The Significance of the Unspoken Character It often goes without being said that usually the main focus of a story is the character that is the most obvious and talked about. However, Jamaica Kincaid proves in her story “Girl” that sometimes the unspoken and unmentioned character is the most vital to the story. To truly grasps a story, one must observe how other characters in the story affect the main character and their affect upon the story’s outcome. Kincaid’s story “Girl” is written in a unique style of second person. The narration of the story is written in a way that makes the story appear to have no narrator. The story itself reads almost like an instruction manual or rule book. When the story actually does refer to the speaker it appears to be a girl remembering all the things her mother taught her. Even though we never actually see the mother in the story her lessons she taught to her daughter clearly drives the direction of the story as the girl goes through, in her mind, all the important life lessons her mother taught her. This style of narration can be seen in the story (Line 12) when she remembers a warning her mother gave her about singing a certain style in church and the girl thinks about how she never would do that. …show more content…
The period that the story takes place in is 1983 (Last Line) and this tells us that women back in that era were expected to be quiet and do housework. It especially impacts the story when we learn that she was a young black girl in this era. Taking all this in mind, we see how important it was that the girl’s mother tried to teach her girls all the lessons that we read in the story. Her mother knew that in order for her to make it by in a world that was not favorable for her she needed to be an upstanding
The black women’s interaction with her oppressive environment during Revolutionary period or the antebellum America was the only way of her survival. Playing her role, and being part of her community that is not always pleasant takes a lot of courage, and optimism for better tomorrow. The autonomy of a slave women still existed even if most of her natural rights were taken. As opposed to her counterparts
The author faces both gender and religious oppression in her home. At first, the author seems like she was a young and immature child, getting an occasional whipping every so often, that she is “used to.” This was partly due to the fact that the author did not act like what a girl should. The author states that she was
The story also focuses in on Ruth Younger the wife of Walter Lee, it shows the place she holds in the house and the position she holds to her husband. Walter looks at Ruth as though he is her superior; he only goes to her for help when he wants to sweet talk his mama into giving him the money. Mama on the other hand holds power over her son and doesn’t allow him to treat her or any women like the way he tries to with Ruth. Women in this story show progress in women equality, but when reading you can tell there isn’t much hope and support in their fight. For example Beneatha is going to college to become a doctor and she is often doubted in succeeding all due to the fact that she is black African American woman, her going to college in general was odd in most people’s eyes at the time “a waste of money” they would say, at least that’s what her brother would say. Another example where Beneatha is degraded is when she’s with her boyfriend George Murchison whom merely just looks at her as arm
Within every story or poem, there is always an interpretation made by the reader, whether right or wrong. In doing so, one must thoughtfully analyze all aspects of the story in order to make the most accurate assessment based on the literary elements the author has used. Compared and contrasted within the two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and John Updike’s “A&P,” the literary elements character and theme are made evident. These two elements are prominent in each of the differing stories yet similarities are found through each by studying the elements. The girls’ innocence and naivety as characters act as passages to show something superior, oppression in society shown towards women that is not equally shown towards men.
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
Racial inequality was a big thing back in the day, as the blacks were oppressed, discriminated and killed. The blacks did not get fair treatment as the whites, they were always been looked down, mocked, and terrified. But Moody knew there’s still an opportunity to change the institution through Civil Rights Movement. As she matured Anne Moody come to a conclusion that race was created as something to separate people, and there were a lot of common between a white person and a black person. Moody knew sexual orientation was very important back in the 1950s, there was little what women can do or allowed to do in the society. For example, when Moody was ridiculed by her activist fellas in Civil Rights Movement. Women indeed played an important role in Moody’s life, because they helped forming her personality development and growth. The first most important woman in Moody’s life would be her mother, Toosweet Davis. Toosweet represent the older rural African American women generation, whom was too terrified to stand up for their rights. She was portrayed as a good mother to Moody. She struggled to make ends meet, yet she did everything she could to provide shelter and food to her children. Toosweet has encouraged Moody to pursue education. However, she did not want Moody to go to college because of the fear of her daughter joining the Civil Rights Movement and getting killed. The second important woman to Moody would be Mrs. Burke, She is the white woman Moody worked for. Mrs. Burke is a fine example of racist white people, arguably the most racist, destructive, and disgusting individual. In the story, Mrs. Burke hold grudge and hatred against all African American. Although she got some respects for Moody, State by the Narrator: “You see, Essie, I wouldn’t mind Wayne going to school with you. But all Negroes aren’t like you and your
Jamaica Kincaid, born Elaine Cynthia Porter Richardson, grew up on the island of Antigua during an era of post-colonialism, surrounded by a colonial culture and the brutal history of her heritage. At the age of 17, her mother forced her to move to America so that she could work as a nurse to earn money that she could send home to her family. Instead of doing as her mother told her, she studied photography and writing during her time in America. Eventually, she took a job at The New Yorker, publishing her first piece of short fiction, “Girl.” She kept her writing secret from her family by using the pseudonym Jamaica Kincaid (Kincaid 300). Her story addresses the life of a girl living in the Caribbean and the influential characteristics of her
American women have not always been free, bold and audacious like they are today. They have a long history of being oppressed, abused, and discriminated against by the male dominating society. They have undergone an extended period of struggle for their rights, freedom, and better living conditions. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, in her story, “The Revolt of Mother”, attempts to mirror the problems, hardships and social struggle of women living in the 19th century. Sarah Penn is an obedient wife and a hard working mother living in a small farm house with her husband and two children in the rural New England.
