Girl Jamaica Kincaid Essay

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid and If by Rudyard Kipling, are two texts that are written by parents with real world expectations for their children. Both texts though are similar and different in many different ways. Girl, is a one sentence story about a mother’s expectations for her “Boy crazy girl” that is going out into the real world by herself. She explains what so tips for her daughter in a more harsh than gentle voice. “If” is a poem of a dad poetically telling his son about the good and bad and how to handle it including some expectations he has for his son.

The first difference from both texts is how the parents act towards their children. In girl the mother gives off a sort of negative tone by saying that “On Sundays try to walk like a lady and not the “boy crazy girl” you are so bent on becoming. This comes off quite harsh compared to the dad in “If” who says “With sixty seconds worth of distance run, Your is the earth and
In girl, the mother says “This is how to act in the presence of men you don’t know very well.” Clearly her mom is showing her how to act in the presence of men. Then in “if” the dad says “If you can meet with triumph and disaster, and meet those two imposters the same.” He is showing his son how to treat triumph and disaster. Therefore both parents are trying to teach their kids something about reality and being out in the real world.

The last difference is that in “Girl” it is all one sentence while in “If” it has stanzas and is more poetic. I know this because in the background info with “Girl” it says “The fact that the story is entirely one sentence.” This shows that the whole thing is all in one sentence and in “If” there are four stanza and rhymes. Overall “If” sounds and looks like it was meant to be