Kincaid's "Girl" & "The Disturbances of the Garden"

     These two texts from Kincaid do a good job of commentating on issues of gender roles and stereotypes as well as other postcolonial issues that we have studied all semester. Throughout the literature we have read, women have been seen as lesser than men and called derogatory terms like "slut" while men are looked at as strong and powerful. Many times men were the dominant person in relationships and the women were the people who were expected to be a certain way. Kincaid discusses some of these expectations in "Girl" saying, "on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming." Women in the Caribbean, and really all over the world, are often looked at in a negative way for expressing themselves or their bodies in different ways that are not seen as 'acceptable.' This piece from Kincaid also goes on to give an extensive list of things women should know how to do and at times, it seems like women were forced into a life and did not always get to choose to be or do what they wanted. Of course, some women then and even more now, were able to break through the glass ceiling and reach their full potential.

    "The Disturbances of the Garden" is kind of the flip side from Kincaid. Here, you get to hear from a woman who is confident in herself and has her own beliefs and is going to do what she wants to do and enjoys. In the closing paragraph it says, "I end where I began: reading - learning to read and reading books, the words a form of food, a form of life, and then knowledge. " This entry from Kincaid shows that women are capable of becoming educated and should not be confined to the social expectations that are often times put forward for them. These contrasting ideas make these two pieces nice compliments of one another. Both of these works from Kincaid also do a good job of tackling the postcolonial issue of representation. In "Girl" and "The Disturbances of the Garden" a female voice and perspective is able to be heard in ways that only literature and writing may allow. 

-cs

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