Jamaica Kincaid's Girl Essay

Sort By:
Page 3 of 20 - About 195 essays
  • Decent Essays

    Answer the following questions and submit to Moodle. 1. Who is speaking in this text? What other person is briefly heard, too? In the text, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, the mother is speaking and the daughter is briefly heard. Evidence in the text that proves the mother is speaking includes the speaker talking about household chores (cooking, cleaning and sewing) and tricks to doing those house hold chores faster or more efficiently. For example, the speaking says, “this is how you iron your fathers

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Blue Girls and Pink Boys Outside of one’s reproductive organs, what makes a male, male and a female such? The difference between the two genders many times reach further than this distinction. Despite this, society has a myriad of generalizations and stereotypes harmful to individuals that dictate how both males and females act and feel. Gender stereotypes are harmful because they ascribe personality traits and characteristics based on gender alone and work to limit the personal development

    • 996 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson. Her family raised her to be methodist with a splash of West Indian voodoo. She grew up poor on the island Antigua, which was controlled by the British in her childhood. Kincaid often wrote about the immigrant experience. In her short story “Girl,” a mother is instructing her daughter on how to live a honest life. In the story, food and clothes are motifs that reveal how to be a respectable woman in Antiguan society. First of all, food

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jamaica Kincaid’s powerful short story ‘Girl’ is a mother daughter dispute. The mother lists several tips trying to give advice and counsel her daughter. The way the mother expresses her advice I would not consider as motherly, but more as if she was a social critic. I visualize the mother as a representation of the damage that society can do to a person’s mind. It is hard for me to believe that this type of parenting behavior used to be nothing out of the ordinary. In some circumstances, I felt

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Authors Jamaica Kincaid and John Steinbeck show the consequence gender roles have by illustrating the everyday with symbols of entrapment and showing the damage inflicted to the individual by having their characters attempt to resist gender roles but, inevitably, crushed beneath them. Jamaica Kincaid begins painting her image of the harmful side effects of gender roles by showing how the innocence of youth is tainted and damaged. In the story “Girl” the reader is privy to what seems to be verbal

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    “Girl”, a short story by Jamaica Kincaid, narrates a mother’s advice to her daughter as she matures. Although it could be argued that other genres are represented by this story, coming of age is the most prevailing. The story is written from the daughter’s perspective. The writing appears to be a mother giving advice for her daughter as she becomes an adult. “Girl” is a narration of a mother’s words to her daughter, the overarching theme is a coming of age. As the story progresses, the mother gives

    • 394 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Good Essays

    parents decide to raise their children. Children often mirror what is reflected. Authoritarian parents are like police officers, they are stern and enforces obedience through threats, punishment and shaming. Jamaica Kincaid dramatizes the authoritarian approach in her renowned piece entitled “Girl”. In this short story, the mother of the young adolescent uses a hostile approach as she demands her daughter to learn the ropes of how to become a reputable and respectful woman in their society, protect

    • 1124 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Girl, a narrative written by Jamaica Kincaid, is a short story written in a dialogue style and stream of consciousness narration. The speaker is an authoritative female figure who teaches a girl about traditional living and the obligations of a girl to society. The narrative is basically one large sentence. Its ideas are separated by semicolons instead of the usual periods. Jamaica Kincaid’s short biography found in www.english.emory.edu by Vanessa Pupello: “Jamaica Kincaid was born in 1949 as Elaine

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    follow such rules. Women are expected to play the role of a housewife making sure the home is a livable space and taking of the children while on the other hand, men are expected to be the ones who provide income for the family. In Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” the author talks about several stereotypical roles that a woman has and how these limit what women can and can’t do.

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Jamaica Kincaid composed a short story called “Girl” and the brief narrative is about a stern mother teaching her young daughter life lessons as she is becoming a mature adolescent. The story is a laundry list of “women’s responsibilities”, such as doing household duties, knowing how to be nice to people you do and do not like and learning how to be a respectable individual in the Caribbean community. The mother is concerned that her daughter is on the urge of being promiscuous, so her next option

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays