She flew at me with such fury, but in doing so, she revealed an even deeper secret, a secret she had meant to hide from the beginning. Upon attacking me, she moved in such a way that raised her shirt, allowing me to see the bruises on her back and stomach. Huge patches of color ranging from a sallow glaze to a mystifying purple one would only see in the midnight sky were visible to me, though only for a second, for as quickly as they were revealed, they were once again concealed by her father. From the distant trance that I was locked in, I could hear him mumble some nonsense about “falling down a flight of stairs.” Who did he thing he was fooling? I saw through his weak defense just as the little girl had seen through mine when I had attempted to coax her to into opening her mouth. Who had I thought I was fooling? Suddenly I was brought back to reality by the girl’s violent screams. “Why? Why couldn’t you just have left me alone? I never wanted your help!” And it was at that moment that it hit me.
She has wanted to die. Slowly in my mind I pieced together the pieces of this unfolding puzzle. She has known all along the danger of keeping this secret. She has hid her illness in hopes of escaping the abuse her father, or for that matter, her mother, has provided for who knows how long. At that point, I didn’t care to know which it had been. Amidst the continuous shrills of the girl and the mumbled utterances of her parents, I found myself fixated on her maturity..
The Essay on Ideal Woman In Kincaid’s Short Story “Girl”
In an endeavor to define an ideal woman, we compare two Literature works which are the Kincaid’s short story “Girl” and Jane Martin’s play, “Rodeo”. Comparing these two works, we see two contrasting definitions of an ideal woman as they are brought out in different settings. In the Kincaid’s short story, “Girl”, we notice for instance that a girl should live a humble life that is respectful to all ...
