to behave based on her social standing, and how to follow traditional customs.
Modern America, in accordance to course materials and personal experiences, overtly sexualizes people, specifically among the youth, engendering new versions of gender expectations, roles, relationships, and how society views people based on appearance, sexual promiscuity or supposed promiscuity, and so on. Easy A (2011) represents an example clarifying how gender socialization impacts today’s youth via several concepts such as slut shaming, slut glorification, challenging masculinity, dating/hooking up, gender expectations and social acceptance. This film primarily focuses on a female’s promiscuity. Olive, the main character, is automatically labeled slut, after a rumor she unintentionally sparked by a bathroom conversation. Soon, the rumor spread and Olive became “school slut” in minutes.
Due to the girl’s current lifestyle and behavior, the mother is focused on sharing the value to save her daughter from a life of promiscuity. The mother fears her daughter will become a “slut” and insists that is exactly what the daughter desires. Moreover, the mother is very blunt with her view when she uses repetition with the statement, “… the slut you are so bent on becoming.” (Kincaid92). It is very clear that the mother holds a reputation to such a standard that it could determine the overall quality of a woman and her life. Therefore, a woman’s sexuality should be protected and hidden to present the woman with respect and to avoid the dangers of female sexuality. The mother is very direct in calling out certain, specific behaviors of the daughter. Such as, the way the daughter walks, plays with marbles, and approaches other people. The mother is very persistent that the daughter must act a certain way that can gain their community’s respect. She fears the social consequence of a woman’s sexuality becoming
Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” shows in society how a woman should be placed and what it means to be a woman. A women doesn’t question her partner, instead she is subservient to him. A woman’s duties include staying at home taking care of the children and cooking; while the man works and brings home the money. A feministic approach to Kincaid’s “Girl” points to the idea of the stereotypes that women can only be what they do in the home, they should only be pure and virtuous, and their main focus should be satisfying their husband.