Comparison Essay Example on Two Literary Works

The two literary works examines the pain experienced when the daughters fail to pay attention to their parents advice, and hence frustrate them with their wayward behaviors. The girls seem to follow their own paths, failing to worry about the torment their parents may be going through due to the parental love that exists between a daughter and her father or mother. This paper compares and contrasts the theme and structure of Girl with For My Daughter. Importantly, the discussion explores how the two pieces present the view of women in society and parental obligations towards their daughters accordingly.

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To start with For My Daughter by Weldon Kees, the persistent suffering and resentment that is evident in Kees poetry emerged in his past writing. In his previous work For My Daughter, as the narrator looks into his daughters eyes, he views suggestion of demise that he understands she does not pay attention to. Progressing with his meditation of the obliteration of her childhood, he worries that she will be exposed to the scorched decades that I have witnessed and deepens his fear through presuming that she shall be ravished through hanging on/Demise in particular battle. To increase the wrath, the narrator laments the probability that his daughter shall be full of hatred and discover to delight in other peoples pain (Kees 1). To this extent, the masochism of personal obliteration overpowers the gentleness of adornment.

In the middle of such austere speculation, Kees undercuts the narrators terrified doubts. These projections sour in the sun as the orator claims. Immediately as the reader starts to congratulate the father for resuming his brains and declining his lenient mood, Kees conveys an agonizing upset in the final line: I do not have a daughter. I want none. The reader at this moment discovers that the despair is even huge than he had imagined. The orator has previously decided not to bear kids since he gets nothing except disloyalty and anguish in his dream of the coming days. He decides to hold back his personal procreative desire, considering it like his personal unavoidable involvement in the choking of the not yet conceived creations.

The theme of imagery is evident throughout this work of Kees. It is assumed that the speaker is the father of the daughter who tries to give advice to his daughter on the way she must conduct herself to be a good child. The structure of the work is such that the author sets his work in a dialogue form where the speaker believed to be the father and the daughter exchange words continuously throughout the work (Kees 1). Moreover, the theme of persistence is clearly depicted since the father of the daughter continuously urges his daughter to behave responsibly so that she may grow up to be a good person in future and who is responsible for her actions. The only reason that can make a person behave as such is the love they have to them. Thus, it is clear that the father loves the daughter so much and that is why he does not tire in urging her every time to behave responsibly and have good manners. Those are the issues evident in Kees literary work.

On the other work of the Girl by Kincaid, the mother who is believed to be speaking to her daughter is persuading her not to be a slut and to behave responsibly always. The mother is always guiding her daughter concerning the way to stay like a mature female, and several of her remarks encompass realistic counsel. Since the initial clause, when the mother informs her daughter to put newly washed white clothes on a stone pile and to wash the color clothes, readers discover that the narratives setting is not in the United States (Jamaica 1). The speaker informs the daughter on the way to immerse salt fish, the way to prepare pumpkin wastes, the way to iron her fathers shirt and pants correctly, the way to cultivate okra and dasheen, and the way to clean the house and the yard.

As well, in the beginning of the narrative, the reader realizes that the daughter is nearing gender maturity. The mothers guide to her daughter to immerse your little clothes immediately she undresses them confirms how she wants her daughter to remain clean and neat always. In the entire narrative, several of the mothers guidelines are for protecting the daughter from changing to a slut that her mother imagines that she clearly wants to be (Broeck 830). She guides her not to sing famous lyrics in Sunday school; not to communicate to quay-rat boys at all, and not to consume fruit on the lane since it shall make flies pursue her.

This kind of counsel is intermingled with remarks concerning the realistic issues of preparing food and washing; however, the speakers main inspiration is to protect her daughter from changing to a slut or even from being viewed like one. She in addition informs her daughter concerning a drug for abortion and deduces the conclusion that if her guidelines concerning the way to adore a male do not function, the girl must not lament surrendering (Als 207). The mothers sexual counsel is combined with societal counsel. She informs the daughter the way to grin at someone she does not admire, and also the way to grin at someone she admires so much, and informs her the way to evade spirits.

The discussion evident in this work between the speaker believed to be the mother and the girl believed to be the daughter does not really constitute the teachings for the total of these tasks. On the contrary, the parallel clauses brought with this is the way proposes the manners that mature people mold conduct for kids. In this work of Kincaid, imagery as a theme is still evident since the speaker is perceived to be the mother and the girl the daughter. Love is very evident throughout in the work of Kincaid because the mother of the daughter keeps urging her to conduct herself maturely and responsibly. Persistence is also applied generally in that the mother of the daughter does not give up on advising and guiding her daughter on how to emerge as a mature responsible female in future. The structure of the work is also in a dialogue nature. There is evidence of conversation in the entire work of Kincaid.

As a point of conclusion, it is evident that the two works have common themes and structures and share the same subject matter. The female child is perceived as a unique and special human being in the society and that is why she is constantly monitored in whatever she does no matter the age. In the two literary works, the father in For My Daughter and the mother in the Girl all persuade their daughters to behave responsibly and maturely.

Works Cited

Als, Hilton. Dont Worry, Be Happy. Review of Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid. The Nation 252 (February 18, 1991): 207-209.

Broeck, Sabine. When Light Becomes White: Reading Enlightenment Through Jamica Kincaids Writing. Callaloo 25 (summer, 2002): 821-844.

Jamaica, Kincaid. Magills Survey of American Literature. Salem press (September, 2006): pg.1-1.

Kees, Weldon. Critical Survey of Poetry. Salem Press (September, 2002): Pg. 1-6