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 (".
Towards the climax of the passage, the young girl shares her perspective on her dad’s desire to help her achieve her academic goals. “Nothing’s more important than his books and vocabulary words. He might say I matter, but when he goes on a scavenger hunt for a book, I realize that I really don’t” (Lopez 26). This cite illustrates just how sightless the teenage narrator is because she fails to see that her father only left the dinner table to assist her and to do something generous, but from her perspective she takes it as her father abandoning her. I can infer that the child’s anger and feeling of not mattering, which led to her storming off to her room, could have easily been solved if she asked her father what his true intentions were in pushing Watership Down so hard during a nice family dinner. On the other hand, the dad in “Confetti Girl” simply doesn’t pay attention to his daughter’s feelings often enough, and that sets off a bomb of conflict in their relationship as well. At the end of the excerpt, the father stoops to find a book, but is so engrossed in his task that he practically treats his daughter as non-existent; she narrates the following emotion-filled line. “He doesn’t hear my angry, stomping footsteps” (Lopez 27). This cite portrays that the father is
...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 greatest influence on a growing girl is her mother, and in some cases, like Sula, her grandmother. In order to fully grasp the connection between Nel and Sula, one must examine who and what their mothers were and what traits and beliefs they handed down to their daughters. Nel's mother, Helene, sought to teach her daughter the ways to be a stereotypical "good woman," a supportive wife and a caring mother. As an example to her daughter, Helene took great pleasure in raising Nel and found in her "more comfort and purpose than she had ever hoped to find" in her life (2105). Helene took pride in motherhood and was proudest when someone complemented on how "obedient and polite" Nel was (2105). Helene's embracing of these qualities, an accommodation to the sta...
...ughter to realize that she is “not a boy” (171) and that she needs to act like a lady. Doing so will win the daughter the respect from the community that her mother wants for her.
The poem starts with the line, “This girlchild was born as usual,” which suggests that as soon as a girl is born, society already expects her to learn the role she will soon play in when she hits puberty (1). Thus, showing why we are given dolls as little girls to illustrate how we should act and appear according to society. After we learn all the roles we will soon take part in, “the magic of puberty,” hits and girls immediately begin applying the ideals to their own lives (5). As if this attempt to conform is not enough we have other people telling us we are not to perfect. “You have a great big nose and fat legs,” says a classmate to the girl (6). This type of pressure can slowly but surely destroy even the little confidence women do have in themselves.
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.
Adèle Ratignolle uses art to beautify her home. Madame Ratignolle represents the ideal mother-woman (Bloom 119). Her chief concerns and interests are for her husband and children. She was society’s model of a woman’s role. Madame Ratignolle’s purpose for playing the pia...
...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.
Unrealistically, the narrator believes that she would be of use to her father more and more as she got older. However, as she grows older, the difference between boys and girls becomes more clear and conflicting to her.
Another important element in My Girl is the absence of parental attention or support in Vada’s life. Her father, preoccupied with his business and likely still grieving over his late wife’s death, is frequently unavailable to his daughter, both emotionally and otherwise....
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.
This was the illustration of this entire story. As the story goes it present a lot perspective and though of the mother and very little of the girl. More importantly, the story shows that the mother doesn’t really care about how the girl feels about her advice; it wasn’t a choice either she take her advice and become a good daughter and a good wife in the future or she will become known a “slut” who doesn’t follow her tradition. This story will make you wonder if the girl will ever become the perfect girl that her mother wants her to be or if she gets use to the American tradition and not be the perfect girl her mother ought her to
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.
The first tradition mentioned in “Like Water for Chocolate” was the role of the youngest daughter as pertains to her future. These women were not allowed to marry. Their duty in their life was to care for the mother as ...
The young girl in the story is struggling with finding her own gender identity. She would much rather work alongside her father, who was “tirelessly inventive” (Munro 328), than stay and work with her mother in the kitchen, depicted through, “As soon as I was done I ran out of the house, trying to get out of earshot before my mother thought of what to do next” (329). The girl is torn between what her duties are suppose to be as a woman, and what she would rather be doing, which is work with her father. She sees her father’s work as important and worthwhile, while she sees her mother’s work as tedious and not meaningful. Although she knows her duties as a woman and what her mother expects of her, she would like to break the mould and become more like her father. It is evident that she likes to please her father in the work she does for him when her father says to the feed salesman, “Like to have you meet my new hired man.” I turned away and raked furiously, red in the face with pleasure (328-329). Even though the young girl is fixed on what she wants, she has influences from both genders i...