Jamaica Kincaid Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson on May 25, 1949 in St. John’s, Antigua (“Jamaica,” Caribbean). A Caribbean writer hailed, “A significant voice in contemporary literature,” (qtd. in “Jamaica,” Encyclopedia) she is well known for her personal and honest works of short fiction, novels and essays (“Jamaica,” Encyclopedia). In her work, Kincaid “explores the tenuous relationship between mother and daughter as well as themes of anti-colonialism,” (qtd. in “Jamaica,” Encyclopedia) and has been a contributor to the literary world for decades (“Jamaica,” Encyclopedia). Kincaid’s complicated relationship with her mother, which is common in much of her work, comes out in the mother-daughter dynamic in the short story …show more content…
“Girl” is a short story with only two characters, which reads like a narrative of a mother giving life lessons to her daughter. It is in this story that we see Kincaid begin to explore the tenuous relationship she had with her mother. In the story, the mother in a very authoritative tone is giving her daughter instructions on how to live her life. She begins by telling her how to do the laundry, “Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them in the stone heap” (qtd. in Mays 171) and continues with how to cook traditional island food and how to mend clothes (171). Several times in the story the mother says, “like the slut you are so bent on becoming,” (qtd. in Mays 171) which comes across very condescending with a tone of sexual promiscuity (171). The first time the daughter speaks, “But I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school,” (qtd. in Mays 171) it sounds as if she is trying to stand up for herself (171). The only other time the daughter speaks, “but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?” (qtd. in Mays 171) seems like she is asking her mother to clarify something for her (171). “Girl” depicts how Kincaid sees her own mother. The mother is portrayed as being bitter and upset with how her own life turned out. She very abrasively is trying to tell her daughter not to make the same mistakes that she did. The …show more content…
Her novel, Annie John, is a coming of age tale that tells a story “of the mother-daughter relationship in which a mother devastatingly severs her bond with her daughter,” (qtd. in “Jamaica,” Encyclopedia). Her subsequent novel, Lucy was also highly autobiographical, and follows the familiar theme (“Jamaica,” Caribbean).
Much of her fictional work is very personal and Kincaid “admits that her difficult relationship with her own mother inspired her writing,” (qtd. in “Jamaica,” Encyclopedia) while also setting the stage for her career as a writer (“Jamaica,” Encyclopedia). It is in the short story “Girl,” that we are first able to see the life of a young, Caribbean girl and the struggles she faced growing up. Kincaid poignantly tells the tale of a poverty stricken childhood and the difficult relationship with her mother that
The author of the story, Jamaica Kincaid, was born and educated in Antigua in the West Indies and now she lives in Vermont. In the story, the setting is described as a Caribbean island. The climate and landscape describe is cloudless skies, monkeys, and flowering trees. In the story the narrator says, “…I saw tall flowering trees. I looked up to a sky with no clouds…” With these descriptions I can tell that it is a similar description to Antigua, which is where the Author used to live. This story reflects on when the author moved, it shows that both cultures were different. In my opinion it was different because she was used to being around people whom she shared the same culture with, and now she
She continued publishing short stories and was later deemed as the “master of the short story” in the Dominican Republic. She’d become well known for her Afro-Dominican context, which at the time was an uncharted territory within Dominican literature.
Caleen Sinnette Jennings Queens Girl in the World is an bildungsroman, a coming of age story that takes place in a unique format. Queens Girl in the World is about Jacqueline Marie Butler a 12 year girl who lives on Erickson Street, Queens, New York. It’s summer 1962 and we watch her journey over the next year or so. She experiences love, conflict, ignorance, hatred, violence, and many of the experiences that can happen in the life of a preteen in the sixties as well as to any of us. The many characters depicted, the moments shared made myself and the audience experience laughter, sorrow and everything in between. Queens Girl in the World beautifully blends climatic and episodic structure by using climatic aspects such as a late plot, limited characters scenes and locales and episodic features such as multiple stories that follow a plot of theme.
