The society, including parents, have always placed enormous pressure on children to fit into stereotypical gender roles. Such stereotypes and rules prevent people from enhancing and improving themselves at a personal level and also from expressing and speaking out truthfully. The story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid shows how these stereotypes want to fit people to fit the supposed conventional gender roles. This piece of literature shows the expectations that the society has of women and to some extent, men too.
First, it is not possible to re-imagine the story as advice from a father to his son. The father would likely encourage his son not to be limited by what is expected from him, but to chase after his ambitions and dreams freely. The father would certainly encourage the son not to fit into the stereotypes of the society. This goes to show that what the society expects from both men and women is different and quite polar.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
According to the short story, women are not encouraged to embrace their sexuality. The mother advised her daughter on how to dress so that society does not regard her as a “slut.” She also tells how she should behave and act so that the rest of the society can respect her. If the daughter in any way tried to embrace her sexuality, then she would be shunned by the society.
The ideas and values propagated by the mother are quite derogatory and discriminative. She refers to her as a “slut” and constantly shuns abuses at her. According to the woman, the roles of a woman are limited to the home whereas men have no such limits. For example, the mother says that the daughter should not play marbles like a boy and that the girl should do household chores.
