Sonrisas

Every culture is subject to change while at the same time able to oppose it. Although most families want to keep their traditional customs, Mukherjee, Mora, and Kincaid show how as time moves on, people progress, and with progress comes change. Change occurs in peoples minds and overall attitudes towards life. Despite the fact that most families are opposed to cultural changes, it is an inevitable part of life in which people must adapt. In all these stories, the cultural expectations are modified between the individual and family relationships brought about by external conflicts.

In “Girl”, Kincaid uses repetitiveness to describe the awful changes happening thought the story. This dialogue between a mother and a daughter manages to capture the distinct differences amongst the two family members. The mother presents her with lessons that were past down to her as a child. As any mother would, she desires the best for her daughter, so she guides her with these lessons that will teach her to become a woman. Throughout the story the daughter seems to be listening when she makes the statement “but I don’t sing benna on Sunday’s”. Benna is a type of calypso music that derives mainly from the West African music. These songs are inappropriate and would not be approved in a religious context. The mother trying to raise her properly so she doesn’t become the woman she is so bent on becoming which is a slut according to her mother. The way the author uses slut is as a metaphor for something that the mother does not agree with. Older generations believe that changes are always for the worst. They belive the way their generation was raised, every generation should be raised. It is obvious that the daughter has a complete different image of her life than what her mother expects. As each generation changes from the past, it diversifies future