Comparing Mothers in Mother to Son by Langston Hughes and GIRL by Jamaica Kincaid :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Mothers in Mother to Son by Langston Hughes and GIRL by Jamaica Kincaid In order to build a strong, grounded house a person must use brick and cement. A brick is used to build the house, but yet it is the cement that molds and keeps the house together and intact. A family encompasses the same basic rules and needs. The father is the provider for his family, sort of like the brick, but it is the mother who holds the responsibility of teaching right from wrong, and they are the ones who keep strong when everything else is going wrong. Now days there are many single-mother families and the father is non-existent. Therefore, a mother plays a very strong, dominant, and essential role in her family. Mothers always want their children to do right and most of all; want their daughters to be bright young women. In the poem "GIRL", by Jamaica Kincaid, a daughter is remembering all of the things her mother tried to advise her of. The girl in the poem is never given a name because the poem sort of symbolizes how all mothers are when their daughters are growing up. They try to teach them right from wrong. The mother recommends such things as, "don't squat down to play marbles-you are not a boy you know", "don't throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all", and, "on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming". The mother is only trying to teach her daughter to carry herself in such a manner that is lady-like. In the end of the poem the mother suggests that the daughter, "always squeeze bread to make sure it's fresh". The daughter then replied, "but what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?" Her mother was in complete dismay by her daughter's response, "you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let near the bread?" Mothers feel that they do have a certain obligation to mold their children. The mother is frightened that after all she has taught her daughter she won't grow up to be a lady. The role of a mother is not only to distinguish to her children right from wrong, but are also there as a helping hand and guide.