Girl
"Girl" is a short piece that shows the dialogue between an older woman and a younger girl, probably a mother and her adolescent daughter. In the piece, the mother instructs her daughter on many subjects, from cooking and cleaning to social skills and love. Despite its brevity, "Girl" is a work which accurately and intimately portrays a mother-daughter relationship and expected women's roles.
The title of the piece, "Girl", is an integral part of the work itself. The title serves several purposes. First, the title represents the age of the daughter. She is not a woman, not yet on her own, but a girl, still dependent on another, still with much to learn. Second, the title represents the mother's perception of her daughter. She does not consider her a woman or a young lady, but a naive girl in need of constant instruction and supervision. A third purpose of the title is that it represents the daughter's struggle to find her own emerging identity in the shadow of her mother and the shadow of the identity her mother wants her to take on. She is not named in the piece, nor is her place defined; she is not "daughter", "sister", "mother", or "wife", but "girl".
"Girl" depicts the mother-daughter relationship that appears when the daughter reaches adolescence, a time of great change in the relationship. Kincaid uses Caribbean idioms and speech patterns to lend realism to the dialogue. The dialogue borders on monologue on the part of the mother. The girl is hardly able to squeeze in a word, having only two brief sentences in the entire work. Very likely, however, this is not even one speech by the mother, but a compilation of several bits of advice. To the daughter's ears, the plethora of advice and rules her mother offers sounds like endless droning, and the words become the backdrop of the daughter's adolescence. The mother doesn't consider her daughter to be mature, and tries to prepare her for adulthood and womanhood. The mother's lecture contains exasperation and spite (". . . like the slut you are so bent on becoming") tempered with love and patience (".
Not every teenage girl or teenager gets along with their parents. Everyone sees things in different way. the difference in the point of view provokes the narrator's response, because they both see in a different view that they think their parents is selfish and neglecting or don't care about them but really their parents are helping them.
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.
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
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).
The daughter alludes to an idea that her mother was also judged harshly and made to feel ashamed. By the daughters ability to see through her mothers flaws and recognize that she was as wounded as the child was, there is sense of freedom for both when the daughter find her true self. Line such as “your nightmare of weakness,” and I learned from you to define myself through your denials,” present the idea that the mother was never able to defeat those that held her captive or she denied her chance to break free. The daughter moments of personal epiphany is a victory with the mother because it breaks a chain of self-loathing or hatred. There is pride and love for the women they truly were and is to be celebrated for mother and daughter.
...ther is losing her daughter to time and circumstance. The mother can no longer apply the word “my” when referring to the daughter for the daughter has become her own person. This realization is a frightening one to the mother who then quickly dives back into her surreal vision of the daughter now being a new enemy in a world already filled with evils. In this way it is easier for the mother to acknowledge the daughter as a threat rather than a loss. However, this is an issue that Olds has carefully layered beneath images of war, weapons, and haircuts.
The reader gets the impression that the advice that the mother gives her daughter has been passed down from many generations of women. The advice of the ages has enabled their daughters to endure hardships and to avoid making the same mistakes that they had made, such as planting okra far from the house because it attracts red ants. There were some women in the past that learned this lesson the hard way, and included it in the litany of advice for future generations. But "Girl" also shows the hostility and family dissension that the females suffer.
...cts of the mother and the descriptions, which are presented to us from her, are very conclusive and need to be further examined to draw out any further conclusions on how she ?really? felt. The mother-daughter relationship between the narrator and her daughter bring up many questions as to their exact connection. At times it seems strong, as when the narrator is relating her childhood and recounting the good times. Other times it is very strained. All in all the connection between the two seems to be a very real and lifelike account of an actual mother-daughter relationship.
Within the passage the little girl feared every day what the guy was going to due to her and her mother. Throughout the whole passage she describes how he would force him self on to her and take advantage of her. The little girl does state, that she knows her mother goes through the same experiences that she does but is afraid to tell her that she does go through that. In the passage she
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.
After reading “The Doll House” and “Trifles”, the idea of females being inferior to men is portrayed. Both plays, are in a much older time period. But from a feminist view, females are still sometimes given the doubtful role in today’s society. Both plays, are very different, but much alike in the ways the females are treated, never taken seriously, nor are they appreciated.
“Girl” written by Jamaica Kincaid is essentially a set of instructions given by an adult, who is assumed to be the mother of the girl, who is laying out the rules of womanhood, in Caribbean society, as expected by the daughter’s gender. These instructions set out by the mother are related to topics including household chores, manners, cooking, social conduct, and relationships. The reader may see these instructions as demanding, but these are a mother’s attempt, out of care for the daughter, to help the daughter to grow up properly. The daughter does not appear to have yet reached adolescence, however, her mother believes that her current behavior will lead her to a life of promiscuity. The mother postulates that her daughter can be saved from a life of promiscuity and ruin by having domestic knowledge that would, in turn also, empower her as a productive member in their community and the head of her future household. This is because the mother assumes that a woman’s reputation and respectability predisposes the quality of a woman’s life in the community.
Girl by Jamaica Kincaid demonstrate how a mother cautions her daughter, in becoming a responsible woman in her society. Although the daughter hasn’t gotten into adolescence yet, the mother fears that her daughter’s current behavior, if continued, will tip to a life of promiscuity. The mother believes that a woman’s status or propriety determines the quality of her life in the community. Hence, gender roles, must be carefully guarded to maintain a respectable front. Her advice centers on how to uphold responsibility. The mother cautions her daughter endlessly; emphasising on how much she wants her to realize her role in the society by acting like woman in order to be respected by the community and the world at large. Thus, Jamaica Kincaid’s
“Girl” makes the impression that the mother wants the daughter to take over the “women’s” work around the house as well as she tells her which day to wash the white clothes Monday, wash the colored clothes on Tuesday, and she is teaching her how to iron her father’s clothes the way he likes them done and how to sew on a button; “This is how to make a button-hole for the button you have just sewed on.” (380) The mother also is teaching her daughter how to cook for the family. “Cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil,” (380) so that everyone will eat them. The mother also discusses table manners, “always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn some-one else’s stomach.”
The father in the story was a fox farmer. He raised foxes and when their fur was prime, he skinned them and sold their pelts for profit. Growing up, “the girl” sought for attention from her father, therefore, she began to enjoy helping him work outside with the foxes. “My father did not talk to me unless it was about the job we were doing … Nevertheless I worked willingly under his eyes, and with a feeling of pride.” Consequently, she began to dread working in the kitchen with her mother, and thus loss respect for her mother’s subservient position in the household. When describing her mother’s housework it was “endless” compared to her father’s work outside, which was “ritualistically important.” This obvious resentment for society’s womanly duties symbolizes the narrator’s desire to be more than “just a girl”.