Analysis Of The Poem Girl By Jamaica Kincaid - 848 Words

Through time, things have changed for women. â€Å"Girl† by Jamaica Kincaid is a short story that launched her career. A story of an older woman who provides an endless list of rules or advice, using the discouragement of female sexuality and showing how it defines what it means to be a woman and shapes the way women are expected to behave to a young girl. This short story limits to what women are able to do and what they cannot do. Often the older women seem more insulting and scolding than helpful to the younger girl. â€Å"Girl† has a variety of themes. For instance, the discouragement of female sexuality. Throughout the story it illustrates a conversation between an older woman and a young girl in which the older women makes references to the young girl supposed tendency towards promiscuity despite her young age, she informs the girl what her role is as a woman. For instance, â€Å"...on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on bec oming† (Kincaid 229). It’s clear that sexuality is something that must be guarded. Then she highlights things like cleaning, cooking, and sewing to help define her the young girl what being a girl means. The beginning of the story the older women start off by telling the younger the proper ways to clean, cook, and construct clothes. She has one perspective on that there is only one right way to behave for a young woman. â€Å"...to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming,† the young girlShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Poem Girl By Jamaica Kincaid1629 Words   |  7 PagesThe poem â€Å"Girl† by Jamaica Kincaid is a lengthy poem describing society and the social structure in the early 50’s from what it sounds. The short story â€Å"Girl,† deals with the experience of being young and female in a poor country. This poem describes a time when stereotypical gender roles where a huge part of society women had duties that only women could do such as clean, cook, wash clothing, watch the children and ect. And the men were head of the house hold and preserved as high and mighty, theRead MoreA Literary Analysis Of Girl By Jamaica Kincaid1927 Words   |  8 PagesLanguage, Culture, and a Mother s’ Influence: A Literary Analysis of Girl by Jamaica Kincaid Girls, young women, and mature mothers. Society has consistently given women strict guidelines, rules and principles on how to be an appropriate member of a man’s society. These rules are set at a young age and enforced thoroughly into adulthood. When not followed accordingly, women often times too many face reprimanding through means of verbal abuse, physical abuse, or social exile. In the midst of all