Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

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

In the text, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, the mother is speaking and the daughter is briefly heard. Evidence in the text that proves the mother is speaking includes the speaker talking about household chores (cooking, cleaning and sewing) and tricks to doing those house hold chores faster or more efficiently. For example, the speaking says, “this is how you iron your fathers khaki shirt so that it doesn’t have a crease”. The speaker mentions how to iron a father shirt, this is a chore a mother would teach a daughter to do. The speaker also tells the daughter how to act like a lady and gives her life advice on how to be a respectable wife, like not squatting

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.

Society is often seen to have different biases or perspectives on topics such as the role and perception of women. The short story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, consists primarily of a catalog of commands and instructions, the purpose of which is to make sure that the mother’s daughter is constantly in check and not getting into any trouble. Jamaica Kincaid utilizes a wide range of techniques such as symbolism and diction in order to showcase the theme of how the depiction of women rely mainly on how they present themselves in the public and how they are so easily described as impure or filthy.

In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, we have a mother conveying important life advice to her daughter in order for her to adapt to cultural customs and most important to learn the rules of social behavior. Her mother's advice is not only intentionally told in order for her to become the proper antiguan woman she believes in raising, but is also told to criticize her actions and everyday doings. Her mother makes it very clear, in order to live a proper antiguan life, there are many rules that one must follow. With deeper interpretation of Kincaid’s work we come to the realization that her overall message suggests the idea that women as a whole should be domestic and should behave a certain way in our society in order to avoid being viewed as a promiscuous woman.

The mother also teaches her daughter to cook, clean, and wash which traditionally is up to the women in a household to do. Kincaid makes the reader think and figure out for him, or herself, what point of life the child is in and what gender they are in order to draw them into the story.

Have you ever wished that someone had given you a guide on how live the right way? Jamaica Kincaid does just that in her short story, Girl. The narrative is presented as a set of life instructions to a girl by her mother to live properly in Antigua in the 1980’s. While the setting of the story is not expressly stated by the author in the narrative, the reader is able to understand the culture for which Girl was written.

In Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl,” the narration of a mother lecturing her daughter with sharp, commanding diction and unusual syntax, both affect the evolution of a scornful tone, that her daughter’s behavior will eventually lead her to a life of promiscuity that will affect the way people perceive her and respect her within her social circle. As well as the fact that it emphasizes expectations for young women to conform to a certain feminine ideal of domesticity as a social norm during this time and the danger of female sexuality.

Kincaid uses a great deal of symbolism to reflect on female sexuality. From the first line to the last there is Symbolism. The first line says, “Wash the white clothes on Monday”. The mother, in that first sentence, is saying that her daughter should keep her body pure and clean. Another symbol many recognize in this story is when the mother accuses the girl of singing benna at Sunday School. The girl replies by stating, “but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school.” Benna is an Antiguan folksong sang to spread rumors about scandalous events. Benna is symbolic because the mother is accusing her daughter of getting mixed up in ‘scandalous events”. While symbolism

In “Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid, the mother is warning her daughter about what to expect, and how to act, in society. The story represents a time when the daughter knew that her mother loved her enough to spend the time to give her the advice, but is also emotionally distant. I believe this to be representative of Kincaid’s life, and how after her brother’s were born she felt that her mother did not have enough time for her.

In Jamaica Kincaid’s story, Girl, a mother is talking to her daughter about all the proper things she must do to be considered a good girl to her family and to the public, and when she grows up, a proper lady. She must follow the rules that are given to her by her own mother and by society. The mother also teaches the daughter how to act when things don’t go her way. She is told that along with being a proper lady, she must also be able to get what she wants and be independent. This story was written in the late 1970’s and gender roles, for women, back then were not being “followed” because women wanted equal opportunities (Women In the Workforce). “Gender stereotypes are beliefs regarding the traits and behavioral characteristics given to individuals on the basis of their gender” (Deuhr). This essay will discuss the gender roles that were given to women in the story, during the late 70’s, and in today’s society.

For centuries, women have had the role of being the perfect and typical house wife; needs to stay home and watch the children, cook for husbands, tend to the laundry and chores around the house. In her short story “Girl”, Jamaica Kincaid provides a long one sentence short story about a mother giving specific instructions to her daughter but with one question towards the end, with the daughter’s mother telling her daughter if she had done all the instructions to become a so called “perfect” woman, every man would want her. Kincaid’s structuring in “Girl,” captures a demanding and commanding tone. This short story relates to feminist perspectives. The mother expects a great deal from her daughter to have a certain potential and she does not hesitate to let her daughter understand that. As a matter of fact, the story is about two pages long, made into one long sentence - almost the whole time the mother is giving her daughter directions to follow - conveys a message to the reader that the mother demands and expects great potential in her daughter. The daughter is forced to listen and learn from what her mother is telling her to do to become the perfect housewife. Throughout the story, Kincaid uses the symbols of the house and clothing, benna and food to represent the meanings of becoming a young girl to a woman and being treated like one in society. Women are portrayed to appeal to a man to become the ideal woman in society, while men can do anything they please.

For centuries, women have had the role of being the perfect and typical house wife; needs to stay home and watch the kids, cook for husbands, tend to the laundry and chores around the house. In her short story Girl, Jamaica Kincaid give us a long one sentence story about a mother giving specific instructions to her daughter but with one question towards the end, with the daughters mother telling her daughter if she had done all the instructions to become a so called “perfect” woman, what man would not want her. Kincaids structuring in “Girl,” captures a demanding and commanding tone. This short story relates feminist perspectives. The mother expects a great deal from her daughter to have a certain potential and she does not hesitate to let her daughter understand it. As a matter of fact, the story is two pages long, made into one long sentence - and almost the whole time the mother is giving her daughter directions to follow - sends a message to the reader that the mother demands and expects great potential in her daughter. The daughter is forced to listen and learn from what her mother is telling her to do to be the perfect housewife. Throughout the story, Kincaid uses the symbols of house and clothing, benna and food to represent the means of becoming a young girl to a woman and being treated like one in society.

There are a few pieces of advice Kincaid offers in her poem “Girl” that directly relate to modern American (and specifically, Southern) culture. The first is “always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach” which in my personal experience is an important mannerism. Others include how to hem a dress, how to cook, how to smile, how to set the table, and how to behave in the presence of company. These are instructions addressed primarily to females. Mothers often teach their daughters how to sew or take care of their clothes, or otherwise how to perfect their appearance, including how to apply makeup; some expect their children to learn to cook, focusing on the daughters because “woman’s place” is in the kitchen;

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.