Weekly Review: Girlhood and Womanhood


The reading for this week went great, I got to read a story I'd never read before that really resonated with me. That story was Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, and it moved me so deeply I ended up changing my final project to work it in. I really wanted a reason to include it in my anthology, so I ended up moving a few stories around. I even removed a Virginia Woolf from my life to make room for her, if that's not proof of how deeply I felt about her work. I did this because I felt as if the theme of women dealing with sexism and advocating for women's freedom was becoming to prominent in my anthology, and I wanted to make it as diverse as I could.

The reason Girl hit me so hard is because I can relate to the girl in the story so well, which is incredible because she only gets a few words in before her mother continues to speak over her. The reason I was able to relate to her despite her lack of presence in the story is because that lack of presence is exactly what I related to. Being told to shut up and be submissive as a young girl, to be lectured at non-stop about how everything you're doing or want to do is wrong, to be told that you have a code of conduct to obey or else, that is what defines girlhood for me. Reading the story, I could hear my own mother's voice, and some of the wording was even similar to what my own mother would say to add to the realism. It's sad to me that these struggles are still relevant to modern women, when women have been writing about this for centuries.

Also, I was really inspired by my fellow students this week. I read some really good analyses and project action plans, as well as some extra credit that was really thoughtful and motivating.

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