Preview

Girl By Jamaica Kincaid Summary

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
689 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Girl By Jamaica Kincaid Summary
Reader Response to “Girl” As I began reading “Girl,” by Jamaica Kincaid, it seemed to be some sort of guide on how to live. It seemed to be repetitive and boring. I was not expecting for it to become one of the most intriguing stories I have ever read. It ended up being very easy to connect to, especially as a girl. I feel as if I am always being told how I need to act as a girl. How I need to be “ladylike” and how I need to learn to cook. For example, in the story it says “soak salt fish overnight before you cook it.” The story was also fascinating because it left a lot of room for imagination. I had several outlooks on this story each time I read it. While I read this story a few questions kept reoccuring in my mind. One

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the book, Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, By: Isabel Quintero, Gabi learns to love her own image and not to take anything for granted. Gabriela Hernandez more known as Gabi, is a normal, mexican girl writing in her diary during the course of her senior year in high school. In the beginning, Gabi starts off hating on her physical appearance. She spends most of her time complaining she’s fat and ugly. Her personality can be described as insecure, ashamed, and depressed.…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aileen Viscarra Period 3 May 10,2018 Book Report The book I chose to read and take my annotations is called “The Girl I Used To Be” written by April Henry. This book is about a girl name Ariel, who loses her parents. Fourteen years ago, as Ariel's parents were all going to the forest to cut a christma tree for the holiday, but they never came back home. When later that day 3 year old Ariel was found at a Walmart nearby.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jamaica Kincaid’s novel “Lucy” is from the point of view of a girl who moves to America for a better life. The main characteristics that stuck out to me were how blunt and to the point she was while narrating, but when interacting with others, she felt out of place or did not care. If I were to direct a movie based on this book, I would cast Rosario Dawson as Lucy, but to recall these events. Through out the movie, Rosario Dawson would narrate what Lucy is really thinking while the camera shows a younger version of Rosario Dawson. I would pick Rosario Dawson because in her most recent roles on every Marvel series on Netflix, she plays a nurse with an attitude that reminds me of Lucy’s attitude in the book.…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Teju Cole makes an interesting point about the depth of information one can glean from photographs, and any object in general. There is the superficial: what the object is, what it does, what the photograph captured, etc. But there is also the more profound like the reason for why the photographs no longer belong to their subjects and why they are now in the hands of “secondhand dealers and estate sales.” In a way, this reminded me of impressionism and Heart of Darkness in that Lee seemed particularly fascinated by the story behind the photographs, both of those pictured and why they no longer possess it. He focuses on the ‘outer shell,’ the hazy background of the photographs that he will most likely never precisely figure out, rather than…

    • 204 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever wished that someone had given you a guide on how live the right way? Jamaica Kincaid does just that in her short story, Girl. The narrative is presented as a set of life instructions to a girl by her mother to live properly in Antigua in the 1980’s. While the setting of the story is not expressly stated by the author in the narrative, the reader is able to understand the culture for which Girl was written.…

    • 880 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The story Girl by Jamaica Kincaid is a about a mother giving beneficial life structure about appropriate essential for daily living to her daughter. The mother is trying to influence her daughter to be a presentable woman by sharing values and behaviour from one generation to another in a significance way to shape her and be able to live a proper life . The mother gives advice to her daughter to teach her the principals on how to properly run a household and live respectably. The story Girl ,Jamaica Kincaid say, in the beginning instructions on cleaning clothes on the stone heap. Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap.…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jamaica Kincaid, born Elaine Potter Richardson, is originally from St. John's, Antigua (Britannica). She was born in 1949 and three years later she had learned to read by attending local schools which provided a british style education (Britannica). Her father was a cabinet maker and her mother was a political activist (Britannica). By the age of sixteen, she left her home in St. John's to come to America and be an au pair in Manhattan (Garner). She however felt that being an au pair was synonymous with being a slave (Garner). She soon began looking for other types of work which would allow for more creativity (Garner). She said that "I began writing in my early twenties out of desperation" (Faulkner). Her first published piece of writing was in a magazine called Ingenue and it was an interview with feminist Gloria Steinem (Britannica). Sometime after this publication, in 1973, she legally changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid to reconnect with her Caribbean roots (Britannica). From there she became the assistant of George Trow who wrote "talk of the town" for The New Yorker (Garner). Later it came to the attention of William Shawn, the editor of The New Yorker, that she had exceptional talent and hired her to be a staff writer (Garner). In 1979 She married Allen Shawn, the son of William Shawn (Garner). Writing for The New Yorker is where she found her true style of writing (Garner). She actually stayed with the magazine until 1995 when she became unhappy with the new editor, Tina Brown, and left (Britannica).…

    • 1403 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The list in the story, Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, would not be accepted in todays modern society. The list in Girl, is in stark contrast with how women regard themselves today and can only be viewed as very undermining of what it means to be a woman and what a woman is supposed to be like. The short story consists of a list of what a woman should strive to be. During the time period of the book, women did not have a role outside the home.…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The slut you are so bent upon becoming” this expression occurs throughout the context of the story as the mother tries to shape her daughter to lead an reputed lifestyle. The story constantly focuses on how a women needs to behave in public; “on Sunday try to walk like a lady” (Kincaid 9); “don’t eat fruits on the street-flies will follow you” (Kincaid 11). Vision of womanhood is highlighted through statements such as “don’t squat down to play marbles-you are not a boy” also depicts double standards created by the society towards how men can behave versus how women should (Kincaid 30). Kincaid throughout her piece points out how it is more important to appear as a women in front of the society whether or not in reality, a “slut”; “they won’t…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    She is in my opinion, truly an amazing author, very accurate in her stories, and is very good at keeping you engaged throughout the reading. The book believe it follows the themes of some of the books we’ve read. A young adolescent who comes into adulthood in a tragic and beautiful way. I believe this book excellently demonstrates social critiques, gender roles, and coming of age in an emergent, and unexpecting tragic way.…

    • 1467 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    It describes how the young lady faces difficult time in her life because of gender stereotyping. The young lady always tries to prevent her dad and mom by treating her like a “women” She would rather do men work with her father than being the kitchen cooking with her mother. This story…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    In my 17 years of being alive I have never like reading. There is so many words and I have never been able to comprehended them. Out of the few books I have liked I noticed there are qualities that make me enjoy them. Good books are relatable. I believe in a good book you should be able to connect to the writer or the topic on some level. Good books also make you think hard about your life or the topic. If I can relate to the book I am more likely to enjoy it just for that fact. The novel Fast Girl by Suzy Favor Hamilton is an outstanding book it is relatable, has a sympathetic protagonist, and it has a dramatic plot twist. (126)…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jamaica Kincaid’s poem “Girl” seems to be a mother guiding and teaching her daughter about life and how to do many things. “Girl” makes me think of southern mothers including my own. My mother has taught me how to sew, cook, and to be polite and treat everyone equally. This may seem like the classic standard women are held to but, to me, it is much more than that. Being taught to sew has enabled me to be independent in being able to mend my own clothes.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Think Like a Man

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The book “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man” was an opportunity for women to read the book, see what fits them, learn about how men think and use things on women, and be able to protect their self or become wiser before getting into a relationship and having their heart broken. The book also introduces things to women in each chapter like “What Drives Men”, “The Three Thing Every Man Needs”, “Mama’s Boys”, “Why Men Cheat”, etc. These things help women out because it actually sees how a man thinks about a certain topic such as “sex” or shows women how to handle situations such as having a…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays