Monday 11 June 2012

How does the voice in "Girl" help the author tell the story behind story?

The voice of the main
speaker in this text helps to show the reader all about the expectations of the female sex in
the community from which she, presumably, hails. She is, evidently, a woman of some authority,
and she is issuing a stream of instructions, it seems, to the "girl" of the title. Her
matter-of-fact delivery of directionswith occasional judgmental commentsmakes it clear that
women are expected to not only take care of everything inside the home but also to seem virtuous
and servile, even when they are not as pure and deferential as they seem to be.


The speaker accuses the girl of being "bent on becoming" a "slut"
and tells her how to "smile to someone" that she doesn't "like very much" or
to someone she doesn't "like at all." It is clear that the expectations for women
include a number that address how to behave and appear in order to be thought of as respectable
by others; appearances, it seems, are quite important. The speaker's voice, what she chooses to
include, tells us this story.

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