Analysis Of The Short Story Girl By Jamaica Kincaid

In the short story â€Å"Girl† by Jamaica Kincaid, a mother gives her daughter strict and organized set of verbal guidelines that teach her how to be a proper woman in that society. These guidelines focus primarily on how to act and behave as a wife. However, these guidelines and rules set out for her daughter’s future have an underlying sense of stigma and judgement. I believe the way the cultural tradition in the depicted society treats women is very different compared to how men are treated. The short passage begins with the mother teaching the daughter how and when to wash the laundry. Then on, the passage continues with various tips, advice, and wisdom that mother passes on to her daughter. We can infer that the mother assumes her daughter the responsibility of doing the housework while the man of the house earns money away from their home based on her statement â€Å"‘this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep the whole house; this is how you s weep a yard’† (Kincaid 270-271). Although this doesn’t seem to represent too much of how women are viewed, it still shows that women are expected to uphold some traditional duty that women are in charge of the house chores. In addition to being responsible for cleaning in and around the house, the mother teaches the daughter the mannerisms and etiquette for preparing meals for numerous occasions. This quote explains the attention to detail a woman is expected to have when preparing meals.â€Å"‘Cook pumpkin fritters in veryShow MoreRelatedEssay on Short Story Analysis of Girl by Jamaica Kincaid873 Words   |  4 PagesShort 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 beRead MoreSummary Of Girl By Jamaica Kincaid1204 Words   |  5 PagesAn Analysis of Character Representation in Girl Throughout history women have been an oppressed group of individuals and therefore have had to find ways to satisfy society. Women have at times needed to follow particular guidelines in order to maintain standing in society. Jamaica Kincaid’s in her book â€Å"Girl† conveys a mother and daughter to represent particular social issues during post colonialism. In Girl the daughter serves as a representation of what the mother believes to be society’s idealRead MoreLiterary Criticism : The Free Encyclopedia 7351 Words   |  30 Pagesnavigation, search In literary criticism, a Bildungsroman (German pronunciation: [ˈbÉ ªldÊŠÅ‹s.Ê oËÅ'maË n]; German: novel of formation, education, culture),[a] novel of formation, novel of education,[2] or coming-of-age story (though it may also be known as a subset of the coming-of-age story) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood (coming of age),[3] in which character change is extremely important.[4][5] Contents [hide] 1