When Yawo children are about eight they go through an initiation ceremony. Since the Yawo don’t know their ages it’s not exact, but girls and boys around that age go through it once. For them it is the big event of their lives. As if it was their only birthday celebration their whole lives. One night in August of 2014 my mom, Mika and I grabbed a flashlight and walked out the door into the dark night. My mom flipped on the flashlight and shone it on the bumpy path before us. Normally nobody ever did much in the village after dark, but tonight was not normal. We knew that we were at the right house when we got there. Women and girls crowded the yard. Music blasted and many people were dancing. It was pretty dark, but it was pretty easy …show more content…
For about an hour people danced to music that was blasting from a large speaker. Then everyone started to get ready to leave. All of the women and girls who were there lined up into a procession with the young girls going through the initiation ceremony at the front. We made our way in the dark down the uneven paths, unsure where to place our feet since only a few people in our large group had lights. After a bit of walking we made it to our destination. The ten girls were led into a yard that was hidden behind a fence. Everyone else stayed outside. A mud hut stood by the fence that the girls had just entered into. The chief of the village stood on the porch, holding a basket of corn flour. Men and boys were joining our group now. They had already sent their boys into another fence. Kids and teenagers were making their way towards the chief so Mika and I joined them, along with Apati Asedi, our friend from the village. When I got to the chief, he dipped his thumb in the corn flour then smeared it across my forehead in a straight line. After everyone had done this the party was over and everyone went home. I never really knew much about what happened inside the fence in that month that the girls were in there. They stayed inside the yard for the whole month and the boys stayed in another yard for a month as …show more content…
One afternoon Apati Asedi took Mika and I to the yard to visit Graca. She led the way from our house to the yard. When she got to the door in the gate she didn’t say “Odi” as usual to announce her presence. I noticed this so I didn’t say anything but Mika, a little less observant, didn’t comprehend a thing and called out happily: “Odi!” Apati Asedi gasped, opened the door herself and pulled Mika inside. “Mika! If someone had answered you then all of the girls in this yard would have been cursed!” Mika realized her mistake, and apologized. A woman who was in charge of the girls took out a mat and laid it on the ground. We slipped off our shoes and sat down. Graca and all of the other girls still wore their beads and a skirt. They now had a sort of mud on their faces as well to make them look beautiful. The girls stayed in the yard the entire month, only seeing a few women who came to visit them. Apati Asedi told us that in this time the girls didn’t bathe at all. It must have been quite a relief when at the end of the month they took a long bath at the river to get ready for their
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.
4. After Margaret and Mrs. Whatsit went through it they arrive in a beautiful village.
The time period from “Girl” portrays how women were treated and forced to act when they were raised as oppose of young boys. Through out the story we understand that young ladies were forced to learn how do domestic duties from a very young age. An example of this is” this is how you sew on a button…this
As the sunrises over the crisp fall horizon, followers begin to surround the sacred space in anticipation for what is about to take place. The sacred space is soon surrounded by people who are dressed in the sacred colors, some wearing necklaces of their totem, while others wear headdresses that adorn with their sacred symbol. People begin to drink, play music, and prepare a banquet feast for each other, creating a festival atmosphere in hope that today’s ritual will be a success. As the ritual gets set to begin followers begin to crowd into the sacred space, surrounded with pictures and names of those who have reached greatness. As the ritual begins, music is played in order to bring everyone together and prepare for the events that are about to unfold. It is now that the followers have a very simple focus, to aid in the success of the ritual. Those who celebrate the ritual take there places in the middle of the sacred space, with the followers surrounding them; now that the ritual has begun the celebrants begin to perform and focus on certain actions in order connect themselves with the transcendent sacred. The followers who look on begin to aid by chanting, allowing themselves to also transcend. In hopes that the ritual was a success, everyone does their part until the last second of the ritual is completed, it is only then that it can be decided if the ritual was a success and they can either celebrate or grieve by signing in their most sacred song, bonding them once again with each other.
