“Make me a sandwich!” the man screams as he gives his wife yet another task. For some reason, women are portrayed as vulnerable, weak individuals who have no better purpose than to serve their husbands. Two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady give very separate, yet comparative evidence in the matter. Both Kincaid and Brady analyze the female gender and what roles they are expected to fill.
Brady’s “I Want a Wife” focuses on the general idea of a wife. In her eyes, the wife does everything in the family, expect make the money. She explains how she wants to become financially independent so that she can have someone who will take care of the kids, clean the house, and cook dinner for her and her family. She lives off of her own experiences of what being a wife is truly like and expresses her desire to no longer be needed for those reasons. Brady is tired of having all of the responsibility in the household and just wishes that someone would come along and help her with these things. So, in this short story, the roles of a wife are noted and envied. She respects the work that is needed to be a wife and is simply exhausted from having to do them all on her own.
On the other hand, Kincaid’s “Girl” takes a look from the other side of things. While she too notes on all the tasks that are to be done by the wife, she wants and expects herself to fill that role. She tells her daughter that there is no other way to live but to be the slave to your husband. She mentions how to cook meals for her husband and how to be a woman that someone would want to marry. In her mind, no man is going to want a woman who is independent, so, for that reason, she has to achieve nothing, realize none of her potential. She must remain the type of lady that men like and want to marry; she must be weak and dependent on men.
While these two stories do talk about the same concept, they were written for two completely different types of people. Kincaid wrote her story in the late 1900’s for more of a Caribbean Mother and daughter. She looks at how their culture sees these women and how they must follow the expectations that they have set as a whole. This idea is valid but not well known by people in America who have most likely read this. Brady’s story was written about twenty years before Kincaid’s in the Spring 1972 issue of Ms. Magazine (360). This was geared toward young woman who were early in relationships or thinking about starting one. Its main goal was to show woman that the things they do are important but they shouldn’t have to do it all. That sometimes, it is nice for a man to clean the house or take care of the kids. Ultimately, “this story became one of the best known manifestos in popular feminist writing” (Brady 360).
Regardless, both stories bring up a good point, with reasonable evidence; I would have to say that Brady makes the best argument. She goes beyond simply explaining the tasks of a wife, and makes you realize and understand how important a wife’s job really is. After reading this story, I sat down and thought to myself if I want a wife who does those kinds of things or if I want a wife who sits by my side and has enough self-confidence and self-worth to tell me to do things. In the end, Brady bring more thought into my mind over understanding the topic, rather than Kincaid who made me
