Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

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The short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid only contains two characters; a mother and a daughter. Moreover, the short story “Girl” is Jamaica Kincaid’s first published work. Also, the story focuses on the female gender, African American race, the importance of how others recognize you, and how you identify yourself. The story represents an everyday African American female expectation of how to behave, cook, clean, and other domestic performances demand by their mothers, so they do not ruin their reputation. Above all, the mother strongly advocates to prevent her daughter from becoming a strumpet that can so easily be tempted. It is implied that young female is at a mature age for the mother to give her guidance on how act around men and how to portray herself to distant herself from being labeled as a promiscuous woman. Ironically, a woman is not correlated with receiving an education, but only to maintain the household and the people in it. …show more content…
A woman is trained to be a servant at a young age and encouraged to be perfect always. Sadly, the mother is teaching her daughter what she as taught, so the daughter can later teach her daughter to continue the enforced inherited trait. The mother demands her daughter several times to where the daughter finally questions why she cannot do something and then an ending question for clarity. In addition, a female’s role who is also an African America is very limited compared to a male. A male is more likely than a woman to be encouraged to continue their education, have multiple dialogues with several different women, have opinions, and are not required to do

Jamaica Kincaid's GIRL

In the short story GIRL, Jamaica Kincaid insists that the mother see the daughter as a depiction of herself, and fears all that has happen to her may curse her daughter as well. It is clear that the mother is reverting back to her past and is now displacing her past errors onto her daughter vicariously. In this short story the mother dispenses, what is considered, helpful advice that is essential for daily living and what would help her daughter survive as a woman. Although the mother is giving…

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Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

Jamaica Kincaid is a female author and writer known for her works which draw from her experiences of growing up in the West Indies. In 1978, she released a story in an issue of The New Yorker which she titled Girl. Girl is a single sentence story in which a mother tells her daughter the tips and tricks of becoming a proper woman. The author starts every point within the story with “this is how” then proceeds to tell how to achieve a task. Each task is focused upon the goal of forming a good and respectable…

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Short Story Girl: An Analysis Of Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

Jamaica Kincaid's story "Girl" allows readers a short look into the strict, demanding manner in which parents raised their children. Through Kincaid's careful structuring of "Girl," readers experience the commanding tone of the story. The relationship between the mother and the girl also stinks of empowerment and distance, as best seen through the girl's short speech in the story. Most important, "Girl" shows readers how particular the lessons taught to the children were. Jamaica Kincaid shows…

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Girl Jamaica Kincaid Analysis

explaining a few of them through “Girl”and “Annie John” by Jamaica Kincaid. I feel the mother wasn’t right for trying to conform her daughter to Western culture just so she could be “normal”. Social values held to be important in human society are effectively portrayed in literature. Through literary works, individuals/writers are…

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Girl: Jamaica Kincaid and Daughter Advice Essay

Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” is about a mother giving her daughter advice. She tells the girl about cooking, cleaning, men, and life in general. She calls girl a “slut” rather freely through the whole story. It’s almost as if she sees her daughter becoming a slut, rather than the woman she intends her to be. “Girl” is something different then I have ever read before. It’s almost as if you’re reading a set of instructions with very few responses of the girl who is receiving them. “Girl” not only reads…

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Analysis Of Girl By Jamaica Kincaid

Summary: In the short story of” Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, she portrays the life of how little girls are supposed to act in their community. Throughout the entire story it is her mom giving her orders on what she is supposed to and not supposed to do. Analysis: In the short story of “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, she uses her structure to show the importance of how things are done in their day and time. The whole story is multiple statements of her mother, one huge sentence with the repetition of “don’t…

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First-person Narrative and Story Essay

Kelsey Gray Gray 1 English 1302-188 Spring 2014 Paper 2 Final Draft Rules of Becoming a Proper Lady In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid a mother gives a list of expectations of how her daughter should act. The passage is a long sentence of what her daughter should do in different situations. The advice is meant to keep her daughter from becoming a slut, varies randomly…

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The Voice In Jonn Beard's Maybe It Happened

JoAnn Beard’s “Maybe It Happened” had an incredibly strong voice, I found that the point she was trying to make wasn’t very clear. The superficial story of the girl peeing herself and then falling down and getting a pebble stuck in her knee works only to obscure the true purpose of the piece which is revealed most evidently by the line “…girls pretended they were mothers while mothers pretended something else entirely.” This sentence along with the repetition in each paragraph work to create a remarkable…

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Short Story Analysis of Girl by Jamaica Kincaid Essay

Short story analysis of Girl by Jamaica Kincaid Have you ever wished that someone had given you a guide on how live the right way? Jamaica Kincaid does just that in her short story, Girl. The narrative is presented as a set of life instructions to a girl by her mother to live properly in Antigua in the 1980’s. While the setting of the story is not expressly stated by the author in the narrative, the reader is able to understand the culture for which Girl was written. Jamaica Kincaid seems to be the…

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Your Lawful Wedded Lsave Essay

“Make me a sandwich!” the man screams as he gives his wife yet another task. For some reason, women are portrayed as vulnerable, weak individuals who have no better purpose than to serve their husbands. Two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady give very separate, yet comparative evidence in the matter. Both Kincaid and Brady analyze the female gender and what roles they are expected to fill. Brady’s “I Want a Wife” focuses on the general idea of a wife. In…

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