Social Criticism In Jamaicaaica Kincaid's Girl By Jamaica Kincaid

Losing yourself is easy when you're not sure in the first place. That's what Julia Alvarez illustrates in the novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Where four girls immigrate from their affluent Dominican home to a moderately impoverished one in the U.S., seeking temporary asylum. There, they go through the pains of growing up, social peer pressure, and are exposed to other experiences showcasing the stark realities life has to offer. Throughout the book, the Garcias try to find their true identity while going through the twists and turns of life.

In 1667, Antigua became a British colony, and didn’t reach their independence till 1981. Since British culture and beliefs were around for over three hundred years, it’s no surprise that many of them were left behind. Since the mother grew up with the British system that “attempted to erase female sexuality and to control the female body,” (Beyerman, Keith E. 2). It

Garcia Girls Essay Rough Draft For the Garcia girls, like many children of first-generation immigrants to the United States, sexuality is a complicated and far-reaching issue involving tradition, family, class, and identity. The Garcia Girls are coming of age in the United States during a period in which classic American values are constantly being called into question by American youth; this is the 1960s, a time that will stand witness to the blossoming of the sexual revolution. The traditional ideas about sex and independence found in their Dominican homeland come under repeated assault, as the family begins the assimilation process in their new homeland of New York City.

For now, Tituba must choose either to be separated from her mate or her land. She chooses the latter dejected and “cursing her powerlessness” for she is unable to “decipher the future”. (34) She courageously assumes responsibility of her choice. Her exile from Barbados is meant to alienate her and leave her beleaguered as Mama Yaya or any of her ancestral spirits cannot cross the seas to America. Tituba’s initiation into the Puritan world is far more painful after being displaced from her land.

In Jamaica Kincaid story, ‘’Girl’’ and in Anna Quindlen story, ‘’Between The Sexes A Great Divide’. It talks about too strong woman 's point of view of gender, for example ‘’ Girl ‘’ talks about how Global woman teaching which are how a woman should act in society and what they should and should not do around men For example How ladies should not be a slut around man and how man and woman enjoy bully each other from time to time. While ’’ Between the Sexes a Great Divide’ ‘talks about how men and women will always be different, but they can still have a successful relationship. Anna shows this by talking about her son 's and how her son 's best friend is a girl and they still enjoy each other 's company, Or how a woman and man always

She achieves her aim in highlighting that the prohibitive laws which reduce people like her to mere sexual bodies is a psycho-social remnant of the colonial past. She addresses a number of audiences within the piece, including the human rights community, the governments of both her native Trinidad and Tobago and The Bahamas, and by extension all citizens of the Caribbean and wider world who have been disenfranchised by laws that diminish their humanity and highlight their perceived iniquity. The implication of her essay is clear: if not just any body can be a citizen, the democracy which we have set up is in need of some adjustment. It relates to us because it reminds us that for every time we deny any body rights, we have failed to live up to the principles on which are postcolonial societies are supposed to be

The effects of colonialism are intergenerational, this story exposes the raw feelings of victims of colonization and the internalization of racist ideologies that often occurs as a result of Caribbean history being wrongly painted. Conforming to the standards of society is often easier than bearing the challenges associated with being an outlier; however, conformity leads to resentment and hatred. Cynthia chooses to conform to society's standards of white supremacy, which results in her discarding her own body for the figure of a white woman. Unfortunately, Cynthia begins to form a deep hatred for herself and her culture which her parents and strangers are subjected to.

Paul Keens-Douglas in his 1992 audio excerpt entitled “Tanti at the Oval”, presents through stirring humor the tale of Tanti Merle’s visit to a cricket match between Trinidad and the combined islands at the oval, in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Keens-Douglas vividly describes Tanti Merle’s actions from her preparation for the trip, to the match and, finally her behavior at the game. It can be gathered from the audio that there are critical underlying issues that represent the history of struggle entwined in what the speaker is portraying. The issues encountered revolve around features of Caribbean life and include the significance of cricket, gender relations and the dialectal language.

In the short story “Blackness” by Jamaica Kincaid, the narrator’s consciousness develops through a process of realization that she does not have to choose between the culture imposed on her and her authentic heritage. First, the narrator explains the metaphor “blackness” for the colonization her country that fills her own being and eventually becomes one with it. Unaware of her own nature, in isolation she is “all purpose and industry… as if [she] were the single survivor of a species” (472). Describing the annihilation of her culture, the narrator shows how “blackness” replaced her own culture with the ideology of the colonizers.

As a child, I was always the kid that would much rather ride bikes with the boys then play with dolls. I remember one girl from my class asked me “ are you a boy or a girl”, when I said that I did not want to play house and that I would rather play cars with the boys. I saw the other girls in my class and I realized I was different from them. They did not like anything I enjoyed doing and vice versa. I grew up never fitting in with the other girls in my school.

In Jamaica Kincaid’s essay “On Seeing England for the First Time”, she clearly voices her animosity towards the one place her whole life surrounded as a child in hopes of persuading her audience into understanding that there is a fine line between dreams and realities. As an adult, Kincaid finally is able to travel to England to witness firsthand what all the hype was about and why her childhood and education happened to be based around the fantasy customs of this country. Noticing that every detail of her life revolved around England, from the way she ate her food to the naming of her family members, Kincaid found her hatred growing more and more. Coming from a British colony, the obsession with England drove Kincaid crazy to the point that she finally traveled there one day. She says, “The space between the idea of something and its reality is always wide and deep and dark” (37).

She calls her daughter a “slut” and wants her to see she is not a boy. She tells her, “on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don’t sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys...” (180). She must keep her reputation up. She thinks her daughter already knows too much about sexuality and that she is being disobedient by singing the benna in Sunday school.

A wise woman once said, "The more a daughter knows about her mother 's life, the stronger the daughter" (http://www.wiseoldsayings.com/mother-and-daughter-quotes/). As any girl raised by their mother can attest, the relationship between a mother and her daughter is a learning experience. As young girls, you look up to you mother as your greatest role model and follow in their steps closely. In Jamaica Kincaid 's short story "Girl", a mother uses one single sentence in order to give her daughter motherly advice. Her advice is intended to help her daughter, but also to scold her at the same time.

No matter how people learn lessons, they will stay with the person forever, and help them through life. In the short stories “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara and “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, there is lesson that a character will learn about life. Although, in “The Lesson”, the teaching was more profound and had a deeper meaning behind it, while “Girl” was a parent forcing instructions on a child in order for the child to learn how a woman is to live. This being said, the teaching is more profound in “The Lesson” than the one given in “Girl.” “Girl” is a short story that teaches that there are many lessons we learn throughout life from parents, or in this case, a single parent.

“The Haunted Tropics” is a collection of literary work by various writers, fifteen to be exact edited by Martin Munro. This book has stories as long as twenty-three pages or as short as seven, the entire book is however a total of two hundred and fifteen pages. The cover of the book was an instant turn off for me; I judged the book by the cover, but why wouldn’t I? It was a picture of someone pulling a dead body in white sheet! I must admit that after reading the introduction I realize it was just history.