Girl by jamaica kincaid analysis

All Characters Mother Girl. All Symbols Bread Slut. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play.

Sexuality, therefore, must be carefully guarded and even concealed to maintain a respectable front. Consequently, the mother links many tangential objects and tasks to the taboo topic of sexuality, such as squeezing bread before buying it, and much of her advice centers 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 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. 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. Black Lives Matter.

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Throughout time women have been given a role in society. The sad truth of this is that the role given to women is more often than not the role of a homemaker. Although the argument can be made that a home needs more than just a woman slaving away to make it a functional and healthy environment, society has placed the pressure on women and housewives to create a home that is an oasis for their husbands and a stable environment for their children. These demands placed on women have been present for centuries and still continue today.