Wing`s Chips by Mavis Gallant is a story about the narrator looking back on a summer she had with her father as a little girl. In this story the narrator comes off as an intelligent, independent, yet complex character, by the way she details the French Canadian town. Later on in the story she talks about her unusual father, and how he paints for a living, with no money in return unlike all the other fathers. This is a problem for the young girl at the time, for she just wanted her father to have an ordinary job and do ordinary things like everyone else’s father. Finally, the character realizes after her father paints a sign for the Wings family, that her father doesn’t have to ordinary. She then accepts her father for who he is and matures because of this.
At first, the narrator is introduced as an intelligent and independent person as she narrates her summer as a young girl in a French Canadian town with her father. In the story she comes off as a very independent person as her father gave her much freedom, yet she didn’t get into any trouble and behaved maturely. On page.206 , she speaks of the kind of parenting her father gave her. “I was never scolded or rebuked, or reminded to brush my teeth or say my prayers. My father was perfectly content to live his own summer, and let me live mine, which did not please me at the least.” On page.204 she is very descriptive of the French Canadian town, and the people in it. “The girls who clustered giggling on shore and watched them wore pastel stockings, lacy summer hats, and voile dresses that dipped down in back and were decorated low on one hip with sprays of artificial lilac.”
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 ...
Later on in the story the character is in conflict with her father, mostly because of his ways of parenting, and his lack of an ordinary job. The narrator complains that her father is the complete opposite of all the English men and that his lifestyle makes them stand out in the town. On page.206, the narrator talks about how they are living on the wrong side of the river, and instead of avoiding the French language, he had to speak it whenever no one could understand him. Also on page 205, the nanny Pauline, annoyed the narrator by asking many questions, such as “are your parents separated? Why doesn’t your father work like other men.” On page 207, the narrator has been forced to take piano lessons by her father. Yet class after class her teacher Madame Tessier would nag her because she would never improve. The narrator got very annoyed because she knew that her father couldn’t afford a piano, so she convinced him to let her quit.
The narrator finally realizes that although her father did have a completely opposite job than every other man in town, that he was fine just the way he was. On page 209, the Wing’s family is in need of a sign for their business, so they ask the narrators father to paint one for them. After much work and detail in the sign, he is finished and on page 210 the Wing’s family is very pleased with his work. One of the boys even said that it was the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. Many people from around town even admitted that it was “pas mal du tout.” With much gratitude, the Wing’s family kept bringing them chips and ice cream. Since so many people in town were filled with much questions, the narrator stayed at the shop to answer all their questions because she was very proud of her father.
