Culture and Women In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and “How to date a browngirl, blackgirl, whitegirl or halfie” by Junot Diaz, both authors elaborate on culture, and how it shapes the outlook on women. In Jamaica Kincaid's “Girl” a mother enforces her cultures strong beliefs on appropriate female behavior onto her daughter. To do so, she displays her parental authority with a series of short commands influenced by her culture. A sense of naivety can be seen in the young girl after questioning her mother's request. The culture associated with “Girl” has a definite attitude towards women, believing they should live a modest, conservative lifestyle.
Rather than saying, “cutting” back, as most would, she says the more gracious thing, offering insight into her upbringing as well as her parent’s parenting styles for the reader. It is clear in the excerpt that the first person point of view affects the tone, by displaying Leah’s reactions and varied feelings toward the situations at hand, and other characters. When Leah assesses her sister, Rachel’s beauty aids, and says she cares “for naught but appearances.” This again
‘Maybe you better go along to your own house now. We don’t want no trouble’ this shows that the workers were cautious of being caught with Curley’s wife and sent her on her way to avoid conflict. Curley treasures his wife and if she were caught in any trouble, even if it was her fault, she’d be seen as innocent. Finally, Steinbeck also presents women as attractive and confident. The quotes ‘If he ain’t, I better look someplace else, she said playfully’ and ‘Hi, Good-lookin’.’ These show all the workers think Curley’s wife is attractive and she knows this, so she’s being confident with them.
Since the husband supplies money, Norton believes women view shopping as not another responsibility, but as an opportunity for subversion. Retail therapy is a housewife’s favorite pastime. Among other women they socialize freely. Whilet hey also spend time and money striving to duplicate the allusions associated with American culture. The housewife passes these tendencies on to her daughter and the tradition continues.
Others, including her mother and her Aunt, significantly shaped Sybylla’s identity. The impact of Sybylla’s mother’s words “you are lazy and bad” as well as “you’re really a very useless girl for your age” create a negative self-perception of her identity. The use of direct speech enables the reader to visualise and recreate the scene, therefore understanding the effects of other’s on the formation of Sybylla’s identity. Contrary to this, Sybylla’s Aunt Helen promotes positive growth in Sybylla by nurturing her. Her kind and gracious Aunt build’s Sybylla’s confidence and self esteem and is gentle and understanding, recognising her inner beauty, while reinforcing her physical beauty.
The new and improved Cosmopolitan magazine had headlines such as, “So you’re Bored to Death with the Same Old You.” And “Yes, you can change your image.” These headlines are used to influence women to not settle for what they think that they deserve but to go after what they want. Brown and Cosmopolitan helped move society into being more accepting of a woman being comfortable with her sexuality and that she didn’t have to be married to do it. At the time, women were expected to be conservative. Their goal was to find a husband and take care of the housework and stay at home with the children. Brown’s book Sex and the Single Girl took that idea and completely turned it upside down.
One who loved the general public and loved showing his face to the public. She however, was still a little shy and felt insecure of herself. Sara Roosevelt, Franklin’s mother fulfilled the role of Eleanor’s mother before and after she was her daughter in law. She had known what she was brought up in and wanted to take bad memories and turn them for the
Katarina Milosevic 8A Language Arts February 1, 2011 Word Portrait “A person’s a person, no matter how small”, by Dr. Seuss is my Cousin Mia’s favorite quote. In fact she loves it so much she owns a shirt with the quote written on it and with little cute Dr. Seuss characters in the back around. She is my age and an inspirational person. She always tries to do the right thing and often encourages others to do so as well. She loves to play soccer, draw and read.
The women and the foot-binder, cognizant of the agonizing pain Pleasure Mouse suffered, blindly complied. The underlying belief then was that foot binding would guarantee the child a prosperous marriage, and hence a bright future. The foot binding process is deftly described with a combination of grotesque wit and morbid expressions, complimented by an occasional hint of compassion. The name “Pleasure Mouse” already is a formidable revelation about the society’s attitude as pleasure implies “a wife satisfying her husband” and mouse often suggests or relates to a person with “small, petite feet” who obeys. The first paragraph uses imagery to evoke the readers’ sensory experience and imagination, thus allowing
Eveline’s sexual identity and orientation also play a large role into the critical approach of feminism. Eveline opens up the story remembering a time when life was simple, specifically when her mother was still alive and her family was together. She touches on her father’s abusive habits towards her and her brothers, but does not seem to fully question it. She appears to have been appreciative that her father did not treat her as harshly as the boys simply because she was a girl. This is where the gender roles begin.