Voices of Women Writers Lessons Learned from Mothers and Daughters
Parents play a crucial role in the development of children, varying from culture to culture. Although imperative, the mother and daughter relationship can be trivial. Many women writers have exercised their knowledge and shared their feelings in their works to depict the importance and influence of mothers upon daughters. Jamaica Kincaid, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Kiana Davenport are only three of the many women writers who have included mother and daughter themes in their texts. These writers explore the journeys of women in search of spiritual, mental and individual knowledge. As explained by these authors, their mothers' words and actions often influence women both negatively and positively. These writers also show the effects of a mother's lesson on a daughter, while following women's paths to discovery of their own voice or identity. In Kincaid's poem, Girl; Hong Kingston's novel, Woman Warrior; and Davenport's short story, The Lipstick Tree, various themes are presented in contrasting views and contexts, including the influence of mothers upon daughters. It is said that a girl can often develop some of her mother's characteristics. Although, in their works, Kincaid, Hong Kingston and Davenport depict their protago
From her search of identity, Hong Kingston reveals that becoming an individual provides spiritual, mental, and physical strength. By opposing her mother's assumptions, defying cultural tradition and learning for herself, Hong Kingston illustrates her individual voice as heroic and fearless. In a different perspective, Kiana Davenport, defines a different type of warrior woman. In Davenport's The Lipstick Tree, she uses fiction as a tool to comprehend a young woman's search for identity. Similar to Woman Warrior, The Lipstick Tree unravels the young woman's discovery of her identity based on cultural rejections. In this story, Eva was against becoming what her family expects of her. Instead, she strives to become more civilized and modern, unlike her village. du/~natasha/usauto_html/kingston/gender.html. Above all, the mother in Girl wants her daughter to strive for what is correct according to her opinion and what society suggests is proper. As with any mother, the daughter is often a reflection of her own character. Judging from the length of the flow of the poem and continuity, except for occasional semi-colons, the mother is adamant about her daughter's positive development into a woman. She presents herself as domineering and venerable. And so, when the daughter interjects with two statements, the mother overrides her, especially at the end of the poem. Like Hong Kingston and Kincaid's characters, Davenport uses Eva to show that feminine individuality is imperative, and that the mother's character usually influences the daughter. In Eva's case, her mother influences her to find her own identity beyond all familiarity. Davenport shows that Eva's newfound strength is individual, yet it reflects aspects of her mother.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1909
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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