Week Seven - Feminist Analysis on "Girl"

Girl (1978) by Jamaica Kincaid

Girl can best be analyzed by the Feminist perspective because it is about a girl who is being taught the “right” way to do things as a woman. Girl is written in the second person point of view, in which the reader is the girl that the speaker is speaking to and advising about how to behave.

At the beginning of the short story, it seems that the girl is just being taught some basic rules and manners that one should always remember, but then the speaker throws in, “on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming;” (Kincaid Line 11). The girl the narrator is referring to is often told to not be “the slut you are so bent on becoming”.

The diction, tone, and style of this story make it seem as if the speaker is telling the girl how a proper lady must behave. The diction degrades women; the word “slut” is used to describe a girl that does not behave like a “proper” lady. The tone is commanding; we see a repetitive “this is how” throughout the short story. The style of the short story is in lines, which allows each line to be a command. For example:

“This is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much;

this is how you smile at someone you don’t like at all;

this is how you smile to someone you like completely’” (Kincaid Lines 28-30).

                Another aspect that affects the view of women in the story that should be noticed from the feminist perspective is the setting in which the girl is placed in. When the speaker says “When buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse” (Kincaid Line 7), it makes the reader assume that the story may take place back in the day when it was common for women to make their own clothing. The title tells us that the story was written in 1978. The setting of the story may be before or in 1978, which would coincide with the view of women’s roles portrayed in the story. Women have always had fewer rights than men have. Women have always had to behave a certain way, and do certain things to be considered a proper woman. It used to be frowned upon, and still is by some people, for women to engage in things that were “manly”.  One of the commands given to the girl: “don’t swat down to play marbles – you are not a boy, you know” (Kincaid Line 39), depicts this point exactly. Women were held on a short leash when it came to behavior. It is obvious that speaker in the short story speaks on behalf of society when she/he tells the girl how to act, how to do things, how to walk, how to smile and how to be a proper woman, not a slut. The short story basically portrays what society expects from a proper woman, anything less is considered a slut.

Week Six - Rough Draft

The Flowers

The Flowers by Dagoberto Gilb is a story surrounding the life of Sonny, a teenager who must fend for himself in life. Sonny’s mother is not an ideal parental figure, leaving him with the responsibility of making his own choices. Sonny is shown as an independent person who does well in fending for himself. As the story moves on Sonny gradually grows, and his personality and behavior noticeably changes. From a sociological standpoint, the setting that Sonny is thrown into seems to be a direct cause of those changes. The bad influences and racism surrounding Sonny’s new home impact him as he is becoming a man; the setting influences him to make bad decisions and behave recklessly.

At the beginning of the story, Sonny seems to be an innocent but seemingly harmless kid. He is shown to have a tough exterior, but the reader can esasilly see that he has a knack for getting into trouble. Not that he looks for trouble, it finds him. He does not pick fights, but will defend himself when the situation arises. This attribute of his personality is shown right in the beginning of the story, where he is the victim of one of his mother’s angry ex-boyfriends. “I found that big knife…I didn’t care if he carried a gun. He comes in, I cut the dude” (Gilb 7). Of course the man was able to overpower Sonny, which resulted in the knife cutting into Sonny’s own stomach. One would expect him to be traumatized by that experience, but it doesn’t faze his confidence; it only hardens his exterior shell, toughens his personality.

 This toughening up continues especially rapidly when his mom, Silvia, marries Cloyd and moves them into Cloyd’s apartment, Los Flores. At first Sonny keeps to himself, but eventually the setting he is placed in leads to the rise of relationships which lead to his rapid behavioral changes. Because he prefers to be out of the apartment he shares with Cindy and The Cloyd, Sonny appreciates the tasks that Cloyd gives him and begins to learn about the tenants that live in Los Flores. One of the relationships that arises from his chores and particularly changes Sonny the most is that between him and Cindy. Cindy is a desperate housewife who lures Sonny in with her seductive powers. However that is not the only thing that lures Sonny in; he is also lured by not wanting to look like a childish fool in front of her. “Smoking it meant sex to me” (Gilb 173). So he falls into Cindy’s seductive trap and not only begins to become sexual with her, but smokes mota, weed. That and his home situation causes his personality to darken. He gets angry at Cindy for attracting him, because he knows it’s wrong to be with a married woman, but at the same time likes being intimate with her.

Sonny also befriends Pink, the car salesman, which is also a relationship that changed him.  With Pink, he drinks malt liquor and even gets behind the wheel when he knows that he shouldn’t be either of  those, much less both at the same time. However Pink is not completely a bad influence. He advises sonny, “you don’t want to be getting too used to no drinking at your young age. You don’t let this crazy cat lead you into wrong…that is a good man in the making, one who ain’t gonna be led by nobody. Ain’t that right Sonny?” (Gilb 67).

Analyzing those two relationships shows how the setting affects the people Sonny is around and how that affect him as he matures. The relationships that have arised have changed his personality and behavior drastically. He is much more likely to have an angry temper and do things that a kid his age shouldn’t be doing. Perhaps his reckless behavior may give him a sense of power in his life. At that stage of adolescence, they may also make him feel like more of a man than he was before, seeing as how he is exposed to many things he wasn’t before.

