Girl Jamaica Kincaid Analysis

Kincaid’s choice to separate pieces of advice by semicolons instead of full-stop periods lends the piece a sense of urgency, almost as if the mother is trying to impart all of her knowledge to her daughter as quickly as possible. However, this often makes the mother’s words come across tersely, and the their relationship seems strained at best. The daughter is allowed very little input overall; one of her sentences comes across defensively, as she denies her mother’s accusations that she is singing provocative music in Sunday school, and the other is posed as an innocent question which receives an aggressive answer. The mother’s main concern seems to be that her daughter is turning into a “slut”, and because of this apparent fear, she can be argumentative and tense towards her daughter. However, near the end of the piece, some of the advice seems to take a softer turn. The mother gives her daughter advice about love, and says, “don’t feel too bad about giving up” (1), which is much gentler than many previous sentiments. She even gives advice about “how to spit up in the air if you feel like it” (1) and how to move away; this reads much more like play than work, and almost gives a sense of playfulness between the mother and daughter, practicing a useless but entertaining trick. However, by the end, the mood turns again, as the girl’s innocent question provokes an angry answer: “you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?” (1). While there may have been some progress in the mother-daughter relationship, it is ultimately returned to the same frustrated and almost resentful

Her mother keeps telling her daughter not to do certain stuff, this comes off as being a protective parent. Then the essay takes a turn for the worse, the mother tone comes off with lots of anger and disgust. She becomes angry at her daughter and says, “on Sunday try to walk like a lady and not a slut that you are so bent on becoming” (Kincaid 320). The mother is throwing out so many different emotions at her daughter, at which they are not even true. The daughter is not fighting back with her mother about anything until we get to the middle of the paragraph. The daughter only speaks several times throughout, but when she fought back towards the middle of the paragraph she tells her mother that she is not becoming a slut. People only tend to fight back during these situations to protect themselves against false accusations. But eventually, the mother uses the advice tone to her daughter showing her how to “iron her father’s khaki pants so essay users they don’t have a crease” (Kincaid 320). The mother's tone to her daughter changes in the beginning, middle, and end. It starts out with a helpful tone, then to a strict tone, then to a helpful tone again.

“ You educate a man; you educate a man. You educated a woman; you educate a generation” stated by Brigham Young. Jamaica Kincaid in her short story Girl, this is the message she wants her readers to understand.Kincaid sets up a “ how to” format for the way a woman should behave. The mother gives her daughter advice on being a woman through her past experiences and shows her that being feminine revolves around maintaining a home, but the daughter disagrees. When the mother corrects her way of thinking, it is implied throughout the story that the daughter is trapped by the rules of femininity. Kincaid lists countless stereotypical roles of a woman which appears to be sexist and puts a limit on what women can and cannot do. However, Girl empowers women and gives power, freedom and control.

Life is a learning process, and the mother in this story does not seem to understand that. The child in this story is young. The child has her whole life ahead of her to make mistakes and learn lessons, however; her mother seems to want her to learn anything and everything there is to know at this one moment in time. The daughter speaks twice through the whole story. Both times she speaks she seems confused and uncomfortable with the conversation because she is too young to understand what her mom is saying. At one point in the story her mother states, “Don’t sing benna in Sunday school,” the daughter’s response is “but I don’t sing benna on Sunday’s at all” (200). In the mother’s mind she is just reassuring what she has already taught her daughter, but in the daughters mind is nothing but confusion. She has obviously already been taught to not sing benna and is confused as to why she is getting lectured on not singing it again. Her mother is so set on making sure her daughter follows the rules she has made for her, and becomes the woman she wants her to be, that she is willing to make her daughter feel like she is still

This is normal advice in these times. Wash day is on Monday, put freshly washed white clothes on a stone heap and wash colored clothes on Tuesday. The mother tells her daughter to soak salt fish so the salt will not be as prevalent; close your mouth when you eat; it turns one’s stomach to see chewed food in your mouth. She also tells her daughter that she will teach her to sew the hem in a dress; it makes you look like a slut when the hem comes down; this is how to iron your father’s pants so they won’t have a crease; grow okra far from the house because they haven red ants; this is how you sweep a corner and this is how you sweep the whole house; when growing dasheen, (boiled taro plants), give it plenty of water so your throat will not itch after eating it; you smile matter-of-factly if you don’t like a person rather than a good hearty smile if you really like them; setting a table for tea is different than setting a table for dinner; important guest is set one way and simple lunch and breakfast is set another; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit; this is the way to behave in the presence of men and they will not pick upon the slut warnings I have given you; don’t squat and play marbles, it’s a boy’s game and girls don’t crouch with dresses on; you are not a boy; don’t pick people’s flowers, that their property and

The narration of the mother lecturing her daughter with commanding diction leads to the theme of women conforming to domesticity and if they don’t conform then they will lead a life of promiscuity that will affect the way people perceive them. Women in the past believed that a woman’s role was that of a domesticated housewife. The narration of the third point of view in this story and the commanding diction of it places an importance in the reinforcement of this idea, that if a woman doesn’t follow social norms, she will eventually turn to a “slut” one that her family will be ashamed of. She must set the table for lunch and for breakfast that is “how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know [her] very well, and that it the way they won’t recognize immediately the slut that [the mother has] warned her against becoming.”(Kincaid 485) through her commanding diction, the mother is telling her daughter how to set a table, how to cook, she

“Girl” is a short story in which the author, Jamaica Kincaid, unofficially presents the stereotypes of girls in the mid 1900s. Kincaid includes two major characters in the story “Girl”, they are the mother and the girl. Although the daughter only asks two questions in this story, she is the major character. The mother feels like her daughter is going in the wrong direction and not making the best decisions in her life. The whole story is basically the mother telling her daughter what affects her decisions will have in the future. The mother believes that because her daughter isn’t sitting, talking, cleaning, walking or singing correctly it will lead her to a path of destruction. “Girl” is a reflection of female sexuality, the power of family, and how family can help overcome future dangers.

In the short story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, you hear about the many words of wisdom, or advice that a mother is attempting to pass on to her daughter. The condescending tone of the story is portrayed by the use of semi colons, showing a steady stream of advice and preaching of the mother onto the daughter. The story follows an almost poetic or lyrical style of writing that flows from basic advice like how to sweep a corner to advice like how to handle a man bullying you or how to have an abortion. Although a lot of the advice given to the daughter may be useful in her life and in the culture they live in, it is delivered in a way that seems very callous, and is said with a stern tone, much like a dictator. The daughter in the story tries to speak up only twice throughout the entire thig, only to be completely unheard as the mother continues her chant. The only time the mother’s advice is repeating is when she refers to her daughter as a slut, or her inevitable “becoming of a slut”, which occurs four times throughout the work. The story is written with no real chronological timeline and does not have the traditional beginning, middle, and ending.

1. Describe the focus or focalization in Girl. Do we see what one person sees, or observe one person in particular? Describe the voice of the narrator in Girl. Who is the “you”? How do the focus and voice contribute to the reader’s response to the story?It about a girl’s womanhood set at the moment of separation between the age of innocence and the confusing, transfiguring entrance into womanhood experience. It is the story of a mother’s attempt to train her adolescent daughter to learn appropriate cultural customs and more important, the rules of social behavior, especially that of proper sexual conduct befitting a well-reared girl. Yes! We observe what the mother is trying to teach her young daughterto do for a man. It helps her too learned in order, to achieve something that her mother is trying to teach her to do and how to act as a young woman and what to expect as a young woman growing up.

In the countless lessons about washing clothes and handling food, she reveals something about herself: that to her, there is no life outside of the one that she has, and she approves only of the same life for her daughter. That as a girl, her daughter must know these things, because her daughter’s only lot in life will be the same one that she has now. The mother’s worldview isn’t the only thing affecting the teachings of these lessons, though. Another strong influence behind these lessons revolves around the mother’s personal

The story is basically 2 pages of commands being told to one from another. At first, you could say the narrator was talking to a servant, telling them everything that they need to do. You might think this, until reading further that is. Shortly into the story it is very clear that these list of “commands” are being passed down from a mother to her daughter. Everything from “wash white clothes on Monday” (1) to “you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys” (10). It is very clear that the daughter is most likely a young curious teenager. She gets a lot of directions about housekeeping, but after a while you realize the point is not just about cleanliness, but about how to keep your reputation intact. As much as we would like to believe that people are not judging us by everything that we do, we realize that this story is more than a list of command on how to keep a clean house, but in fact how to keep a good social standing. By reading this story, you can tell that the mother is trying to make her daughter understand that she will be very successful in life if she maintains a sort of social class.

Many times throughout history it has been shown that people are shaped and molded into what society calls, “perfect people.” Jamaica Kincaid is the author of the short story titled, “Girl.” In her story there are two characters, an authoritative mother and her young daughter. Throughout the story, the mother expects so much of her daughter in various ways. She teaches her how to cook, what to wear, how to behave, and many other attributes she views to be significant for her daughter’s role in society. Kincaid elaborates the theme of how to be the “ideal,” or “flawless” woman in a society, along with being respected through the literary elements of diction, imagery, and mood.

From the beginning, the house and clothing functions as the daughter has to have cleanliness because people are always watching and will judge her reputation and social class. Kincaid states, “this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming” (17). In this line, the mother gives a clear understanding of why the clothes must be properly taken care of because, no matter what, people seem to be watching the appearance of clothes worn, looked and they will treat someone the way they think that someone should be treated if they are dressed indecent. The mother speaks to her daughter with a commanding tone and never says “please” when giving

puberty bring with it a complex tradition of restrictions and behavioral guidelines. Kincaid’s poem reveals the rigidity and complexity of the social confines the girl is expected to operate underl. A girl is an induction into the women community as well as an orientation into the act of womanhood (Walkerdine et. al.). The lectured instructions given to the silent girl child vary from the housekeeping, “this is how you sweep a whole house”, to dealing with intimate relationships, “this is how a man bullies you; …how to bully a man” to medicine, “this is how to make good medicine (to abort)” (Kincaid).The inane patriarchal society expects gender stereotypes to prevail. The mother is tasked to give her daughter instructions on how to be a good woman in the stereotyped society. The advice the mother gives to the daughter cements the gender stereotype and portrays limitations on a woman (Bailey and Carol 107).

There are several responsibilities a girl should learn about before going off on her own and it is usually the mother’s job to teach their daughter these life lessons. In the prose poem “Girl,” by Jamaica Kincaid, a mother writes out a “guide” her daughter must follow in order to succeed in her adult years.