Something To Do With That Mark Clemens Man

“Girl” (1984) – Jamaica Kincaid

“this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a buttonhole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming”

10:00 P.M. Sunday. Take out the anthology. Flip to a page. Read.

Taking the usual steps toward blog-post completion, of course the night of the due date, I found this charming tidbit in the “Fiction For Further Reading.” In and amongst the typical short stories that inhabit this section this caught my eye. Too lazy for a judgmental and extensive selection process I decided to go ahead and read the piece. I noticed right away that this could hardly fit into the same category as the other short stories, in fact the mere paragraph could hardly be considered fiction. To my senses it was a clever list; a list derived from reality and true life experience to be sure. The nature of the format makes the content seem so real, as if Kincaid has just copied the statements from real life, which made me ponder on the status of fiction in general. Isn't all fiction in reality non-fiction, just a series of experiences and memories translated to the page in different styles and variations? Indeed. In this instance the reality is specific to gender and geographic roles. A mother indicates to a young woman all that makes a proper lady. So of course the expository rant of demands and instructions includes sewing, cooking, setting the table, ironing, washing clothes, grocery shopping, proper conduct, and all the things that make a woman: everything that doesn't make a man. A man of course does not cook his own food, or wash his own clothes. A man does not have to be demure or monogamous. A woman, however, must. Or else. Or else what? She is a slut. This piece focuses on expectations, and ironically plays upon the reality of these expectations. While for us these stereotypical roles seem outdated, if not sexist and indeed archaic, they hold a vast amount of truth or else we, the audience, would not be able to recognize the irony, laugh at its mild humor, and relate to the very humanity of its theme. The wit and talent of the writing comes from the idea of combining multiple assumptions about various groups of people. The work contains such things as “okra,” “benna,” “dasheen,” “doukona,” etcetera. All of these things are characteristic of a Caribbean environment. The subject matter is associative of a relationship between mother and daughter. The mother is the stereotypical woman in her characteristic society. Anything other than the norm is normally considered atypical. All the aspects of this piece combine to play on the expectations of the reader. In fact the speaker is actually telling the audience what to expect through these strict demands and assumptions. The speaker assumes that her daughter wants to be a slut, because she acts differently; by “play[ing] marbles” and asking questions. When the daughter asks questions like, “what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?” the mother automatically concludes that her daughter has made the decision to become a slut. Why? Because she cannot take all this advice and “wisdom” on faith, and continues to inquire about the world; an unacceptable role for a woman, which is why the piece is titled “Girl.” The real lesson comes from the latter part of the story, where the mother briefly starts to tell of nontraditional skills, that she must have learned from being a “slut” or liberated and unconfined “girl” herself, with lines like “this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child,” “this is how to bully a man,” or “this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it.” The mother's severity dissipates and allows for the irony to continue, as honest expectations fade into truthful imperfection. On a similar note the idea of free spirited girl versus matronly woman reminds me of Harry Smith, to whom this blog is partially dedicated. An American folk song from his anthology is titled "Single Girl Married Girl," the song parallels the idea of typical gender roles in society, to which the lyrics are as follows:

"Single girl, oh single girl
She's gone anywhere she please
Oh, gone anywhere she please
Married girl, oh married girl
Got a baby on her knees
Oh, got a baby on her knees

Single girl, oh single girl
She's going dressed up so fine
Oh going dressed up so fine
Married girl, oh, married girl
She wears any kind
Oh, she wears any kind

Single girl, oh single girl
She goes to the store and buys
Oh goes to the store and buys
Married girl, oh, married girl
She rocks the cradle and cries
Oh, rocks the cradle and cries

Single girl, oh single girl
She lays in bed 'til one
Oh lays in bed 'til one
Married girl, oh, married girl
She's up before the sun
Oh, up before the sun

Single girl, oh single girl
She's looking for a man
Oh looking for a man
Married girl, oh, married girl
She's got her wedding band
Oh, got her wedding band"

The song mirrors the irony of Kincaid's work, by presenting the irony of a "girl's" situation. A girl wants maternal responsibilities, but also resents the loss of independence once such is found. The song also lends insight into why the mother so adamantly stresses not becoming a "slut," and gives her daughter instructions on how to perform an abortion and become a respected woman, as she does not want her to lead the same life. Ultimately, the title gives the piece a sense of future and uncertainty, the prospect of growth and maturity (or lack thereof), as a mother attempts to dispense some knowledge to her youthful progeny.


I fully endorse this form of creativity, it is not quite stream of consciousness, it should be categorized as selective hearing or memory, as all the things that we can or choose to remember, that we record from the one-sided conversations. Something that looks too real not to be. Too short to have meaning, yet too repetitive not to. In short, I think I like it. I applaud the publisher's choice to include the piece, and think even more highly of this anthology in general. I'm sure Mr. McCarthy would agree that this creative composition consists of the “Madman” concept of the construction process, and in many ways is successful in this organic form, without further development or plot. If I were to experiment with this writing technique I would once again venture to say that such an invention would not in any way be detrimental to my writing, especially considering how deficient my skills are currently, how could it hurt?

