I really can't say how much I enjoyed this. It was unbelievably real. I have journal entries that look almost like this. You know, high school journals in which all you do is bitch about your mother.
I'm not saying that her 'not happy' memories of her mother are arbitrary in any way. I just feel that many people can relate to what the author is recalling about her mother. Everyone gets the whole do this, do that, or this and this will happen to you. Stand up straight and chew with your mouth closed or no one will like you.
My mother, however, never told me that she thought I was becoming a slut, I mean not really. I'm not saying that my situation is exactly the same.
It's dated, though. I mean, what a mother taught her daughter when this was written is going to be drastically different from what mothers teach their daughters now. While I DO still think that one can relate to it, it really is very different from what is taught now. For example, we don't still go to bakers for bread - not really, and we definitely don't create our own abortion medications.
It's a mother teaching her daughter things that she felt were important. Things that maybe she has found to be important. Our mothers do the same things, however different the lessons may be.
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I felt the same way about the story...My mother and grandmother both were always saying do this or that...I think almost every girl could relate to this story!
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that the criticizing the mother is doing is because of a generation gap. Newer generations are becoming more and more liberal, and it is easy to see that her mother is very conservative. I feel that this is why she may think that her daughter is becoming a slut.
ReplyDeleteI agree that pretty much anyone can relate to this poem when thinking about learning things from parents. However, I received the poem as being pretty negative about the feelings of the mother toward the daughter.
ReplyDeleteI completely related with this story in almost the exact same way you did. I think a lot of girls go through all of this when they get older since we have to stop acting like a child and start acting like a 'young lady'.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It seemed to be more based on principles of what it means to be a "woman" or more appropriately, a "lady." Without focusing on the specifics, I think one can find aspects to relate to on a surface value. Even across gender, it doesn't have to just be pointed at girls but I think guys can relate as well in the sense that parents are always trying to drill these notions and ideas in the minds of their children of what it means to be a decent human being. "In one ear and out the other" is a common cliche' parents like to use and I think that's what she meant when she said "the slut your so bent on becoming"; Not that she would actually become a slut, but that she would just ignore everything she had been taught...
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with the fact that pretty much anyone could relate to this story, I feel that most of our parents know when to stop giving "advice" and this mother kind of just crossed the line in some aspects of her telling the daughter how to be.
ReplyDeleteIt did seem like a highschool girl's journal. Do you think that the reason this advice is different from what we're used to could be related to the fact that Kincaid grew up in a "third-world" country?
ReplyDeleteI definitely related to this as well. My mom isn't quite as bossy as the one in the story...which I think has to do with the times as well. More and more parents are letting their children grow up in a more liberal way than before. But even with that, I could see my mother in this story...always telling me to do something a certain way to give off a certain appearance.
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