In the story Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, is about a girl and that follows orders from her mother. Her mother believes that by doing these things like laundry, properly dressing, being polite, sewing, ironing, cooking, practicing proper hygiene, and overall, learning how to survive, women will be successful in everyday life that is expected of them. The mother played as the narrator and gave her daughter orders, so she could prepare herself when she is a grown woman and exceed the expectations that men, especially their husband will accept. I believe that this story criticizes or informs us about the feminist population. It seems like women are being treated as inferior to men because they are basically the ones expected to do all of the work around the house and are supposed to do everything a certain way.
Some of terms for literary analysis that I thought would be important to talk about in this story was theme tone, and verbal irony. I thought that the theme of the story was patriarchy. In patriarchy the women are inferior to men and are controlled by them. Women are basically less important and have less power than men. In this story women are basically treated like slaves. They have to do all of the cooking, cleaning, ironing, farming, maintain perfect behavior and hygiene, act differently around different people, and doing things a certain way. The author makes it clear that it is tough to be a woman. The tone of this story is control. The mother gives her daughter a long list of commands of what to do, what not to do, how to do it, and how not to do it. At the end of the story when the mother told her daughter to ask the baker to feel the bread before she bought it, there was verbal irony. It was ironic because throughout the story the mother was lecturing her and teaching her how to be a woman, to be assertive, and responsible for all household duties and not let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do. It was funny that after hearing everything her mother told her she still asked the baker if she could feel the bread before she bought it.
Another literary term used was repetition. This was used when her mother constantly commanded her daughter to do things such as “this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you set a table for tea; and this is how you set a table for dinner.” I feel that the repetition made the story flow quite nicely. It also allowed me to follow along and understand the personality of the author.
Even though women are most likely to be miserable and hating their lives living up to these kinds of expectations, they are benefiting a lot as human beings. They are building character, learning discipline, mentally and physically becoming stronger. If they can live up to these expectations, then maybe they can eventually be treated equally as men. If they can do everything a man can, then I do not see why they should not be treated the same.
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