The Role of Woman in Girl by Jamaica Kincaid Analysis

📌Category: Books, Gender Equality, Social Issues
📌Words: 1164
📌Pages: 5
📌Published: 25 June 2021

For centuries, it has become abundantly clear that the reality of being a woman consists of being exposed to various brutal treatments prompted by society. This is not a regional nor a national truth. It has become an extended issue from the beginning of time until the present day throughout generations. While there are many examples of this sociological standard, Jamaica Kincaid’s short story Girl is an exceptional demonstration. The text essentially lays the foundation of womanhood in which the female protagonist is expected to perform and live by due to her gender. The child is faced between the periods of ‘innocent’ and ‘transformative’ as she enters adulthood and her mother prepares her how to be the ideal woman. Not only does her mother believe she is the only person who can save her daughter from becoming a “slut” but, she also degrades and places her in a ‘box’ where she is expected to remain. Through the use of gender roles, feminist theories, and charcter experiences, Kincaid shines a light on all these performative acts that revolve around if not all, the vast majority of girls. 

Illustrating how girls are often treated unfairly and looked down upon compared to men, gender roles such as societal standards are one of the important literary elements used throughout the short story. Kincaid uses this by linking many tangential objects and tasks to the common stereotypes of a ‘woman’. For example, the mother teaches her daughter to do chores such as cleaning and laundry in order to keep a house of her own someday in the lines “ this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard" (Kincaid 501) and “Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the colors on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry” (Kincaid 355). Gives her housewives tips about cooking and sewing in order to please her future husband by stating “Cook the pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil” and “this is how to sew a button; this is how to make a button-hole for the button you just sewed on”(Kincaid 355). Even teaches her how to make herbal medicines to abort children as if a woman is only known to reproduce in the lines “this is how to make good medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child.” (Kincaid 355). However, these acts are not only to be done in her future the mother also introduces these tasks in the present as she states the daughter is also in charge to take care of her father’s needs. This is evidently shown in the lines “this is how you iron your father’s khaki shirts so that it doesn’t crease” and “this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants so that they don’t have a crease” (Kincaid 356) as her mother puts more pressure on the child. Not only does this draw attention to the various tasks girls starting at a young age are enforced on, however, it additionally demonstrates how women are often trained to be submissive towards men. 

Similarly, to The Yellow Wallpaper in which it also emphasizes stereotypical gender roles and ideals women should portray; the lead protagonist also faces hardships due to her gender. While this storyline is not necessarily about a mother-daughter moment, it enforces a women's subortion during marriage. The protagonist in this case is seen submissive towards her husband while suffering from depression. She slowly starts going delusional when being isolated in order to “get better” according to her partner. One of the first examples of gender roles is presented in the line “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage”(Perkins) as the narrator is seen expressing how it is a commonplace for her husband to belittle her about her depression due to women and being seen as lower than men in marriages during the written time of story it was common to see these acts. Another example is seen in the line “It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way” (Perkins) as the narrator is seen commenting that she has no tasks to do not even the normal “women works” she is weighed down not by duties however, the lack of them; expressing how women are often commonly seen up and down mothering or taking care of the house needs due to these gender roles. Another example can be shown in the line “I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and before morning we has peeled off yards of that paper” (Perkins) as the narrator has come to believe that the women in the wallpaper is just as real as her and they have became the same person in her mind. Not only does this mark a huge impact on the whole story hinting at how the women’s delusions might have been stating how she internally felt about her limitation from society however, it foreshadows the oppressive nature women in the 18th century faced against men. 

Evidently both stories portray women who are affected by these “boxes” they are placed in. Girl expresses the danger of female sexuality and the transformative power of domesticity. Through the lens of a feminist, the mother also criticizes her child expressing to her to not “squat down to play marbles” (Kincaid) because she is not a boy. To walk “like a lady and not like a slut” (Kincaid) she is so bent on becoming, degrading her own child based on her own beliefs. Even going as far as questioning her daughter’s reputation in the line “always squeeze bread to make sure its fresh; but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread? You mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread” hesitating whether or not her daughter will be a woman with class who will be respected. Additionally to Perkins' story the woman is also seen expressing her helplessness over her husband not taking her seriously in the line “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?” (Perkins) especially since her doctor is male and is being respected while she is not. The doctor’s opinion is considered more reliable than her own. Critic Keja Valens states, “We might understand the normalizing and eroticizing dynamics of domination to be a way of internalizing and accepting them. In the Antiguan context, colonialism and slavery certainly enforce extreme domination--of colonized by colonizer, of slave by master, of black by white, but also of women by men, of children by adults.” (Valens). Not only are women held to high expectations by society but little girls at a young age are being taught so as well. Another Critic Promond K. Nayar states that “Stories such as these enable us to reflect on gender and the nation in postcolonial societies where cultural training ensures that girls become "properly" feminized (Nayar). Throughout centuries it is clear these feminist theories have envolved however, the view of a women being categorized less than a men continues. 

Kincaid and Perkins demonstrate the oppressive nature of gender roles, specifically on women. When narrowed down women are often held to higher expectations, even when shown to outperform men.

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