Blog Post #5 Anthony Valle

The story would definitely be different if the narrator was a male. First the time period has to be taken into account and what womens roles in society were at the time. It seems like this story is taking place back in the days, so the father would probably tell his daughter that she needs to cook, clean, and to get married. His instruction would probably be the same throughout their entire society, based on the time it takes place. I really do not think the father would call his daughter a slut however.

Blog Post 5

On “A&P”

1. “A & P” is often described as a “coming of age” story, in which we watch a boy change significantly – perhaps not becoming a man, exactly, but making a decision that has implications beyond the literal and will mature him in various ways. This decision is influenced, possibly caused by his sense of masculinity and burgeoning sexuality. Explain how you see these things related: how does his gender identity/sexuality influence his decision? (Hint: consider his observations of other men). 

Sammy, a young man working as a clerk in a neighborhood grocery, becomes especially interested in three women who enter to store on a summer afternoon. He consider them, thinking to himself, "do you really think it's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?" At the time this was written, women were supposed to fill roles society had set for them. Mother, wife, caregiver, come to mind. Modesty was almost certainly one of them. 

The manager, however, enforcing the rules of the store reminds the girls they can't come in dressed in bathing suits. 
 
Stokesie, also a young clerk, mutters, "oh daddy, I feel so faint." They are entranced by this woman's beauty. The old meat man couldn't get his eyes off them.

Sammy is absolutely entranced by these women, and attempts to do something on principle, quitting his job, because the way these girls were treated. Now he faces  realities of life, with no job, and no girl to comfort him.





 

Blog 5 by Carson

Question 2 from 'Girl'

When a mother speaks to her daughter in the tone used in the narrative “Girl”, it means the mother is mentoring and tutoring the girl into becoming a woman. The daughter is at the age where she is going to begin doing things on her own, have an interest in men, and have a sense of responsibilities. This is the right time for her mother to start teaching her how to behave like a woman.  The daughter’s mother has the urge to teach all she knows about being a woman, because, if she does not the daughter will learn on her own in the streets. The mother is putting pressure into all these rules and duties so that her daughter is accepted into society and it could be seen that the tone of the mother is strict but also worried, worried for her daughter to turn out right in the eyes of society. It is also the mother’s responsibility to teach her daughter how to act accordingly, if the mother fails at this society looks down on her too.  

Post #5 Girl J.C

The dialogue of "Girl" is that of a mother telling her daughter all the things she must be in order to be a successful woman. There is no love behind these words. The mother is not watching out for her or making a good woman, rather she is making her become an uncertain and questionable girl. Her mother is confusing her.  Since it is the mother who is telling her these things, we as the reader assume that she is speaking to her daughter from bad past experiences. Although the mother is giving her advice, the words she speaks are harsh and bitter; we can assume that she has experienced many bad things in her life since she speaks with such passion about not falling and becoming an exemplary woman in life.  Now, if the narrator had been the father, our way of viewing the story if it would be her dad to talk the same exact words and the same tone and put a man as the narrator then it would come across as extremely abusive and manipulative. For a mother to say that to a daughter it’s okay, but for a father it is unacceptable. If the father would call his daughter a "slut" it would be almost the same as him slapping her in the face. If a man calls any lady “whore” or “slut” then it is immediately abusive language and he is viewed as oppressive. Men have to be so much more careful with the choice of words when speaking, unlike woman.

Blog Post 5 Girl Question 2 Kendra

In Girl, Jamaica Kincaid uses heavily loaded language to tell the story of a (shocker) girl that is being instructed how to become a good woman. The fact that the girl's mother is the one spouting off the harsh words is particularly shocking, though I'm not sure it was meant to be so literal. I believe that Kincaid uses the repetitive quote of "...slut you are so bent on becoming" to illustrate the girl's frustration at her mother for inundating her with all the "rules" necessary to become a lady, I don't believe that it is supposed to be a direct quote from the mother. 

To speak to another human being with such disregard for their feelings is awful, I'm not saying it doesn't happen but to allude that a mother would speak that way to her daughter is either a very large cultural gap or a vast exaggeration. Usually this kind of exchange is reserved for two teenage girls who have some kind of problem with each other, not for a mother and a daughter.

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As I mentioned in class, Kincaid has had an over note of bitterness to most of her essay's (stemming from what I believe is a general distaste of her upbringing in an English colony) so the acerbic words don't feel out of place at all in her writing. I usually try to keep my writing as neutral as possible, but in this case I feel put out. I suppose the essay "On Seeing England For The First Time" colored my view of her in a dark and rather unpleasant light. And I am sorry if anything I've said has insulted anyone.

2. Think about girl from a linguistic model: analyze the language used, keeping in mind that the narrator is a female, echoing her mother’s advice. What does it mean for a woman to speak to another woman in this tone, with these words?           
                                                                                                                                             
 The way the mother speaks makes me think that they are in the early 1900 or even 1800 when women were to act like ladies. The advise that she gives her daughter is the way she should act like to attract a man. If a woman were to speak like this to another woman now-a-days it would be considered or taken as an insult. Why would another woman care how another is to behave or do. Now-a-days women talk behind ones back in nasty maners. Probably using nasty language. Back in the day I think that a woman talking to another woman, the way the narrators mother speaks to her, would be considered advise. Good old advice to not seem like a "slut". She is guiding her daughter, teaching her. Her mother is only being blunt to help her get a good husband/man. At the end the mother questions her daughter that after all her advise is she still going to be a woman that a man wont let near his "bread." I think that bread here represents money, security. She shall not act or be a slut because at the end of the day man will only stay with a woman because she is a lady.   



 

                                                                               

Blog #5

On “A&P”

1. “A & P” is often described as a “coming of age” story, in which we watch a boy change significantly – perhaps not becoming a man, exactly, but making a decision that has implications beyond the literal and will mature him in various ways. This decision is influenced, possibly caused by his sense of masculinity and burgeoning sexuality. Explain how you see these things related: how does his gender identity/sexuality influence his decision? (Hint: consider his observations of other men). 

Answer: In A & P, this 19 year old boy watches these three girls wearing only bikinis walk around the store he works at, he notices the other guys in the store looking at the women and checking them out as he is. The way he checks out the girl is probably how every guy would. After his manager embarrassed the three girls and told them not to come back in the store without being covered up, the boy decides to quit. He tries to say it loud enough for them to hear but they don't because they are rushing out the door. He wanted to show his masculinity by trying to be their "unsuspected hero". He wanted to show the girls that he is a man standing up for them, which makes him feel like he is a man for standing up to his manager sticking up for the girls.