Girl By Jamaica Kincaid

"We need to begin building a process to affirm a positive sense of community and identity." The poem “girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is a poem showing how women are expected to be. The speaker is talking to a girl who is becoming a woman. She tells her things that she has to do differently in order to be respected and independent. What the speaker is telling her is kind of absurd, but it is the truth. It shows the view the world has on women, whereas the poem “my jump shot” by Clint Smith shows the view the world has on African Americans. The poem shows what growing up as a black man was like for the speaker. He shows the difficulties of trying to fit in and the stereotypes of African Americans. At the end of the poem, the speaker shows he is now

The text “girl” and the poem “my jump shot” tell the theme of identity in different stories about different people. The text “girl” takes a different route in showing the theme of identity. The poem shows how becoming a woman can shape someone's identity. This is shown in the line “this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming” Unlike “girl” “my jump shot” talks about how race can shape someone's identity. The author talks about the struggles of being African American in the line “...My jump shot is getting picked last by the other jump shots(smith lines 15 & 16)” both quotes show how the stories are from different perspectives but still goes back to the point of identity being impacted by stereotypes. Even though the poems talk about different experiences, both experiences show that identity is impacted by

She says “soak salt fish overnight before you cook it.” Is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school? Always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach” the poem “my jump shot” also shows a stereotype but instead of gender it talks about race. The author shows the changes he felt like he had to make to fit in, in this line he says “My jump shot be/ code-switching(smith lines 29 & 30)” this shows that in “girl” the speaker is implying that woman should know how to cook and eat in a “ladylike “ manner, and in “my jump shot” it shows that client had to “code-switch” and change the way he acted to be able to fit in with the people of different races to not fit into the stereotypes Although the two poems have similarities and differences, the point the authors are trying to get across is that fitting into stereotypes impacts someone's identity. In the story “girl” the author emphasizes that the girl needs to listen to these directions to become the stereotypical woman. This can change the girls identity because she is used to just doing what she thinks is right and now that she has to change her ways it may affect her