“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid shows us the stifling reinforcement of gender norms through a claustrophobic and domineering style. The mother's memory of an anonymous young girl allows us to experience the exponentially increasing expectations of childhood, and later of early womanhood. Although the mother ultimately wants only the best for her daughter, her increasing interference comes to seem stifling rather than motherly. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay “Girl” frequently uses a paradoxical tone to emphasize that the mother dispensing her advice feels less concerned with building her character and upholding the values ​​of her society. standards on how to be a woman. The Mother’s advice seems to oscillate between stoic and pragmatic advice such as “this is how you sweep a whole house; that’s how you sweep a construction site” and crude accusations such as “like the slut you’re so determined to become.” This discordant and uneven tone is intended to make us question the extent to which the mother's advice is appropriate. Can we really trust the advice of a mother who, three times in the excerpt, accuses her daughter of promiscuity simply because she has not achieved all the standards she had set for herself. ? The frequent use of words and phrases such as "always", "here's how" and "make sure" maintain an imposing tone throughout the piece, there is little or no wiggle room for the girl interprets the advice. There is no doubt that the Mother wishes to maintain constant discipline in the Daughter's daily life, but the tone makes it clear that her standards have become repressive. But the almost impossible standards imposed by the Mother can also be reflected in the Mother's own behavior. shape of the part; written as a huge, singular paragraph, Kincaid leaves the reader little room to breathe. Without descriptive prose or paragraphs, and relying solely on a single connected string of dialogue, it's essentially like a group of commands that one tries to regurgitate from memory. To top it all off, the constant repetition of the phrase “this is how” in lines such as “this is how to sew on a button; here’s how to make a buttonhole for the button you just sewed” adds a mechanical feel to the advice, as if the Mother were coding software rather than teaching advice to a human. The advice is further denaturalized by the order in which it is presented, in which lines of advice are grouped by topic (such as cooking, hosting, sewing) rather than in chronological order of the girl's life. This further dehumanized the advice to seem like an instruction sheet rather than a piece invoking maternal care. The utilitarian structure of the play, coupled with the constant reiteration of orders, reinforces not only how strict and unwavering the mother's parenting habits are, but also how regimental and impersonal gender roles can seem. Additionally, Kincaid shows the uneven dynamic of the relationship between the two by ensuring that the Mother's own voice dominates the excerpt. The Mother's dialogue constitutes the absolute majority, with the Daughter receiving only two lines of dialogue. These lines also have no action, they are both replies to the mother, as shown "but I don't sing the bena at all on Sundays and never in Sunday school." Considering the fact that the mother doesn't even give a response to the line, this shows an unfair power dynamic between..