Furthermore, another thing that the setting exposes to Sonny and affects him is the strong sense of racism found there. Cloyd is one of the characters that is extremely racist and quick to stereotype. Sonny is exposed to Cloyd’s hatred of blacks and frequent comments and comparisons of Mexicans and Blacks. “‘They’re all around us, multiplying like Mexicans.’ He heard himself say that and he looked up at me, embarassed for a couple of seconds... ‘At least for Mexicans it’s because they’re of the Catholic faith’” (Gilb 110). Cloyd’s racist comments annoy Sonny, especially when they hit close to home. “I love to eat them tacos…now I even got myself married to a pretty little Mexican gal” (Gilb 51).  Sonny does not like how Cloyd sees his mother, like “he was the luckiest man because her warm body was next to him…thank you Lord” (Gilb 13). Even Sonny’s mom dislikes his comments and they both enjoy a laugh when they find out that one of the tenants are messing with Cloyd. Sylvia tells Sonny, “‘[Pink’s] an albino’…Cuando le dije a Cloyd, ay, he died de un infarto!’…We both liked so much the idea of Pink messing with Cloyd and Bud” (Gilb 195). However Cloyd’s racist comments are not the only things Sonny is exposed to living at Los Flores. The time period in which Sonny is in also exposes him to the Los Angeles riots. “My dad said nada mas que some todo pedo mayata got pulled over y then, salieron los diablos, the whole city went crazy” (Gilb 218).

These two things that the setting brings upon Sonny: bad influences and racism, are a definite factor in the changes that Sonny goes through as he matures. Sonny ultimately grows to become a strong man, a man that does bad, but is truly good at heart.

Week Five - Idea Paper - Sociological Perspective

If I focused on the Sociological perspective, I would focus on how the setting that Dagoberto Gilb placed Sonny in creates a dramatic change in Sonny’s behavior.

In the beginning of the story Sonny seems to be a not too innocent but seemingly harmless kid. He is shown to have a tough exterior and a knack for getting into trouble. Not that he looks for trouble, it comes to him. He does not pick fights, but will defend himself when the situation arises.

However, when his mother marries Cloyd and they move to Los Flores, his behavior changes quickly. At first he just keeps to himself, but eventually the setting he is placed in leads to the rise of relationships which lead to his behavioral changes. One of the relationships that changes him is that between him and Cindy. He falls into Cindy’s seductive trap and begins to smoke weed and have sexual encounters with her. That and his home situation causes his personality to darken. He gets angry at Cindy for attracting him, because he  knows it’s wrong to be with a married woman. He also befriends Pink, the car salesman, which is also a relationship that changed him.  With Pink, he drinks malt liquor and even gets behind the wheel when he knows that he shouldn’t be either of  those, much less both at the same time.

I feel that just looking at those two relationships show how that setting has changed his personality and behavior so much. He is much more likely to have an angry temper and do things that a kid his age shouldn’t be doing. I feel that those things may give him a sense of power in his life. They may also make him feel like more of a man than he was before.

Another reason why the setting affects Sonny is the strong sense of racism found there. Cloyd is one of the characters that is racist and is quick to stereotype. Sonny is exposed to Cloyd’s hatred of blacks and frequent comments and comparisons of Mexicans and Blacks.

So those are the two major factors in which setting affects Sonny that I would focus my analysis on: the influences of the people around him and the racism found in his new neighborhood. 

Week Four - The Stolen Money

I think that there are two likely things that Sonny will do with the money he stole from Cloyd.

1)      In the beginning of the story Sonny tells us, “I made a decision to save this money, to use it right. Also because stealing made me feel shitty, and I didn’t like that part much. So it seemed better that if I wasn’t wasting it, if it wasn’t exactly gone, just put away for necessary things, it wasn’t as bad” (P. 49), which leads to me to believe that he will put away the money and not touch it at all. I’m sure that he’s just going to hide it for the meanwhile, and perhaps later use it for a “good cause”. Perhaps he will save it and wait until he has enough money to take him to France, or at least enough to get him away from Los Flores.

2)      Another possibility is that he gives that money to Nica to help her get out of the apartment she is trapped in. He mentions earlier in the book that he wishes he could help her. He even confides that to Joe and Mike: “I just told them about Nica. I told them how I wished I could do something, how I didn’t see why she had to live like that” (P. 205). So out of these two theories, I think the most likely one to happen is that he will use the money to help out Nica.

Because although he loves speaking French, it seems to be just an act; he does not seem to have a genuine interest in going to Notre Dame. He mostly like speaking French because it makes Nica happy, even if it is just for a short period of time. Which goes back to how he wants Nica to be happy and wants to help her, so I’m sure that he will use the money to do just that.

If I was in Sonny’s position, I would’ve done what I predict that he will do: use the money to help out Nica. I mean, yes it’s wrong that he stole, and maybe it would’ve been better for him to simply get a new envelope and put it back, but in my point of view, Cloyd doesn’t really need that money. He probably wouldn’t even notice that it was gone. Therefore, I would rather give it someone who does need it, to someone who will appreciate it. Giving it to Nica would make me feel good because in helping her escape the trap she lives in, I would be making her life better. And helping people always makes me happy. (: