"Girl" Jamaica Kincaid Response Essay

Next, evidence that shows a daughter is briefly heard is the other character interjects and asks a question. The character interjects when the mother asks if she sang Benna in Sunday school, the girl interjects and said she never did that. A daughter would want to interject with her mother to tell her she did not sing an un-lady like song in. Also, the character asks what she should do if the baker will not let her squeeze the bread to see if it is fresh. The mother replies by asking, “you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker wont let near the bread?” This shows a mother is talking to her daughter because the speaker sounds disappointed after her daughter she is still going to have a bad reputation after all the mother has done for her. In conclusion, the speaker in the text “Girl” is a mother and the person briefly heard is the daughter. This is because the speaker is telling the other person tips to make chores easier and advice for her life, which is something mothers do for their daughters. The other character

Kincaid’s choice to separate pieces of advice by semicolons instead of full-stop periods lends the piece a sense of urgency, almost as if the mother is trying to impart all of her knowledge to her daughter as quickly as possible. However, this often makes the mother’s words come across tersely, and the their relationship seems strained at best. The daughter is allowed very little input overall; one of her sentences comes across defensively, as she denies her mother’s accusations that she is singing provocative music in Sunday school, and the other is posed as an innocent question which receives an aggressive answer. The mother’s main concern seems to be that her daughter is turning into a “slut”, and because of this apparent fear, she can be argumentative and tense towards her daughter. However, near the end of the piece, some of the advice seems to take a softer turn. The mother gives her daughter advice about love, and says, “don’t feel too bad about giving up” (1), which is much gentler than many previous sentiments. She even gives advice about “how to spit up in the air if you feel like it” (1) and how to move away; this reads much more like play than work, and almost gives a sense of playfulness between the mother and daughter, practicing a useless but entertaining trick. However, by the end, the mood turns again, as the girl’s innocent question provokes an angry answer: “you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?” (1). While there may have been some progress in the mother-daughter relationship, it is ultimately returned to the same frustrated and almost resentful

In the short story “Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid is told from the perspective of two different people. There is a bonding relationship that is happening between the two people in this short story. The mother seems to be the main character in this essay uses a very strict tone to her daughter. The daughter is being told about how to do things in her life the correct way. The daughter barely speaks during this essay, she is doing more analyzing than arguing with her mother. When the mother gives the daughter advise she was trying to give her words of wisdom. But, at the same time, some of the ideas the mother gave to her child was offensive like “slut”. The mother has different perspectives throughout this essay with a lot of different

The power of domesticity determines how girls mother comes to the assumption that domestic mastery will not only save her daughter from a life of licentiousness but will also serve as a way for her to gain respect in the antiguan community. Girl’s mother states the endless list of tasks she needs to maintain throughout her home in order maintain the respectable image her mother seeks after. As stated in the text “Wash the white clothes on monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color cloths on tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry”(Kincaid 296). Her mother tells her daughter the way things should be done in order to maintain her important role around her home. Reading her mother's precise list of instructions we can infer the devotion her mother has in the power of domesticity. In our society today and all throughout the world, the image of a woman is sought to be of them staying home and completing numerous tasks around their

Have you ever wished that someone had given you a guide on how live the right way? Jamaica Kincaid does just that in her short story, Girl. The narrative is presented as a set of life instructions to a girl by her mother to live properly in Antigua in the 1980’s. While the setting of the story is not expressly stated by the author in the narrative, the reader is able to understand the culture for which Girl was written.

Although the daughter’s shame in her mother is evident, she is also prideful of her as well. The strong love that the mother and daughter share is pervasive throughout the story. The story is being told by the daughter after she is all grown up. The fact that Jones uses such vivid detail on the mother’s preparation for her daughters first day of school shows that the daughter loved her mom and all that she did for her. The daughter recalls that her mother spent a lot of time preparing her when she says, “My mother has uncharacteristically spent nearly an hour on my hair that morning, plaiting and replaiting so that now my scalp tingles.” (Jones) She also remembers that her “pale green slip and underwear are new, the underwear having come three to a plastic package with a little girl on the front who appears to be dancing.” (Jones) The daughter having remembered details like these illustrate that she has an immense love and takes pride

In Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl,” the narration of a mother lecturing her daughter with sharp, commanding diction and unusual syntax, both affect the evolution of a scornful tone, that her daughter’s behavior will eventually lead her to a life of promiscuity that will affect the way people perceive her and respect her within her social circle. As well as the fact that it emphasizes expectations for young women to conform to a certain feminine ideal of domesticity as a social norm during this time and the danger of female sexuality.

