Contrast of Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” and John Updike’s “A&P”
Contrast of Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” and John Updike’s “A&P” “A&P” and “Girl” both symbolized the protagonists’ oppression by an older, more experienced generation. However, Kincaid’s “Girl” was artistic with an undercurrent of selfless love and hope while Updike’s “A&P” was uninspiring with selfishness and lust. The protagonist of “Girl” discouraged her daughter’s dreams out of love. The protagonist of “A & P” encouraged the antagonists’ out of a selfish desire for self-promotion.
The short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid was a bittersweet warning from a mother to her daughter. The reader is experiencing the viewpoint of the protagonist through the soliloquy of her mother’s instructions that batter her like bugs smacking the windshield. This scolding reminds me of conversations with my own grandmother. The author doesn’t use periods or capital letters to symbolize the endless barrage of words, which I mistakenly perceived as nagging during my first review. A second reading brought about feelings of sympathy in the lament of a regretful mother’s memories; this reminded me of my own mixed perceptions of past conversations with family. I enjoyed the mother’s attempts to convey her own experience in life through her instructions on how to do mundane chores. When the mother in the story says, “Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them in the stone heap” refers to laundry, “Cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil, and “Soak salt fish before you cook it” refers to meal preparation (Kincaid 541). After repeated warnings to her daughter against walking like “the slut you are so bent on becoming”, I felt sympathy for the mother’s obvious experience with a hard life as she describes making medicine “to throw away a child before it even becomes a child”, and “bullying and being bullied by a man” (Kincaid 542). I wondered if the mother had been raped. My favorite reference on revenge was her instruction to “spit up in the air if you feel like it”, and “how to
The short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid was a bittersweet warning from a mother to her daughter. The reader is experiencing the viewpoint of the protagonist through the soliloquy of her mother’s instructions that batter her like bugs smacking the windshield. This scolding reminds me of conversations with my own grandmother. The author doesn’t use periods or capital letters to symbolize the endless barrage of words, which I mistakenly perceived as nagging during my first review. A second reading brought about feelings of sympathy in the lament of a regretful mother’s memories; this reminded me of my own mixed perceptions of past conversations with family. I enjoyed the mother’s attempts to convey her own experience in life through her instructions on how to do mundane chores. When the mother in the story says, “Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them in the stone heap” refers to laundry, “Cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil, and “Soak salt fish before you cook it” refers to meal preparation (Kincaid 541). After repeated warnings to her daughter against walking like “the slut you are so bent on becoming”, I felt sympathy for the mother’s obvious experience with a hard life as she describes making medicine “to throw away a child before it even becomes a child”, and “bullying and being bullied by a man” (Kincaid 542). I wondered if the mother had been raped. My favorite reference on revenge was her instruction to “spit up in the air if you feel like it”, and “how to
Cited: Kincaid, Jamaica.“Girl”. In The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 541-542. Print. Updike, John. “A&P”. In The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 560-564. Print.