ipl-logo

Sexual Representation In Jamaica Kincaid's Short Story Girl

759 Words4 Pages

It’s safe to say “A mother knows best” is a saying you’ve all heard before. Yet, during the transition from childhood to adolescence, each individual mystically turns into this evil and traitorous creature, called a “teenager”. During that time, a majority rebel, others will grow to be defiant and some even pick up an attitude, here and there. Yet, collectively, they all swear that their parents know nothing and that they somehow encompass the knowledge of the world in roughly 13-17 years. Realistically speaking, without your parents you wouldn’t know right from wrong, your left foot from your right, or even how to tie a shoe. It isn’t until you reach physical and mental maturity, that you are able to agree that maybe – just maybe – your mother really does know what is best. The short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid impeccably displays the relationship between a (assumed) teenage girl and her mother. This stream-of-consciousness, short story, is full of nothing other than commandments, advice and “How to’s” that are given in a very …show more content…

Throughout the story, the mother rattles off a list of duties that you must excel at as a woman; from how to set a table to how to prep a meal. Yet, the most assertive instructions she tells her daughter, involves how to behave in front of people – specifically men. On two different occasions she states that she is only trying to prevent her daughter from acting as “…the slut I know you are so bent on becoming”, and “…the slut I have warned you against becoming”. She goes on to instruct her daughter, how to ultimately hide her true self, how to smile properly, and most importantly, how to speak to a man, so that they will not assume she intends to be sexually promiscuous. The reiteration of the word “slut” centralizes the theme of sexual reputation to be one of the most significant focal points of the

Show More
Related
241 Words | 1 Pages

The demons have convinced teenage girls that it is typical to not agree with their mothers. This belief is absurd because it is critical for girls to have a role model. Without an involved mother, girls do not have role model for faith, self esteem, and body image.

Read More
1388 Words | 6 Pages

Culture and Women In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “ How to date a Brown girl, Black girl, White girl or Halfie “ by Junot Diaz, both authors elaborate on culture and how it shapes outlook on women. In Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” a mother enforces her culture’s strong beliefs on her daughter. As the result, she displays her parental authority with a sequence of short commands influenced by her culture. A sense of judgment can be seen in the young girl, after questioning her mothers’ request.

Read More
1121 Words | 5 Pages

Parents are always supposed to look out for the best interests of their child. Anne Tyler authored the short story “Teenage Wasteland” which depicts the story of a strained mother and son relationship between the character Donny, and his mother Daisy. Donny is a teenage boy who is struggling with his grades at school and is exhibiting poor behavior. His mother, Daisy is concerned with her son’s grades and behavior, however, she fails at getting her son the help that he requires. Told through the point of view of the character Daisy, Tyler uses irony to tell the story of a teenage boy who is failed by the adults in his life who are supposed to help him flourish, including his parents, a psychologist, and his tutor.

Read More
726 Words | 3 Pages

In the story “Girl”, Jamaica Kincaid illustrates the talk given to a young Antiguan girl about what is expected of her in order to make a point about the cultural pressures and unfair social boundaries that come with being a girl in the Caribbean. The author plays with word choice and sentence structure in a way that makes this unconventional writing style enjoyable and metaphorically resonant. Though it is possible to read this prose as a mother talking directly to her daughter and the daughter interjecting, it is actually indicative of a larger conversation between a Caribbean society and its young women; this can be most clearly seen in the discussion of Benna, of plant, animal, and human life, of promiscuity, and of manners. Benna is a musical genre similar to calypso; its lyrics often discussed British political scandals and had lewd double meanings. The daughter is instructed not to sing it in church, because the songs are about sexuality, politics and open rebellion - however, this instruction has a much larger societal meaning.

Read More
607 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1351 Words | 6 Pages

As a child we watch our parents and we learn from them. We learn how to cook, how to clean, how to raise children, how to do right from wrong, how to work, how to do things we don't want to, how to be happy, how to have fun, and many more things.

Read More
194 Words | 1 Pages

As an older child at the age of fourteen my mother decided to try to prepare me for society during my teenage years. Passport to Purity written by Dennis and Barbara Rainey helped my mom explain the challenges of puberty to me. So my mom took me away and we had a girl’s weekend together. We talked about peer pressure which I learned that everyone deals with it. I also learned that my beliefs and values will be tested because of peer pressure.

Read More
1028 Words | 5 Pages

Becoming a parent is a task that cannot be taken lightly. It is a task filled with frustration, responsibilities and dedication, but is also filled with joy and satisfaction. From children learning how to behave to them going out with friends, rules, standards and expectations are set mostly by their parents. Parents make most of their children’s decision in the first couple of years from behalf from what they eat for breakfast from setting their curfew as they get older. As children began grow, they began to make their own choices and learn to deal with the consequence of their mistakes.

Read More
1130 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1072 Words | 5 Pages

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).

Read More
721 Words | 3 Pages

But yet they both sometimes don’t respect their mother. Mama is a gentle women, she always has to be honest with her children. Mama is not an educated women her school closed at the second grade. ” I never had an education myself” (Walker, 316, 13).

Read More
479 Words | 2 Pages

In the short story “Blackness” by Jamaica Kincaid, the narrator’s consciousness develops through a process of realization that she does not have to choose between the culture imposed on her and her authentic heritage. First, the narrator explains the metaphor “blackness” for the colonization her country that fills her own being and eventually becomes one with it. Unaware of her own nature, in isolation she is “all purpose and industry… as if [she] were the single survivor of a species” (472). Describing the annihilation of her culture, the narrator shows how “blackness” replaced her own culture with the ideology of the colonizers.

Read More
1071 Words | 5 Pages

Jamaica Kincaid writes “girl” A story or poem that is something like a lecture from a mother figure to a daughter figure. There is an enormous amount of ways to present the tone. The tone of “Girl” is loving, caring, but strict. Jamaica uses literary devices to achieve the tone. She uses characters, setting, plot, point of view and style to establish a tone.

Read More
595 Words | 3 Pages

Mama shows that the pressures of society define our actions and lead women to depreciate

Read More
554 Words | 3 Pages

She calls her daughter a “slut” and wants her to see she is not a boy. She tells her, “on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don’t sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys...” (180). She must keep her reputation up. She thinks her daughter already knows too much about sexuality and that she is being disobedient by singing the benna in Sunday school.

Read More

More about Sexual Representation In Jamaica Kincaid's Short Story Girl

Related Topics

Open Document