Compare and Contrast

In this essay, I will attempt to compare and contrast “Girl” by Jamaica Keen and “The Use of Force” by William Carlos Williams. When I think of a Mother- daughter relationship, I think of love, closeness, comfort, care, guidance and the list goes on. While reading Jamaica keen’s story I was constantly shown tough love. This story consist of parental tyranny between Mother and daughter.
Even though the daughter doesn’t seem to have yet reached adolescence, the mother worries that her current behavior, if continued, will lead to a life of promiscuity. The mother believes that a woman’s reputation or respectability determines the quality of her life in the community. A female’s sexuality must be carefully guarded and even concealed to maintain a respectable front. Consequently, the mother links various tangential objects and tasks to the taboo topic of sexuality, such as squeezing bread before buying it, and much of her advice is centered on how to uphold respectability. She scolds her daughter for the way she walks, the way she plays marbles, and how she relates to other people. The mother’s constant emphasis on this theme shows how much she wants her daughter to realize that she is “not a boy” and that she needs to act in a way that will win her respect from the community.
The mother believes that domestic knowledge will not only save her daughter from a life of promiscuity and ruin but will also empower her as the head of her household and a productive member of the community. She basically believes that there are only two types of women: the respectable kind and the “sluts.” Undoubtedly for many Caribbean women, domestic knowledge leads to productivity, which in turn wins respect from family and society. Household work therefore brings power and even prestige to women in addition to keeping them busy and away from temptation. Readers recognize the reverence the mother has for the power of domesticity because of the numerous specific instructions she gives her daughter, such as how to cook pumpkin fritters, sweep, grow okra, buy bread, and wash clothes. For her, domesticity brings respectability; sewing up a dress hem thus becomes more than an act of maintenance because it saves a woman’s sexual reputation within the community.
When someone becomes ill, the first thought on their mind is to become better. Many people don’t like going to the doctor but would rather be examined by one to determine their illness and what’s the cure. While reading this short story, I was shown how difficult the little girl was being towards the doctor trying to help her get better. The doctor becomes filled with rage as he tries to pry her mouth open to examine her throat.
It debates the rights of the individual (Girl) verses the rights of society (the doctor).
Emotions can be a source of strength or weakness that can affect someone's behavior in their social role. This is demonstrated through the use of the formal element of character, which in this story are Matilda and the doctor.
The author shows in the tale that personal impulses can intervene people to behave in a different way than they usually would. For instance, he says that he has seen children dying from waiting to be treated, so he wouldn't let that happen again. It insinuates that people with past experiences similar to the situation they are in can affect their judgment in making decisions. Therefore, it is obvious that the doctor's emotions overcomes his duties because he assured that he had no doubt the girl's intellectual condition would have gone better if he came back in an hour or so. Because the doctor is in a furious state of being, it is implied that people that are in a similar mood would not be calm enough to analyze whether they are doing the right thing or the wrong thing. The man's frustration leaded him to compete with Matilda. This is shown in the middle of the narrative, when the man revealed that he "had already fallen in love with the savage brat." He admires her power against the parents, and because of that, he does not want to be as weak as them. He knows she has power over her parents in a certain way, so he wants to use another kind of power to defeat her. He uses force to overpower her. Here, the author uses the character of the doctor to show a dilemma.
A theme is seen from situations in the story, such as fiercely opening the child's mouth just to prove that the man is stronger than her, or being confused to do certain things because of past experiences. The two characters were able to show how emotions can have a strong influence on the