Thus, O’Connor grew up in a highly racist area that mourned the fact that slaves were now being treated as “equals.” In her everyday life in Georgia, O’Connor encountered countless citizens who were not shy in expressing their discontent toward the black race. This indeed was a guiding influence and inspiration in her fiction writing. The other guiding influence in her life that became a major theme in her writing was religion. Flannery O'Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, the only child of a Catholic family.
The point of this novel is to provide a personal understanding into the lives of women in the twentieth trying to break free from the restraints of society. This novel takes place in two different areas. Grand Isle, where the novel starts the journey Edna encompasses,
When I first read some of Miss Porter’s work, I came away feeling depressed, empty and wondering why she even wrote. Her stories seemed unfinished, incomplete and pointless. However, I find myself thinking about those works, discovering new things and realizing a deeper meaning in the stories.
Although the two critics share the above ideas, their theories, although quite similar, embrace the homosocial relationships of Edna and the other women of the novel to varying degrees. They both agree, however, that having lost her mother at an early age and being under the care of her conservative, overbearing sister and strict Presbyterian father, Edna had little experience in having relationships with other women. We know that when she first encounters the culture of the Creole people, she is quite taken back and not generally pleased with the openness of the women ...
The mother-daughter relationship is a common topic throughout many of Jamaica Kincaid's novels. It is particularly prominent in Annie John, Lucy, and Autobiography of my Mother. This essay however will explore the mother-daughter relationship in Lucy. Lucy tells the story of a young woman who escapes a West Indian island to North America to work as an au pair for Mariah and Lewis, a young couple, and their four girls. As in her other books—especially Annie John—Kincaid uses the mother-daughter relationship as a means to expose some of her underlying themes.
Her novel ‘Lucy’ explored the characters Lucy’s life experience in flashback of growing up on a small island and her present life in the United States as well as the relationship between the mother and daughter. This portrayal echoes similarities to that of Kincaid life. Like Kincaid, the cha...
An evolving mother-daughter relationship is the focus of Jamaica Kincaid s autobiographical The Circling Hand. Like the narrator, Kincaid grew up in Antigua as the only child her mother and carpenter father. Also like the narrator, Kincaid admits her mother kept everything she ever wore. This narrative is a coming of age story, in which this dynamic and unusual mother-daughter relationship plays an important role. Through the beginning bliss of childhood to the frustrating stage of adolescence, this unique relationship, in which the daughter is infatuated with her mother, seems to control the narrator s development as a freethinking person.
The story “Girl” takes the form of a series of lessons; the point of the lessons, according to the mother, is to teach her daughter to behave and act properly. Kincaid’s complicated relationship with her mother comes out in the mother-daughter dynamic in the story. The mother mentions practical and helpful advice that will help her daughter keep a house of her own someday and also how to have a life of her own. It can be argued that in Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” that the mother is loving towards her daughter because the mother is taking time to teaching her daughter how to be a woman, and because she wants to protect her in the future from society’s judgment.
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).
...her and daughter goes deeper than the surface, where mother daughter banter seems normal in this day and age. In actuality, during this oppressive state between Britain and the Caribbean, the mother favored British lifestyle and all that was affiliated with it, yet in opposition, the girl was anti- imperialism, therefore causing conflict among each other. In what seems to be a sort of monologue, “Girl” goes onto contain a theme involving political overtones less apparent and contrary to that of “A&P.”
The “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.
The short story, Girl, by Jamaica Kincaid, can very easily be related directly to the author’s own life. Kincaid had a close relationship with her mother until her three younger brothers were born. After the birth of her brothers, three major values of her mother became apparent to Kincaid. In turn, Kincaid used the three values of her mother to write the short story, Girl. Specifically, these values led to three themes being formed throughout the story. It appears in the short story that the mother was simply looking out for her daughter; however, in all reality, the mother is worried about so much more. Kincaid uses the themes of negativity towards female sexuality, social norms and stereotypes, and the significant