- Discuss the impact of culture on the mother in the Girl. How do cultural constructs encourage people to engage in a certain behavior, sometimes against their integrity as individuals? Support your ideas and thoughts with the text and discussions in class.
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After reading “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, I realized how culture does effect and impact ones behavior as an individual. In this story, Mother instructs and basically demands certain behavior and actions for her daughter (Girl). She tells her a set of instructions to and how to do things, constantly hoping for her not to become a “slut”. Being a mother, I believe the mother has some sort of power towards the girl. I feel as if she has a sort of control enslaving the girl to be something she’s not. According to the mother, the girl is only expected to become these certain standards, and nothing else. There is no room for individuality. The girl is a robot, programmed and set to what the mother thinks is acceptable.
ReplyDeleteCultural constructs encourage people to engage in a certain behavior because of a higher authority. I think people of high authority have more control over people lower than them. In every culture, there are things that are acceptable and things that aren’t, which are all chosen by people’s opinions. For instance, when the mother says “don’t squat down to play marbles – you are not a boy”, she is automatically stereotyping that those who squat and play marbles are a boy. She tries to shape the girls mind into thing something that is not necessarily true which is a great example of enslavement in this text.
-Tahliah M. Davidson
I believe that ones culture has a huge impact on his/her personality as an individual. In this mother's particular culture, it seems that individuality is not encouraged. Is it possible to completely suppress the need to express individuality, or is it a basic human need? This mother's culture is about fitting in and playing out a standard role in society.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to me how the mother would use the word slut to describe her own daughter, in which we see no evidence to support this claim in the story. This leads me to the assumption that there is a stereotype that exists in this culture that all adolescent females are prone to become "sluts".
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ReplyDeleteThe impact of culture on the mother was very strong. The mother was pushing the daughter to a certain image and trying to control the things she did and the way she acted. Which I believe was partly because of culture. I believe that because of culture the mother wanted her daughter to act and be a certain way rather than being portrayed as a slut. Which was what the mother feared her daughter would become. If it were not for culture then I don't think that the mother would have even thought that her daughter had a chance on becoming a slut.
ReplyDelete~Nicole Treschitta~
Culture is a big impact on how society acts. For instance, in the story Girl, the young girl is expected to act a certain way. The mother raises her strictly telling her how to be and how not to be. This is due to the restrictions of society within their culture. Their culture sets up a certain expectations for girls, regardless of individuality. The mother scolds the girl for doing anything out of these expectations. I think the reason the mother is so strict on the girl is that their culture is so rigid. She wants her daughter to fit into society without any problems and tries to raise her accordingly. I think without the pressure of the culture, the mother would not be so hard on the child. For example, the girl could only be 10 or 12 years old and she is already being accused of wanting to be a slut. Pressure from society has put a lot of stress between the mother an daughter. In this story, she girl is enslaved by her cultural expectations and the mothers 'lessons'.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn Kazmer
There is clearly a cultural impact on both the mother and the daughter in this story. The mother probably grew up in a time period where you had to be all prim and proper. Where as her daughter is growing up in a time where girls can play with boys and maybe the mother doesn’t understand the new culture that the daughter is growing up in. One way of interpreting it is that maybe the mother grew up in a different country and they moved to America and it’s two completely different cultures. The mother could be stuck in her old ways and the way her mother raised her.
ReplyDeleteMy reaction to this story is quite different then what we talked about in class. Everybody tore the mother a new one in class and I don’t think the mother is that strict. I think that she was just trying to give her daughter morals. If she was that strict and wanted her daughter to be perfect she wouldn’t have told her how to get rid of a baby, bully boys or spit in the air. We don’t know the background of the story, but this lecture leads me to believe maybe the daughter did do something wrong and that’s why the mother is talking to her like this. Maybe that’s why the mother is calling her daughter a slut and assuming she is going to become one, but that also leads back to cultural impact. Maybe all the girls in the neighborhood or all her friends are becoming sluts or maybe the culture they live in now young women, even though they aren’t sluts, come off as sluts compared to the way women acted in the culture the mother grew up in. Sometimes in certain cultures you change your morals and become something you weren’t expecting to be, like a slut and that’s why the mother’s giving this speech. She doesn’t want her daughter to be like everyone else and succumb to peer pressure. Maybe the speech is meant to keep the daughter away from social gender roles in this culture.
In the story Girl, there is a very big impact on the mother and daughter from their culture. The mother feels compelled to tell her daughter the way she must act, basically in a way that her culture approves. Females must act in a certain way. It isn't acceptable for her to act otherwise. The mother overwhelmes her daughter with so many things that she must do. It seems like the mother is too worried that when her daughter grows up she will become an embarressment to her culture. I feel like the mother may have made the mistakes that she is telling her daughter to not make also. I don't see the mother doing something completely wrong because most of the things that she is telling her daughter is her own morals, I just think that she is overwhelming the young girl with it all at once.
ReplyDeleteIn the story "Girl", the mother tries to tell her daughter how she is suppose to act to become the lady that her mother wants her to become. The things the mother tells the daughter to do defintaly shows what kind of culture they live in and what is expected from a woman in their culture. It seems like the mother is telling the daughter she must act these certain ways to be accepted in their society and the daughter is enslaved by the pressure of becoming the woman her mother wants her to be.
ReplyDeleteIn the story Girl, the mother tells her daughter how to live her life. She tells her exactly what to do and makes it seem as if she won't be successful and she'll be looked at badly if she doesn't follow this way of life. If she dresses a certain way, she'll be looked at like a slut, her father & husband will expect her to do certain things and if she doesn't, they won't deal with it. This is all based on their religion. It is extremely strict and has a very specific way of life. Her mother expects her to be just like everyone else, she can't be an individual.
ReplyDelete