Analysis - Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

Girl (1987) A short story by Jamaica Kincaid About the author Born Elaine Potter Richardson in 1949 in Antigua, in the British West Indies, but changed her name when she started writing because her family disliked her career choice She came to New York at age seventeen, taking a job as a nanny for a rich family and met New Yorker columnist George S. Trow, who eventually helped her publish in the magazine Much of Kincaid’s work deals with ramifications of Antigua’s history as a colony of Great Britain. The short story “Girl,” like many of Kincaid’s books, deals with the experience of being young and female in a poor country. Kincaid’s complicated relationship with her mother comes out in the mother-daughter dynamic in the story. She describes her mother as a literate woman who struggled against her poor circumstances, eventually feeling bitterness toward her children because of all her problems. Historical Context The British controlled Antigua from 1632 until 1967 By 1967, the island had become self-governing, but it did not achieve independence within the British Commonwealth until 1981. The British imported many Africans to Antigua during the early colonial years to labor as slaves in the sugarcane fields. Despite independence, many of the descendants of these slaves still live in poverty there. Kincaid visited her homeland in 1985, four years after independence. The rampant poverty shocked her so much that she felt compelled to write about it. Summary “Girl” consists of a single sentence of advice a mother imparts to her daughter, only twice interrupted by the girl to ask a question or defend herself. The mother dispenses much practical and helpful advice that will help her daughter keep a house of her own some day. She tells her daughter how to do such household chores as laundry, sewing, ironing, cooking, setting the table, sweeping, and washing. The mother also tells the girl how to do other things she’ll need to know about, including how to make herbal medicines and catch a fish. These words of wisdom suggest that the women live in a poor, rural setting, where passing on such advice is essential for daily living. Alongside practical advice, the mother also instructs her daughter on how to live a fulfilling life. She offers sympathy, such as when she talks about the relationships her daughter will one day have with men, warning that men and women sometimes “bully” each other. She also says that there are many kinds of relationships and some never work out. The mother also tells the girl how to behave in different situations, including how to talk with people she doesn’t like. Often, however, the mother’s advice seems caustic and castigating, out of fear that her daughter is already well on her way to becoming a “slut.” She tells the girl, for example, not to squat while playing marbles, not to sing any Antiguan folk songs in Sunday school, and to always walk like a lady. The girl periodically interjects to protest her innocence. Characters The Mother The mother of a preadolescent daughter, and the main speaker in the story. The mother dispenses a long string of advice to her daughter to teach her how to properly run a household and live respectably. The mother

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intermittently scolds the girl between her words of wisdom because she fears her daughter will adopt a life or promiscuity. At the same time, however, the mere fact that she takes the time to impart her knowledge suggests a deeper caring for the girl. Strict, bossy, controlling, but also caring Flat character Characterization: character’s action/ thoughts/ words Analysis: The mother sees herself as the only person who can save her daughter from living a life of disrespect and promiscuity. She believes the girl has already started down this path because of the way she walks, sits, and sings benna (Antiguan folksongs) during Sunday school, and she imparts her domestic knowledge to keep the girl respectable. In some ways, the mother is wise: not only does she know how to cook, clean, and keep a household, but she also has a keen sense of social etiquette and decorum, knowing how to act around different types of people. For her, domestic knowledge and knowing how to interact with people bring happiness along with respect from family and the larger community. Her instructions suggest that community plays a large role in Antiguans’ lives and that social standing within the community bears a great deal of weight. Yet at the same time, there is bitterness in the mother’s voice, and she takes her anger and frustration out on her daughter. She seems to think that none of her wisdom will make any difference and that the girl is already destined for a life of ill repute. She even repeatedly hints that the girl wants to live promiscuously and be a “slut.” Her fears for the girl actually belie deeper fears of the precarious state of womanhood in traditional Antiguan society. Despite the mother’s caustic remarks and accusations, the fact that she knows how to make abortion-inducing elixirs implies that she has had some illicit relations with men or at least understands that such encounters sometimes occur.

The Daughter The preadolescent daughter who listens to her mother’s speech. The daughter says little, speaking only to defend herself against her mother’s accusations that she will one day become a “slut.” The girl’s protestations suggest resentment, but Kincaid does not provide her true thoughts or feelings. Flat character Characterization: character’s action/ thoughts/ words; other character’s description (mother) Analysis: Even though the girl says very little in the story, the fact that readers perceive the mother’s words through her ears makes her the silent narrator and protagonist. The daughter narrates “Girl” as if recalling the memory of her mother from a distant future place. “Girl” is not a word-forword transcript of an actual conversation between the mother and daughter but a compilation of advice the daughter remembers her mother saying. She remembers, for example, how her mother constantly accused her of promiscuity and impropriety, an accusation that has apparently haunted her through the years. The inclusion of such remarks in the story illustrates how deeply they affected her while growing up and just how powerful a mother’s influence and opinions can be on her children. Themes 1) The danger of female sexuality Even though the daughter doesn’t seem to have yet reached adolescence, the mother worries that her current behavior, if continued, will lead to a life of promiscuity. The mother believes that a woman’s reputation or respectability determines the quality of her life in the community.