“Girl” is a short story in which the author, Jamaica Kincaid, unofficially presents the stereotypes of girls in the mid 1900s. Kincaid includes two major characters in the story “Girl”, they are the mother and the girl. Although the daughter only asks two questions in this story, she is the major character. The mother feels like her daughter is going in the wrong direction and not making the best decisions in her life. The whole story is basically the mother telling her daughter what affects her decisions will have in the future. The mother believes that because her daughter isn’t sitting, talking, cleaning, walking or singing correctly it will lead her to a path of destruction. “Girl” is a reflection of female sexuality, the power of family, and how family can help overcome future dangers.

In the short story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, you hear about the many words of wisdom, or advice that a mother is attempting to pass on to her daughter. The condescending tone of the story is portrayed by the use of semi colons, showing a steady stream of advice and preaching of the mother onto the daughter. The story follows an almost poetic or lyrical style of writing that flows from basic advice like how to sweep a corner to advice like how to handle a man bullying you or how to have an abortion. Although a lot of the advice given to the daughter may be useful in her life and in the culture they live in, it is delivered in a way that seems very callous, and is said with a stern tone, much like a dictator. The daughter in the story tries to speak up only twice throughout the entire thig, only to be completely unheard as the mother continues her chant. The only time the mother’s advice is repeating is when she refers to her daughter as a slut, or her inevitable “becoming of a slut”, which occurs four times throughout the work. The story is written with no real chronological timeline and does not have the traditional beginning, middle, and ending.

“Girl” is quite a strange short story compare to all the other ones that were read in class. It is strange to hear the high expectations that parents communicate to their children because of the way they are presented and because of the language that is used. All that sounds pretty unusual and outdated. But in those days it was probably something normal. Also, Kincaid is trying to point out how the world is changing and how women have much more freedom to do what

In “Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid, the mother is warning her daughter about what to expect, and how to act, in society. The story represents a time when the daughter knew that her mother loved her enough to spend the time to give her the advice, but is also emotionally distant. I believe this to be representative of Kincaid’s life, and how after her brother’s were born she felt that her mother did not have enough time for her.

Women are meant to behave and act proper. Though it may not be quite the same today, however, every once in awhile society still expects women to behave and act a certain way. In the past women were supposed to act like ladies and be the proper quiet housewife. Women were raised to speak, behave, and perform tasks a certain way that society deemed as right and proper. Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” shows just that. Her story is about a girl who is basically scolded by her mother on how to act and perform daily tasks. Her mother's belief is that a woman's reputation is everything and if her daughter keeps acting the way she does she will lead a promiscuous life. She does not want that for her daughter, or for her daughters reputation to come back to her if it is not a good one. Kincaid utilizes the theme of image and social acceptance are most important for woman through symbolism, repetition, and tone .

The short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid was a bittersweet warning from a mother to her daughter. The reader is experiencing the viewpoint of the protagonist through the soliloquy of her mother’s instructions that batter her like bugs smacking the

For centuries, women have had the role of being the perfect and typical house wife; needs to stay home and watch the children, cook for husbands, tend to the laundry and chores around the house. In her short story “Girl”, Jamaica Kincaid provides a long one sentence short story about a mother giving specific instructions to her daughter but with one question towards the end, with the daughter’s mother telling her daughter if she had done all the instructions to become a so called “perfect” woman, every man would want her. Kincaid’s structuring in “Girl,” captures a demanding and commanding tone. This short story relates to feminist perspectives. The mother expects a great deal from her daughter to have a certain potential and she does not hesitate to let her daughter understand that. As a matter of fact, the story is about two pages long, made into one long sentence - almost the whole time the mother is giving her daughter directions to follow - conveys a message to the reader that the mother demands and expects great potential in her daughter. The daughter is forced to listen and learn from what her mother is telling her to do to become the perfect housewife. Throughout the story, Kincaid uses the symbols of the house and clothing, benna and food to represent the meanings of becoming a young girl to a woman and being treated like one in society. Women are portrayed to appeal to a man to become the ideal woman in society, while men can do anything they please.

352). In today’s society there are no rules that prevent a person from doing all their laundry in the same day. A majority of people have probably learned from their parents or from experience that it doesn’t work so well if you wash whites and darks together; otherwise stating there are no instructions that come along with the task of laundry. In Kincaid’s (2011) story “Girl” the reader gathers the idea from the tone of the text, as it is the women’s role to do the laundry; whereas, in today’s society it is not always the woman completing the task of laundry. In some families, more often than less the women and men share the responsibility of doing laundry. In viewing the story “Girl” from a feminist perspective, another occurrence of gender roles would be the narrator’s statement “soak salt water fish overnight before you cook it” (Kincaid, 2011, p. 352). In the society that the story takes place, it is the woman’s responsibility to cook, compared to the twentieth century family, the meals may be prepared by every member of the family. Prior to the feminist laws women were treated with little to no respect for the things that they were expected to accomplish on a daily basis. In the era the story is written, women were often wives, housekeepers, cooks, and teachers. “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,” and “this is how you sweep a