Imagine reading a short story and have two or more different views of what you think the text is about and cannot decide on which one you believe to be right. The ideas are so similar and yet so different in their own way that it is nearly impossible to decide. This is clear in both works, “Orientation” by Daniel Orozco, and “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid. The two stories both possess different issues including: issue of fact, pattern, social policy, historical and cultural context, and theme. In Orozco’s “Orientation”, there is the issue of fact, pattern, and social policy are present. The issue of fact is found throughout the story as the narrator is telling the new employee about different things about the other employees. He seems to know …show more content…
Issue of historical/cultural context is clear throughout the story. As the mother is telling the daughter different things it is evident this story is not taking place in a modern society, but instead in a more traditional setting with specified gender roles. Constantly the mother is diminishing the daughter as she tells her, “on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not the slut that you are so bent on becoming,” (cite this). The mother is trying to command the daughter to act more like a lady by saying she needs to walk a certain way. This is why there is also the issue of social policy within the text as well. The text is set in a very traditional, poor country and is likely around the 1950s-1960s. Gender roles were much more prominent around this time and especially in underdeveloped countries. This meant the woman was more much likely to stay at home and take care of her husband and children, and this was her job. This is a prominent issue because although the story is not is present time, woman should still strive to receive and education and hold a job outside the house. The mother is commanding the daughter because in their society the highest many women can achieve is being a good
When looking into works of literature, some stories seem to be similar to others. They can have a similar setting, point of view, theme, or sense of language and style. However, all of these points could be very different as well and could cover different theme or style. Flannery O’Conner’s “Good Country People” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” have some contrasting elements, such as their points of view and use of symbolism, but their similarities in the underlying theme, language, and the setting of these stories reveal how these two stories are impacted by education on both the individual and their family.
Everyday we observe people’s contrasting opinions. Whether it be in politics, school, or in one’s personal life, emotions are often a major factor when it comes to expressing one’s ideas. In writing, an audience must be aware this, and decide for themselves if an author is being bias or equally representing all sides to a situation. In both Into the Wild and In Cold Blood, the authors form distinct opinions about their main characters and believe family structure heavily influenced their future.
Last but not least, O’Connor confirms that even a short story is a multi-layer compound that on the surface may deter even the most enthusiastic reader, but when handled with more care, it conveys universal truths by means of straightforward or violent situations. She herself wished her message to appeal to the readers who, if careful enough, “(…)will come to see it as something more than an account of a family murdered on the way to Florida.”
Yellow Wallpaper’.” Gender in Reading: Essays on Readers, Texts, and Contexts. (1986): 147-64. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Detroit: Gale. 163-166.
The specific job that the listener is being oriented to is not important to the story, either. The setting is a generic office atmosphere. “These are the offices and these are the cubicles.” By using this stereotypical and conventional setting, Orozco makes the things that happen to individual employees even more outrageous.
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.
context out of which a work of literature emerges molds the interpretation of gender in that work.
This is because the mother assumes that a woman’s reputation and respectability predisposes to the quality of a woman’s life in the community. The mother inherently concludes that there are only two types of women: respectable women and “sluts.” Through the entire story, the mother often implicates the daughter of being bent on becoming a “slut.” Her suspicion doesn’t appear to be aggravated by the daughter’s behavior. The daughter resembles good behavior; this is shown by her first input in the story, “but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school” (171).
Daughters have always had a special bond with their fathers, even at the time where women did not have the same rights as men, and were seen as the weaker sex. This father is no different, in wanting the best for his little girl. The father in this letter wants the daughter to accomplish her roles differently than the women before her because he knows that women are capable of accomplishing “male” tasks. The letter also addresses how women were seen and treated by men and the changes that were occurring in order to gain a status quo for both men and women.
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.
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.
In the story “Two Kinds”, the author, Amy Tan, intends to make reader think of the meaning behind the story. She doesn’t speak out as an analyzer to illustrate what is the real problem between her and her mother. Instead, she uses her own point of view as a narrator to state what she has experienced and what she feels in her mind all along the story. She has not judged what is right or wrong based on her opinion. Instead of giving instruction of how to solve a family issue, the author chooses to write a narrative diary containing her true feeling toward events during her childhood, which offers reader not only a clear account, but insight on how the narrator feels frustrated due to failing her mother’s expectations which leads to a large conflict between the narrator and her mother.
Julia Alvarez was an example of how a Latina writer identified herself in a new culture outside of her comfort zone. She, as a Dominican Diaspora, had to reinvent herself as she migrated into a new scenario. Her assimilation into the United States culture allowed her to understand and relate to the reader’s needs and points of interests. After all the effort, Alvarez kept in mind that she could not comfort to all the reality that she lived in, so she re-reinvented herself all over again to process her thoughts and beliefs into her life. She put her perspective on her writing so that the new wave of readers, even if they did not understand, could relate in some way and appreciate the differences. The sole purpose of her writings was for everyone to change their perspective from “walk to the other side of the street in order to avoid sharing the same sidewalk” to “I do not know them, but I do not avoid them because I do not know them”. She instilled in her reader’s mind how ordinary events were viewed differently through other cultures’ eyes. Her story Snow was a great example of how she portrayed her technique.
...a woman trying to find an identity through her heritage. All of these stories give us examples and show us what life in this period would be like for the characters. They give details that show the readers the world around them.
Breaking down point of view in stories can be helpful in determining the central idea, as the two concepts typically support one another. An author such as O’Connor has the ability when writing narrative to use whichever point of view they feel best portrays the story they are telling in the way they would like readers to understand it. By including and excluding certain bits of information, the author can present the story the way they choose, with the option to leave as many or as few subtle or obvious details within the narration as they would like to reveal to