Assignment task:
I am writing a close reading essay on Girl by Jamaica Kincaid and need help with the body paragraphs and structure.
- My thesis: "The literary methods of allusion and repetition are utilized in Jamaica Kincaid's short story "Girl" to show the reader how various demands and expectations must be met for a girl to be "accepted" socially."
- My introduction: "Girl," a short story by Jamaica Kincaid, is deceptively straightforward and concise but delivers a punch. Kincaid shows a young girl's internalized efforts to fit into the gendered roles and cultural norms that are placed on her by her mother and society through the use of allusion and repetition. In just two pages, the mother lectures her daughter-who is largely silent throughout the text-with a long list of directions, warnings, and reprimands. All of these rules vary from something small and may not seem important at all to others that highlight the varied demands and expectations made of young women in patriarchal and postcolonial environments. This essay seeks to show how Kincaid skillfully depicts the repressive societal circumstances that mold the girl's identity and possibilities for the future, which highlights the overall problem of how various demands and expectations must be met for women to be "accepted" socially.