Maira Rana
This essay will discuss the rhetorical strategies of Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”. These texts show how women are shaped from a young age to fulfill the roles set out for them. The context of all three texts is surrounding gender roles and their effect on women as an individual. Gender roles are a set of expectations that we have grown accustomed to as time has passed. In short, a gender role is what a man or woman can perform in a society that is convenient for them. Women and girls are frequently confined to the roles of mothers, wives, and caregivers. Gender norms place girls in the role of caregivers, resulting in gender bias in the distribution of family roles.
The three texts that I will discuss in this essay are Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”. First, Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” shows a young girl about to enter adulthood being taught how to act like a woman who society deems respectable. The mother of the young girl dictates the actions of the girl that she considers appropriate for females. Second, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is about the deterioration of a woman’s mental health while she is on a “rest cure”. Throughout the text her fascination with the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom reflects her decline into psychosis as a result of her depression.Third, Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” tells the story of Delia Jones, a hardworking, humble woman caught in a marriage with an abusive man who enjoys mistreating her.
The common theme between these short stories is gender roles being assigned to women. Kincaid shows gender roles being assigned to a young girl in “Girl” when she says, “This is how you smile to someone you don’t like very much; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely;… this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming.” This quote shows that women are instructed how to live their lives. The mother of the girl is laying out the rules of womanhood, these instructions set out by the mother are related to topics including household chores, manners, cooking, social conduct, and relationships. Due to the fact that society considers that a woman’s reputation and respectability predisposes the quality of her life in the community, the mother must make her daughter comply with these rules.
Gilman expresses gender roles when she says, “John is a physician, and perhaps – (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind) perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster. You see he does not believe I am sick!” This quote demonstrates how John, the story’s upper-class protagonist, maintains a high-status employment as a physician, while his wife is given no name. The short story serves as a warning about the dangers of set gender roles imposed by male-dominated societies: the man’s position as husband and reasonable thinker, and the woman’s role as faithful wife who does not question her husband’s authority.
Furthermore when Hurston expresses gender roles she says,””There’s plenty men dat takes a wife lak dey do a joint uh sugar-cane. It’s round, juicy an’ sweet when dey gits it. But dey squeeze an’ grind, squeeze an’ grind an’ wring tell dey wring every drop uh pleasure dat’s in ’em out. When dey’s satisfied dat dey is wrung dry, dey treats ’em jes lak dey do a cane-chew. Dey thows ’em away. Dey knows whut dey is doin’ while dey is at it, an’ hates theirselves fuh it but they keeps on hangin’ after huh tell she’s empty. Den dey hates huh fuh bein’ a cane-chew an’ in de way. Den dey hates huh fuh bein’ a cane-chew an’ in de way””. This quote shows the standard for a relationship between a man and woman, it can also be compared to Delia and Sykes’ relationship. Many men treat women as if they were a disposable commodity such as sugarcane. When they first obtain her, she is “round, juicy, and delicious.” But they twist and squeeze the woman until “every drop uh pleasure” is gone, and then they throw her away. Only a patriarchal mindset can consider women to be used up.