In the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is a story that everyone can related to. The story is about a mother telling her daughter what to do, what not to do and how to do things. Kind of like society or parents or a friends of what to do. There has also been always been expectations of what to do and how to do things in life regards of gender, nationality or religion. The male has he’s duties and the female has different duties. However, in the typical society today, a person is supposed to graduate from high school and go straight in to an Ivy League university, to get a degree in a field of study that makes lot of money. While working a person must save money for that dream big house with the white picket fence. At the same time, you have to look for that perfect spouse so you can have the big beautiful dream wedding. After the wedding it’s the romantic honeymoon to Bora Bora. After a couple years the baby comes, and you are a happy family. Typically, that is what parents teach their children of what is what is expected of them.
The short story, Girl, by Jamaica Kincaid, can very easily be related directly to the author’s own life. Kincaid had a close relationship with her mother until her three younger brothers were born. After the birth of her brothers, three major values of her mother became apparent to Kincaid. In turn, Kincaid used the three values of her mother to write the short story, Girl. Specifically, these values led to three themes being formed throughout the story. It appears in the short story that the mother was simply looking out for her daughter; however, in all reality, the mother is worried about so much more. Kincaid uses the themes of negativity towards female sexuality, social norms and stereotypes, and the significant
In George Saunders’s commencement speech to the graduating class at Syracuse University, he focused on three failures of kindness centrality, separate, and permanence. Within these three failures of kindness, Saunders expresses centrality in two different ways. Centrality is the concept that our story is the only story that matters. Centrality is a main element of both Saunders commencement speech and “Girl”. The authors have chosen to represent centrality differently. Kincaid displays centrality in “Girl” by having the mother act as if her opinion is the only one that matters, and because the short story is centered around the mother-daughter’s relationship. Saunders on the other hand portrays centrality by telling his audience a story about
One of the symbols that help show us how women were treated, can be found in the journal that she keeps. This story is what is known as an epistolary, it 's written in which the narrator of a story writes to themselves. The author uses this type of story writing technique as a way of telling us about the depression she faced after she was pregnant and how she “continually becomes disassociated from reality” (Weller). If the author had written the story in any other way, the reader wouldn’t have been able to know what exactly was going on in the story. When she decides to start a secret journal she begins to hide her true feelings. In her journal, it is shown that, even though she disagrees with things that men do, women were inferior to
In this movie you can see that the white women wouldn’t really work and would stay home yet they weren’t the ones who would clean, taking care of the kids, and cook. Most of the women here would just pursue the materialistic things and cared about class. Class is “as defined by Max Weber, people who share similar levels of wealth”(Schaeffer, 2011 pg15). Many white women thought that they were superior to the african americans because of their color and is an example of ethnocentrism. Miss Hilly is the antagonist in the movie who seeds ethnocentrism more into the minds of the women that aspire to be like her. Ethnocentrism is described by Schaeffer (2011) as the tendency to assume that ones culture and way of life are superior to all others. Another character called Celia Foote who was white but treated inferior because as what her help told her was that the other women thought she was “white trash”. This movie shows examples of sexism as the town they live in most of the women are usually just home and the men are the one that are the bread makers. One of the male charters said to a girl that all women do in that town was to just try and get married and that was it. The role of most ladies and mothers within the 1950 was restrictive and confining in most ways. Society placed high importance and many expectations on behavior issue that was expected of them in their house and in the publics eye . Girls were supposed to fulfill certain roles, such as a caring mother, a good housewife, and a good better half. The proper mother was also suppose to keep just to the house and nurture therefore society would settle for them. A good housewife had dinner on the table exactly at the instant her husband arrived from work or when he wanted it. A better half was a "good" better half only if she dole out her man's each order
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.
The book taking place during and after the period of the civil war there was a lot of tension concerning Blacks. Some of the values Mrs. March teaches her girls is the importance of never trying to be something there not; the unimportance of material possessions versus mental possessions; and that regardless of what the world told them, they are equal to men and therefore deserve equal rights.