GIRL BY JAMAICA KINCAID The poem GIRL by Jamaica Kincaid was well written and tells an amazing story. GIRL is a poem about how a mother teaches her daughter how to act and become a grown woman. What is dominant culture in the poem GIRL by Jamaica Kincaid? Dominant culture doesn’t have a actual definition but it mostly means a culture influential within a social or political entity in which multiple culture are present. In the poem the mother and daughter lives as a non wealthy family in Antigua
to buy a bed. She described herself as being a struggling writer, who did not know how to write, but sheer determination and a fortunate encounter with the editor of The New Yorker, William Shawn who set the epitome for her writing success. Ms. Kincaid was a West-Indian American writer who was the first writer and the first individual from her island of Antigua to achieve this goal. Her genre of work includes novelists, essayist, and a gardener. Her writing style has been described as having dreamlike
slut I have warned you against becoming” (Kincaid 445). She is seemingly trying to ingrain in her daughter the idea of how a stranger views you is just as, if not more important than how your loved ones view you. It is easy to see that the mother is bitter while giving the advice to her daughter because she seems to think it is all in vain, as shown as the multiple mentions of the girl growing up to be “the slut I have warned you against becoming” (Kincaid 444-5). However, she seems to be overlooking
Girl Being a “good girl” in Antigua during the 1970’s is a lot different than it is in America in 2018. It takes a lot of rules and hard work to fit in and fill the role of the mother. In the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, the speaker focuses on domesticity and social manners in her guidance to the daughter. Due to the demanding and formidable tone, the short story forces the girl to follow the guidelines given by the narrator. Comparing the different points of view, the story has more
“Girl,”written by Jamaica Kincaid, is a prose poem about the relationship between a mother and daughter. In reality, it reflects the actual living background in Kincaid's time by listing a series of important sentences; as read, it shows that her mother disciplined her for a certain lifestyle; moreover, now she wants the same living for her daughter. In this poem, the setting, tone, and characters engage and work together to create an acute description of a day-to-day conversation between mother
In the passage from the novel LUCY, author Jamaica Kincaid dramatizes the forces of self and environment, through her character whose identity is challenged with a move. The new home provided all she needed, but it was all so many changes, she “didn’t want to take in anything else” (15-16). Her old “familiar and predictable past”(40) stayed behind her, and she now had to find who she was in her new life. Kincaid uses detail, metaphor, and tone in the passage to show her character’s internal struggle
Comparing Girl by Jamaica Kincaid and A&P by John Updike 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
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, is a poem about the relationship between two characters, the mother and daughter, the one that speaks the most is a mother who gives guidance on life to her daughter. The setting appears to be at home where the mother gives direction in things like cooking and washing clothes as living in their Antiguan society. Conflicts between a mother and her daughter, and Western or present day values, are depicted by Kincaid's compelling outline of her association with her mother
Jamaica Kincaid in her short literature work “Girl” utilizes strong repetition to convey certain themes seen in gender issues, more specifically those of the power of domesticity and female sexuality. This narrative is structured with two characters, a mother and daughter, and is presented by the mother as a list of instructions for the daughter to live and follow by in life. The repetition of the phrase “this is how you [do this]” and the word “slut” shows the oscillation of the mother going from
Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” In the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid it shows a relationship between a more mature mother who has experienced life and a daughter who is a teenager about to go into the world. The mother is telling her daughter how to act to be a productive member of society. The theme in “Girl” suggests that a woman should be domesticated and should act in a certain manner in Antigua in the 1980’s. In my opinion, the mother’s attitude toward her daughter in the story is bitter
March 2015 A Psychological Look into Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” In the short story “Girl,” Jamaica Kincaid portrays herself as a young African-American girl that is being taught the rights and wrongs of life by her single mother. Despite the accusations that her mother places upon her, the young girl has many other obstacles preventing her from having a better lifestyle. Throughout the story, Kincaid tells about her childhood through the life of the young African-American girl. In Jamaica Kincaid’s
The presence and action of the word “lecture” is often perceived to have a negative connotation, as people feel berated when being lectured. In the poem “Girl,” Jamaica Kincaid presents a mother who is lecturing her child. The lecture that the mother is giving her child can be initially discerned as one that is given in a negative way. However, through further analysis, it is seen that the mother is giving her daughter advice on how to live in an Antiguan and patriarchal society because she wants
- A Small Place In the work “A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid, she discusses many things she is not happy with: the ignorant tourist, whom she addresses as the reader, Antigua’s corrupt government, the passiveness of the Antiguan people, and the English who colonized Antigua. This work can be discusses as a polemic because of Kincaid’s simplistic diction, and very confrontational tone throughout the book. From the beginning, Kincaid introduces the tourist, whom she describes as a white middle-class
day. In Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” so many “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” are listed off that the reader feels as though they’re back being lectured by their own mother! Kincaid writes with such an overbearing tone that any reader would feel the pressures of being a girl. And that is exactly what she meant to do; Kincaid uses “Girl” to almost bully the reader into feeling the claustrophobic pressures a girl feels, but not only that she challenges the reader to imagine the strenuous rules and
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid presents the hypothetical story of a tourist visiting Antigua, the author’s hometown. Kincaid places the reader in the shoes of the tourist, and tells the tourist what he/she would see through his/her travels on the island. She paints a picturesque scene of the tourist’s view of Antigua, but stains the image with details of issues that most tourists overlook: the bad roads, the origin of the so-called native food, the inefficiency of the plumbing systems in resorts
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
In “A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid, Kincaid criticizes tourists for being heartless and ignorant to the problems that the people of Antigua had and the sacrifices that had to be made to make Antigua a tremendous tourist/vacation spot. While Kincaid makes a strong argument, her argument suggests that she doesn't realize what tourism is for the tourists. In other words, tourism is an escape for those who are going on vacation and the tourists are well within their rights to be “ignorant”, especially
“On Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming” (Kincaid 120). Jamaica Kincaid, the author of the short story “Girl”, grows up in poverty. At age seventeen she is sent to America to make a living. Her story is written in the second person without being told who the narrator is. The narrator only wants the best for the girl, but her worldview is different from that of the girl and the life she is going to lead. First off, the narrator has different worldviews
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. The repetition in this piece expresses the mother’s emphasis on specific parts of womanhood, as there
Additionally, she aims to open their eyes to the difficulties of colonization. 3. Throughout her childhood, Kincaid recalls seeing “Made in England written on everything, and to her, “those three words were felt as a burden” (3). In this quote, Kincaid compares the words “Made in England” to a burden. Prior to this statement, Kincaid mentions how