Relative Romantic Associations

“you fit into me” (1971) – Margaret Atwood
“you fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye”

As Ms. Smith and I were discussing both Romantic and romantic activities to do for Monday's Valentine's Day English class, we briefly talked on how the utilization of foreign or at least unexpected objects as metaphors for emotion and thought can indeed translate into both Romantic and romantic poetry. Atwood's poem perfectly exemplifies this idea. The concept of love is obviously nothing new, so interpreting it as something more profound than age-old adages of roses and classical nymphs transforms the definition of love and poetry in general. Not that cupid wasn't a creative innovation in his day, or the idea of relating natural beauty to emotional beauty, but allowing poetry to evolve is part of its perpetual cycle and everlasting renewal. Here the audience sees a hook and eye. A common, if not somewhat outdated object; completely utilitarian. Some associations to compliment a hook and an eye would perhaps be of another more simple era, and of course a doorway. Atwood relies on these common associations to make the poem successful in relaying her emotions to her intended audience, whomever that may be. She speaks of a love that perfectly fits, one person with another. But the irony comes with the realization that the hook and eye are not prevalent in her contemporary world. And so, the role of the primitive lock comes into play, almost as if barring the complications of a modern culture from her more simple and pure experience with love. The second stanza generates another association with the concept of a hook. With the specification of a “fish hook” other connections come to mind. Obviously fishing, but also the role that a fish hook partakes in the fishing process, also helps to create deeper meaning. Instantaneously, I think of a tantalizing lure that cruelly captures the ignorant aquatic creature. Combining that relation to romantic relationships, the reader contemplates a type of sorrowful seduction where the speaker becomes a casualty of love. However, the last line clarifies this ongoing and shifting metaphor: “an open eye.” This expresses a comprehension and omniscience about a supposed bait, and willingness of being caught. Ultimately both these correlations whether intended by Margaret Atwood or not, have helped to compose a nontraditional and highly thoughtful image of love.

Theoretics

“The Disappearance” (1995) – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

“Years later, when he was an old man living in a home for seniors (his second wife dead, his daughters moved away to distant towns, his son not on speaking terms with him), he would continue to be dazzled by that brief unguarded joy on her face, would say to himself, again, how much she must have hated me to choose to give that up.

But he had no inkling of any of this yet. So he switched off the trash compactor with a satisfied click, the sense of a job well done and, after taking a shower (long and very hot, the way he liked it, the hard jets of water turning the skin of his chest a dull red), went to bed and fell immediately into a deep, dreamless sleep.”

Effortlessly and nonchalantly Divakaruni seems to encompass the entirety of familial folly in her work. After his wife secretly leaves him, how carelessly the misogynist thinks that he can discard her memory. Those are the moments that define our entire existence, the ones that we can never forget, the ones that ring hollowly through our minds until the very end. A quote from Venus seems to sum up this entire short story;

“'For most men a woman's body is the most beautiful thing they will ever see.'

'What's the most beautiful thing a girl sees? Do you know?'

'Her first child.'”

And through this story we see how each gender fights for each “beautiful” thing. With the husband, the audience sees how he marries a woman the same week that he meets her, endangers his marriage with sexual demands, estranges his son by marrying another woman, and practically destroys himself seeking this one thing. With the grandmother we see exactly the same, she pressures her son to marry so that she can attempt to recreate the joy of childbirth through a grandchild, then she happily takes the place of homemaker after her daughter-in-law leaves so that she can be nearer to her son and grandson, then she further meddles in her son's life by getting him to remarry and have more grandchildren. The audience witnesses how both parties attempt to pretend like nothing has happened, and demean the wife's influence and power, by selfishly yearning for their precious desires. This is what makes the wife heroic. She abandons the one thing in her life that makes her most happy; her son. As if to teach him an invaluable lesson, by disappearing she makes a statement to her son that such abusive tendencies on the part of his father are unjustifiable. With her escape, the son eventually breaks away himself from the dust strewn traditions of an uncivil past. The distasteful secrets of married life, childhood, and parenting all come out in this short story, along with the pangs of human life in general. As the husband bitterly finds out that his wife was not abducted, but rather ran away, his pride and anger lead to his ultimate downfall in classic hubris form. Alone and self-betrayed he must face a truth that he has so long hidden.

The author shrewdly leaves quotation punctuation out of her tragic tale. In this way the speaker is separate, yet connected to the thoughts, actions, and dialogue of each character. Using dialogue in such an unlikely way compresses the work, like the inescapable truth and pressure that the main character feels. The perspective also becomes unique, as third person omniscient combines with first person limited. More importantly the dialogue is not stressed in this format, as it generally is with most work. With the separation of dialogue by paragraphs for each character and the obvious quotation marks, the eye is drawn to this emphatic component. Without this structure, the feeling fades from the remarks and becomes almost apathetic or uncaring, thus leaving the audience unsympathetic to the husband's plight; an important aspect of the story. Morphing common practices to the needs of a story is absolutely vital, and should not be avoided. Utilizing imagination and atypical methodology should always be welcomed in the literature community, since these are factors of which it so highly depends upon.