What do you see as the central conflict in the story, Girl, by Jamaica Kincaid? Who is the conflict with?Is it possible to re-imagine the story as advice from father to son?
I believe the central conflict is a girl who is being taught the rules on how to become a proper lady in the perspective of a man. The reason being is that most of the advice that is being provided seems to be chores that a man would possibly affiliate to be the job of a woman or house wife. Which may also lead to the conclusion that not only is it teaching the girl how to be a proper lady, but how to be a proper wife, mostly because she is preparing to be wed. It is most likely the conflict is with the mother or friend of the main character to which this text is being directed towards. She is trying to teach the girl or main character the best ways of being a woman or wife through their perspective to ensure her a decent homemaker life. The reason I say homemaker life is because it relays chores like ironing clothes, cooking, buying groceries, etc. It also might be assumed that whoever is teaching the main character these things, is using the her father as an example when she takes care of her own husband. Whoever, I believe there are some hints as to the main character possibly disagreeing with the lessons she learning. One example is the italic sentence that reads, "But I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school." This could possibly indicate a hint of rebellion against rules. It think it is possible to reimagine the story if it changed into a father giving advice to his son, though I reckon he would be teaching him completely different subjects compared to what Girl originally states. Some examples might be on how to repair cars, get a how, how hard to work each day, what kind of job is efficient for a man, how to treat his wife, etc. Overall, the main focus of Girl is that the main character is meant to be female, and is given this strict advise on how she should act as a woman and whether she should follow these rules or not.
I believe that the central conflict of the story is the mother of the girl not wanting her daughter to become a “slut” or stray outside of social norms. She doesn’t want her daughter to become a social outcast or someone that society will no longer have any respect for. The conflict is between the mother and daughter; the mother is simply stating all the rules that she has to follow in order to become and behave like a proper lady; there are some instances that the daughter interjects to defend herself and question her mother, but it only seems as if the mother doesn’t want to hear what she has to has to say. There is no form of communication between the two. It seems as if the mother is afraid that her daughter is going to follow or is already falling down the path of what society might deem as a “slut”, which is why she is enforcing all of these chores to her. It is possible to re-imagine this story as advice from father to son; the father would probably give advice on how to be a “man” and what features or behaviors he has to act upon in order to be seen as a respectable figure to society.
The central conflict in this short story is the daughter's sexuality vs the mother. The danger of the daughter becoming a sexually charged young woman and giving off the appearance of being "a slut" is what the mother fears the most. While the advice given is well meaning and from a mother to a daughter offering guidance and wisdom it comes off harsh and almost attacking the girl's behavior. The sexuality that the daughter will eventually come into has to be guarded and restrained in the mother's eyes and I'm assuming society's eyes at the time. The mother warns against displaying any kind of promiscuity in all facets of life. There is clear tension in their back and forth when the mother silences the daughter's protests. Obviously they do not communicate well. In the mother's eyes she is trying to steer her daughter in the right direction in the conflict of women vs society. The mother is trying to remind her daughter she is not a boy and therefore does not have the same privileges awarded to her.
The central conflict in the short story "Girl" is the mother not wanting her daughter to be viewed as a "slut" instead of a respectful women. In the story the mother speaks to the daughter about how to tend to her future home; folding clothes , ironing clothes, washing, making medicane to help when someone is sick and how to catch fish all the while warning her of not becoming a slut in the process. The mother even though she is telling her child all of these things she still feels a high worry about her daughter becoming what she fears the most. The mother and daughter have a lack of communication because the story shows very few conversation between the mother and daughter , but more words from the mother. If this was down from a father to his son it would be different because the. Father would more so be trying to tell his son how he should be a man. If the son, let's say turns out how his father disagreed ; lazy the speech would be about how to fix the way he presents himself.cthe story would seem less agressive and more conversational.
I believe the central conflict is a girl who is being taught the rules on how to become a proper lady in the perspective of a man. The reason being is that most of the advice that is being provided seems to be chores that a man would possibly affiliate to be the job of a woman or house wife. Which may also lead to the conclusion that not only is it teaching the girl how to be a proper lady, but how to be a proper wife, mostly because she is preparing to be wed. It is most likely the conflict is with the mother or friend of the main character to which this text is being directed towards. She is trying to teach the girl or main character the best ways of being a woman or wife through their perspective to ensure her a decent homemaker life. The reason I say homemaker life is because it relays chores like ironing clothes, cooking, buying groceries, etc. It also might be assumed that whoever is teaching the main character these things, is using the her father as an example when she takes care of her own husband. Whoever, I believe there are some hints as to the main character possibly disagreeing with the lessons she learning. One example is the italic sentence that reads, "But I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school." This could possibly indicate a hint of rebellion against rules. It think it is possible to reimagine the story if it changed into a father giving advice to his son, though I reckon he would be teaching him completely different subjects compared to what Girl originally states. Some examples might be on how to repair cars, get a how, how hard to work each day, what kind of job is efficient for a man, how to treat his wife, etc. Overall, the main focus of Girl is that the main character is meant to be female, and is given this strict advise on how she should act as a woman and whether she should follow these rules or not.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the central conflict of the story is the mother of the girl not wanting her daughter to become a “slut” or stray outside of social norms. She doesn’t want her daughter to become a social outcast or someone that society will no longer have any respect for. The conflict is between the mother and daughter; the mother is simply stating all the rules that she has to follow in order to become and behave like a proper lady; there are some instances that the daughter interjects to defend herself and question her mother, but it only seems as if the mother doesn’t want to hear what she has to has to say. There is no form of communication between the two. It seems as if the mother is afraid that her daughter is going to follow or is already falling down the path of what society might deem as a “slut”, which is why she is enforcing all of these chores to her. It is possible to re-imagine this story as advice from father to son; the father would probably give advice on how to be a “man” and what features or behaviors he has to act upon in order to be seen as a respectable figure to society.
ReplyDeleteThe central conflict in this short story is the daughter's sexuality vs the mother. The danger of the daughter becoming a sexually charged young woman and giving off the appearance of being "a slut" is what the mother fears the most. While the advice given is well meaning and from a mother to a daughter offering guidance and wisdom it comes off harsh and almost attacking the girl's behavior. The sexuality that the daughter will eventually come into has to be guarded and restrained in the mother's eyes and I'm assuming society's eyes at the time. The mother warns against displaying any kind of promiscuity in all facets of life. There is clear tension in their back and forth when the mother silences the daughter's protests. Obviously they do not communicate well. In the mother's eyes she is trying to steer her daughter in the right direction in the conflict of women vs society. The mother is trying to remind her daughter she is not a boy and therefore does not have the same privileges awarded to her.
ReplyDeleteThe central conflict in the short story "Girl" is the mother not wanting her daughter to be viewed as a "slut" instead of a respectful women. In the story the mother speaks to the daughter about how to tend to her future home; folding clothes , ironing clothes, washing, making medicane to help when someone is sick and how to catch fish all the while warning her of not becoming a slut in the process. The mother even though she is telling her child all of these things she still feels a high worry about her daughter becoming what she fears the most. The mother and daughter have a lack of communication because the story shows very few conversation between the mother and daughter , but more words from the mother. If this was down from a father to his son it would be different because the. Father would more so be trying to tell his son how he should be a man. If the son, let's say turns out how his father disagreed ; lazy the speech would be about how to fix the way he presents himself.cthe story would seem less agressive and more conversational.
ReplyDelete