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Analysis Of The Poem Girl By Jamaica Kincaid

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In the poem “Girl” written by Jamaica Kincaid, she expresses how many people in society see woman as only fulfilling certain roles. While much of this has changed over the years and many feel that a woman can be and do anything that they desire, others feel that it is a woman’s place to take care of the home, cook, and make life more comfortable for the man of the home. Kincaid does not appear to disagree or find the feminist lifestyle irregular. In this prose poem the girl’s mother is educating her daughter on her role as a woman. Although and possibly because Jamaica Kincaid came from Antigua and is an immigrant voice, she appears to support the theory that a woman’s place is in the home. There are many different beliefs on the proper behavior of a woman; in this poem the author condones a feminist lifestyle for women. …show more content…

Many of the things are common directives such as, eat with manners, the proper way to sit, how to sweep, and how to cook certain foods. Other things that the mother directed the daughter on were not as common such as not walking barehead in the sun, hemming a dress, and choosing cotton that does not have gum in it. Then there were those few things that the mother kept repeating; such as, “don’t sing benna in Sunday school” and above all not to “look like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming” that made me think that maybe this was not just the mother teaching a young daughter the proper way to behave, but perhaps a mother that was not too pleased with some past behaviors of the daughter (1627). As I read the poem, I thought that maybe the mother and daughter are talking in perhaps a place in which the daughter cannot escape, so she is trapped and has to listen to the mother nag about her version of the proper way to

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Jamaica Kincaid is an Antiguan-American writer, who was once lived under British rule in Antigua. The women, who were under British rule faced patriarchy. She grew up with a love of books, and wanted to further her education. Unfortunately, as a woman she was unable to have that opportunity. In Kincaid’s, “Girl” there is a sense of denouncing women.

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