Sexuality, therefore, must be carefully guarded and even concealed to maintain a respectable front. Consequently, the mother links many tangential objects and tasks to the taboo topic of sexuality, such as squeezing bread before buying it, and much of her advice centers on how to uphold respectability. She scolds her daughter for the way she walks, the way she plays marbles, and how she relates to other people. The mother’s constant emphasis on this theme shows how much she wants her daughter to realize that she is “not a boy” and that she needs to act in a way that will win her respect from the community. 2)

The transformative power of domesticity The mother believes that domestic knowledge will not only save her daughter from a life of promiscuity and ruin but will also empower her as the head of her household and a productive member of the community. She basically believes that there are only two types of women: the respectable kind and the “sluts.” Undoubtedly for many Antiguan women, domestic knowledge leads to productivity, which in turn wins respect from family and society. Household work therefore brings power and even prestige to women in addition to keeping them busy and away from temptation. Readers recognize the reverence the mother has for the power of domesticity because of the numerous specific instructions she gives her daughter, such as how to cook pumpkin fritters, sweep, grow okra, buy bread, and wash clothes. For her, domesticity brings respectability; sewing up a dress hem thus becomes more than an act of maintenance because it saves a woman’s sexual reputation within the community.

Symbolism Benna Antiguan folksongs, or benna, symbolize sexuality, a subject the mother fears her daughter already knows too much about. Historically, native Antiguans sang benna to secretly spread scandalous rumors and gossip under the uncomprehending British people’s noses. Singing benna in Sunday school, therefore, represents not only disobedience but also sinful, forbidden knowledge that can’t be discussed openly in public, let alone in church. Even though the daughter may not consciously equate benna with sexuality as her mother does, her protestations nevertheless suggest she knows full well benna’s seductive power, mystique, and forbidden qualities. In fact, the girl’s adamant, almost desperate denials may even hint that she actually has sung benna in Sunday school with her friends, an indication of her blossoming interest in boys as well as a sign of an increasing exasperation with her mother’s advice and intrusions into her personal life. Point of View: Second POV Conflict

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man vs. society: society or social classes influences on role of women or the status of femininity man vs. himself: daughter struggles to adjust to the expectations of her mother (interrupts her mother with questions, defensive tone) man vs. man: mother seems to be berating her daughter that she is becoming a ‘slut’

Structure nonconventional arrangement: no introduction, rising action, climax… THE ENDING: Girl does not seem to heed her mother’s advice, fears that “what if” she cannot live up to the expectations of society and ends up (or may be already becoming?) promiscuous Kincaid’s use of semicolons to separate the mother’s advice and commands creates a prose poem that vividly captures the daughter’s conflicting feelings for her mother. (A prose poem is one that lacks rhyme, lines, and the traditional form of poetry as well as the narrative structure of conventional fiction.) The layers of advice and commands spoken in one long, unending breath create a smothering sense of duty and even oppression that stifles real, two-way communication. The daughter uses the few opportunities she has to speak to protest her mother’s belief that she’ll grow older to become a “slut,” suggesting that the daughter has already begun to resent her mother. At the same time, however, Kincaid uses the run-on sentence structure almost as a list to display the mother’s domestic accomplishments to highlight her wisdom and power. The Ending Explained “Always squeeze bread to make sure it’s fresh; but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?; 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? “ In this final line of the story, the mother interprets the baker’s potential refusal to allow the daughter to touch the bread as a sign that the daughter has become a social outcast, undoubtedly a slut. Kincaid uses the words “feel” and “squeeze” to turn the act of buying bread into a metaphor for sexuality, and the baker’s refusal is therefore a sexual rebuke. In response to her daughter’s innocent question, the mother seems to explode in anger at her, as if one impertinent question demonstrates the futility of advising a stubborn and undisciplined girl bent on becoming a slut. The daughter’s question and lack of an answer from the mother also highlight the inability of the mother and daughter to communicate on any level, much less a meaningful one. The mother’s final words also make her seem unfair, unsympathetic, and almost cruel. Readers suspect that it won’t be long before the young daughter grows to resent her mother and her implications of her promiscuity, if she doesn’t already.