According to Carol Baileys article on Performance and the Gendered Body in Jamaica Kincaid 's ‘Girl’ “The poem is fictional representation of the double-edged tendencies which involves child-rearing practices in many Caribbean societies: as the mother provides guidelines for living, the moments of care are constantly weaken by the severity evident in what the mother actually saying and the fact that her daughter is lectured with little room for discussion” (Carol Bailey 106). The instructions in the poem “Girl” reveal an effective performance of gender roles assigned to women in the Caribbean societies which shows significant acts in domestic, social, and other spheres. Carol Bailey argues that the poem’s primary refrain, "this is how," demonstrate a clear emphasis on particular ways one believed or taught to act, and it calls attention to a type of performance that allows the young female to reinforce where she belongs in the community of respectable women (Carol Bailey 106). The social norms and gender conducts in the Caribbean is a setting where females are constantly aware of how their body is shaped
During the first year of the probationary period, potential members were issued a hatchet, presumably for burying excrement, a loin-cloth, and a white robe. They are allowed to participate in the ritual baths after the first year but not allowed to join in the communal meals. Only after another two years passage and swearing oaths were new initiates allowed to participate in the ritual meals and drinks.
"a man seized me from behind. He pinned me down with his stubbly beard pricking the back of my neck…He dragged me to my feet and started to march me through the village…We arrived at the edge of the forest. Beneath the trees there were about thirty other children huddled together"(Nazer 97).
When I was seventeen years old and going into my senior year of high school I was given the opportunity to go on a trip to Spain with my school. It was a two week trip during the summer, visiting different cities and historical sites throughout the country. While we where there we went to see a Flamenco dance show in Seville which is about an hour and a half outside of Madrid, the city where we were staying. It was a Wednesday around one o’clock when we left and the ride up there was really beautiful. We were driving through the country side passing some small villages on the side of the road. We arrived there around 3:30 and sat down for the show. It was really cool they had all the ladies with their bright dresses and fruit in their hair dance around while we ate lunch. And the show ended around five and we started to head home. On the way home we were driving through the countryside along side a small village when all of a sudden we heard a loud bang and the bus started slowing down. After a couple of ...
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.
It was the last Saturday in December of 1997. My brother, sister, and I were chasing after each other throughout the house. As we were running, our parents told us to come and sit down in the living room. They had to tell us something. So, we all went down stairs wondering what was going on. Once we all got down stairs, the three of us got onto the couch. Then, my mom said, “ Well…”
“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 mother’s genuine care for her daughter in girl is displayed through her imperative instructions. The mother decides to transfer her domestic knowledge and life experience to her daughter in order to shape her daughter’s behavior from a young age. She gives out detailed instruction on how to “sew a button, how to hem a dress when the hem coming down to how to iron a khaki shirt so that it does not have a crease” (Kincaid). Although heming a dress is not a difficult chore, the mother emphasizes the its importance since she understands that the appearance of clothing reflects a woman’s character. Because domestic skills serve as a measurement for women’s competence and self-worth, the daughter’s inability to take care of her clothes will indicate her lack of interest in household affair and organizational skills. Through these advice, the mother highlights the importance of house...
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.
The short story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid deals with being a young female in a poor country. This can be seen because Kincaid’s complicated relationship with her own mother is illustrated with the mother-daughter dynamic in the story. As I continued to read the story, I saw bitterness and worriness from the mother grow towards her daughter as she became a teenager. Throughout the story, the mother would tell her daughter, “this is how you do this… and you must act like this,” forcing the young women to act and be someone she did not want to be. It was like she was protective of her daughter and did not want her to ruin her life. Throughout the whole story, the mother was telling the daughter how to do chores a certain way so when she grew into a woman she knew how to do them
In the first stage of initiation the boys are taken from their mothers homes and taken to live at the men’s clubhouse. Here boys are given a ritual sponsor who is usually in the third or forth stage of initiation (Herdt 1981: 55). Early in the first stage is the stretching right. “The stretching rites are the initial stimulus to spur masculinity” (Herdt 1981: 223). In the stretching rites the boys are carried off into the woods by their ritual sponsor and sticks or switches are rubbed against the bodies of groups of boys by the elder males. The boy’s skin is rubbed and perforated. This is said to remove “sweat and the fine down of the boys cheeks, arms and legs” (Herdt 1981: 222) which are contaminants caused by close contact with their mothers. After this dangerous ritual their sponsor must carry the boys back to the men’s clubhouse.