Jamaica Kincaid

it with their culture. Jamaica Kincaid has direct experience with the effects of imperialism as her country Antigua was under the influence of Great Britain until their independence in 1981. The authority that England had over Antigua led to Kincaid’s bitterness towards England. In her excerpt from “On Seeing England for the First Time”, Kincaid makes obvious her resentful attitude towards England through her description of her experiences at school and the food…

There are many things a mother passes on to her daughter; morals, routines, clothes, maybe even a wedding ring. The mother in “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid tells her daughter how to follow a good path by doing “womanly” duties as opposed to doing whatever she wants. First, the mother tells her daughter a list of self-rules she should follow to flower into adulthood beautifully. The girl is told advice that her mother wants her to follow to become a mature, wife-material woman. Finally, the mother…

Despite the fact that it may be short, Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, is fierce and strong. Easily, it is definitely high on the “most book-throwing” stories list. I rank it at number one on the list. The short story touches home base with me and other women as well, I am positive. Which is what makes it so interesting. Throughout the long winded sentence of a story, the narrator lectures and instructs her seemingly young daughter on what to do domestically and in public to not be deemed a “slut.” The…

The Girl and Her Mother: An Analysis of “Girl” In the story “Girl”, written by Jamaica Kincaid, a mother is giving her daughter advice. She gives one instruction after another to the girl about men, cooking, cleaning, and keeping a good reputation. The daughter only speaks twice, once to defend herself, and again to ask a question. This plot, though relatively simple, leads the reader through the overwhelming social expectations the girl was facing. Kincaid’s use of literary devices contributes…

tampers with their trust and feelings. Jamaica Kincaid, the author of “On Seeing England for the First Time”, has grown up in the Caribbean Island, Antigua, while under English rule. Kincaid recounts her childhood experiences being under England colonization before Antigua’s independence in the year 1981. Jamaica Kincaid uses tone and repetition to reveal that she felt manipulated by England. Kincaid uses tone to disclose her emotions toward England. First, Kincaid opens this passage by…

In her prose poem, Jamaica Kincaid wrote Girl for the New Yorker in 1978 which uses a very unique syntax that resembles a long lecture a mother would give her child as well as establishing ethos by using traditions known in Antigua and very feminine lessons, including how to sit like a woman and how to make pills to get rid of child. The lecturing, condescending tone is very reminiscent of a mother, especially when they are giving orders to their child. This is true because she is not only…

A TOURIST AN UGLY THING? [Document subtitle] prefess Is a Tourist an Ugly Thing? A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid is an essay that begins with Kincaid lashing at the tourists that come from Europe and North America for their stay in Antigua. In the book she implies how the tourists are blinded by Antigua’s beauty and paradise that they don’t realize the flaws that lie beneath it all. Kincaid reveals her bitterness towards them and how she believes in that many of these tourists take their…

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid and If by Rudyard Kipling are 2 poems about parents talking to their kids. Girl is about a mom giving her daughter instructions for how to be a proper woman. If is about a father giving advice to his son how to have courage. Although the two poems have similar topic and theme they also have their differences of the characters. To Girl and If have a similar topic of a parent talking to their child. In Girl the ending line says, “After all you are really going to be the…

the same message while covering different issues? In this paper I will argue that “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes are both addressing the same issue but in different ways. I will look at the similarities of characters, symbolism, and structure in the stories. Even though the texts are different, they both reveal social issues found in society. “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is a short story that consists of two characters, a mother and daughter that are…

Inspired by her childhood in destitute, colonial Antigua, Jamaica Kincaid wrote Girl as a means to write about the culture she grew up in. As a means to detail, if not subtly derail, the society’s demonization of female sexuality and “liberation” through domestic skills, the author employs at points crude diction, a run on syntax, and submissive characterization. The prattling syntax begins promptly in this selection and continues throughout largely as a means of smothering to indoctrinate…