For the 19th century America, the two sexes were to be separated into distinct spheres, the man’s public sphere and the woman’s private one. It was most common for the two sexes to spend their time mostly in the company of their own sex, and advices were given to the younger members of the society on the proper way of behaving according to one’s sex. Even though both sexes had to be instructed on how to perform in each other’s company, it was the shaping of a woman that needed to undergo through a series of instructions on the proper way to be a woman. A woman had to follow the rules of the Cult of True Womanhood to be considered proper and wife material. Fanny Fern in her writing appeals on and discusses the attributes of piety, purity, submissiveness,
He romantically compares her to summer’s day to get his point across. The claim in Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” is as follows: for a woman to lead a respectable life, she must give into a life full of repression and sexism. Ethos is the most powerful appeal in this work because the mother speaking clearly has experience. She is teaching her daughter what she believes is right from wrong, so her daughter does not grow up to have a poor reputation.
During the 1800s, women were supposed to adhere to the ideas of a patriarchal society. According to scholar Rula Quawas, womanhood during this time period consisted of “a sharp dichotomy between the home and the economic world outside that paralleled a sharp contrast between female and male nature; the designation of the home as the female's only proper sphere … and the idealization of her function as a mother and a wife” (Quawas 44). While men were expected to leave home and make money for their families, women were encourage to work in the house and take care of their children. These narrow expectations for women caused them to be economically and intellectually dependent on men. In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the character Jennie embodies this stereotypical function of a woman.
Molding of the Perfect Woman: An Analysis of Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” “…on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming…” (Kincaid, 320). This phrase accurately represents the point that is being made in this passage. In Jamaica Kincaid’s piece, “Girl”, her mother is giving her advice on how to be and act like a proper woman. Her mother describes everything from how to properly do laundry to how to set a table for all occasions (Kincaid, 3-4).
Short stories are a piece of literature that holds a lesson in a small story, it has meaning behind it and with a large amount of imagery shows a picture of what the writer is trying to say. Short stories have been a very important piece of modern and past literature and always will, each story over the generations shows an evolution of not only english but also life in general. The story girl is an amazing short story by Jamaica Kincaid which has a deeper undertone of freedom while the mother explains how to be a lady. In the short story girl the mother explains how to be a lady, however with a deeper meaning of freedom behind it using a few key lines such as calling her daughter a slut.
When I first read the “girl” I think this is a mother to daughter advice. They live in a poor social life. “Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap.” (Kincaid) The theme of the story is to remind the daughter not to become a slut.
In the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, the speaker is a mother who is telling her adolescent daughter many of the daunting tasks and rules that young girls must do or remember. By combining these monotonous tasks and rules, Kincaid is able to exemplify the important theme of how a girl should live and act in order to gain respect and be considered a woman by her family as well as society as a whole. Through the use of tone and allegory, the speaker is able to articulately convey this theme to the readers. The tone created by the speaker throughout the short story is controlling, critical and authoritative.
The role of women in a society varies depending on the place and time in question, but almost universally it will be seen as the domestic servant by many. Across the world, girls are taught to behave in a way that pleases the men and keeps them in the public’s favor. Jamaica Kincaid writes “Girl” to show her distaste with the way Antiguan society treats women. She sees that, to society, girls are either respectable housewives or sluts, and she does not agree that this is right. Kincaid uses details, as well as the organization of the piece, to exemplify these views.
Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” is a very interesting story. In short it is about an unspecified guardian giving life advice to a young girl; the range of this advice varies from dress and grooming to medicinal recipes. The older woman, also referred to as the “guardian”, is not censored about this advice either. While people may think that “Girl” is a minor tale of verbal abuse, I prefer to think of it as story of tough love as well as hope that the girl will do better in life then the adult.
These concepts are depicted within the classic Disney princess film Cinderella directed by Clyde Geronimi. This film has ‘taught’ and/or shown little girls to stop everything they are currently doing and to become dependent on a man to save the day. Cinderella can be seen as the ultimate example of a “damsel-in-distress” because she gets saved from being “abused, humiliated and a servant in her own house to her stepmother and stepsisters” (Cinderella). However, the film does not fail to mention how despite this Cinderella still remains “gentle” and “kind.” The usage of ‘gentle’ and ‘kind’ rather than ‘understanding’ pinpoints the societal gender norms in action— according to these, a woman should be compliant and quiet.
She has been brainwashed by the patriarchal society of her time to worship the man, her husband, and perform her duties and daily rituals as a means to please him. Welter outlines several characteristics that constitute the perfect or true woman; however, the most crucial and detrimental so-called “virtues” exhibited by Gilman`s the narrator are her submissiveness and domesticity. Although the artistic narrator clearly has her own desires to be free and write as she pleases, her desire to satisfy the patriarchal construct of the household by attending
As one can see, many mothers in today 's society would not be nearly as picky and constructive as the mother within "Girl" written by Jamaica Kincaid. Young girls almost always look up first to their mother for guidance and instruction on how to be a woman. Although the advice used in this story was used to help the young girl, it was also used to scold her as well. The mother 's strong belief in a woman having domestic knowledge is what drives her to preach the life lessons of a good woman to her daughter. It is through these lessons that she hopes for her daughter to be respected within her own home and by her community as well.
It brings about the idea that, although also girls, daughters will be more inclined to respect their father, seeing him as an equal, while they judge their mother for anything and everything, a behavior generally modelled by the husband. Although this comes from a place of internalized misogyny, it is not completely the fault of the daughter. After all, she is just doing whatever she can to survive in a man’s
Why would ones mother drill into her young girls mind the values of doe s and don’ts of life? Like “wash white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap, “or even try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are bent on becoming.” Young girls in today’s generation, generally don’t have it easy and that’s especially true in the late 1970’s to early 1980’s. In fact we have more to prove than the male gender. Young women have mothers drilling morels and ambitions into their brains, their fathers install confidence within their little girls.
As I got older I was labeled into the tomboy category. I grew up having this concept of how women/girls are supposed to act. I think that is the same thing Jamaica Kincaid addresses in her short story “Girl”. The narrator lists everything that girls are required to do. From household
