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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Girl’ is a short story by the Antigua-born writer Jamaica Kincaid (born 1949). In this very short story, which runs to just a couple of pages, a mother offers advice to her teenage daughter about how to behave like a proper woman.
- “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid Analysis
- “Girl” Jamaica Kincaid Summary
- “Girl” Theme: Mother/Daughter Dynamics
- “Girl” Theme: Communication
- “Girl” Theme: Expectations For Females
- “Girl” Theme: Power
Although the value of a summary is limited considering the story’s length, we’ll start with one anyway just in case it’s useful. Afterward, we’ll look at themes and some questions.
A mother advises her daughter about many things—how to wash clothes, not to walk bareheaded in the sun, how to cook, how to eat, how to walk, not to sing benna in Sunday school, who to avoid, not to eat fruit in the street, how to sew and iron, how to grow food, how to clean house and the yard, how to smile at people, how to set the table, how to b...
The dominant mother’s role depicted is of teacher. Her speech is a stream of instructions and warnings. The advice is mostly concerned with doing practical things for herself and around the home, as well as how to behave publicly. A major takeaway from this litany is the lack of warmth. There isn’t a single word of love or encouragement anywhere. O...
Related to the theme of mother/daughter dynamics is the theme of communication. Almost the entire story is one-way communication from the mother to the daughter. Its tone, discussed above, doesn’t give the impression of a close, loving relationship. There are two instances in the story where the daughter speaks up, which are italicized in the text....
The mother’s words cover the traditional role a woman would fill—lots of advice about keeping a home and interacting with men. Washing clothes, selecting food and cooking it, cleaning, setting a table, preparing home remedies, and knowing how to deal with men are all covered. The tone is mainly neutral, but it’s distinctly harsh in one area—that th...
Kincaid has acknowledged that the power contrast between the mother and daughter is like the relationship between Europe and Antigua, “a relationship between the powerful and the powerless”, in her words. Antigua had a small, wealthy white population and a large, poor black population. The local culture was subsumed by the British system. Antigua w...
Termed as ‘prose-poetry’, Jamaica Kincaid’s 1978 short story “Girl” is a lyrical, rhythmic list of instructions a mother tells her daughter. Being just one sentence, reading the story feels like drawing in a long breath that is only let go until the final moment.
Girl Summary. The speaker, whose voice is that of the titular girl’s mother, begins her monologue with instructions on how to do laundry. According to mother there is a proper way and a proper day on which to wash whites (“on Monday” and “on the stone heap”) and colors (“on Tuesday” and “on the clothesline to dry”).
Jun 26, 1978 · The story is a single paragraph comprised of a series of commands and instructions connected with a semicolon. The girl, having reached sexual maturity, receives instructions intended to help her become a respectable woman and is told how adults should behave.
Mar 7, 2024 · Complete summary of Jamaica Kincaid's Girl. eNotes plot summaries cover all the significant action of Girl. In this single-sentence story, a mother instructs her daughter...
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From a general summary to chapter summaries to explanations of famous quotes, the SparkNotes Girl Study Guide has everything you need to ace quizzes, tests, and essays.
