Feminist Literature Analysis

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Feminist literature often identifies women's roles as unequal to those of men- particularly as regards to status, privilege, and power. In both Kate Chopin’s “The Story Of An Hour” and Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” there is evidence of suppression, repression, and dehumanization. Louise Mallard is suppressed by her husband Brently, while the “girl” is dehumanized by her mother. Chopin often wrote about women becoming themselves "but whatever came, she had resolved never again to belong to another than herself." Kincaid writes how she doesn't need a man “The moment he got the idea he possessed me ... that was a moment I grew tired of him”. “The Story of an hour” follows Louise Mallard, Mrs.Mallard is described as “young, with a fair, calm face”.…show more content…
The daughter narrates “Girl” as if recalling the memory of her mother from a distant future place.The list seems to be coming from a mother's standpoint.She tells her daughter how to do household chores such as laundry, sewing, ironing, cooking, setting the table, sweeping, and washing.however, the mother’s advice seems caustic and castigating.This short story is composed of a series of instructions and prescriptions and obviously, it lacks encouragement and empowerment and points to the considerable distance between the daughter and the mother. “Girl” is not a word-for-word transcript of an actual conversation between the mother and daughter, but a compilation of advice the daughter remembers her mother saying. The mother either holds or pretends to hold a high degree of control and authority over the protagonist.The mother suppresses the girl as she berates her daughter by the commanding tone of her instruction and by the repetition of her assertion that she knows her daughter wants to become “a slut”. In order to strengthen the sense of control, the mother uses three destructive compliance-gaining techniques: intimidation, ostensibly “friendly” advice and detailed instructions, which indicate that the girl is treated as inferior and not enough.the story illustrates how deeply her mother’s words affected her while growing up and just how powerful a mother’s influence and opinions

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