“Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid, is a short story teeming with literary merit. Jamaica Kincaid, whose original name was Elaine Potter Richardson, was born on May 25th, 1949 in St. John's, Antigua. Kincaid is a Caribbean-American writer whose works focus on representing familial relationships, as seen in this short story. The short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, was published in the 1978 issue of The New Yorker within Kincaid’s collection titled “At the Bottom of the River.” The short story follows two characters, a mother and a daughter.
The piece is composed of a dramatic monologue given by an anxious mother to her seemingly maturing daughter. The monologue focuses on the advice and teachings that the mother gives her daughter, though overwhelming and sometimes crass. The mother presents her daughter with a plethora of instructions that she believes will assist her daughter in becoming a decent and reputable young woman. She distributes pragmatic information to assist in performing household chores such as setting a table, cooking, sewing, and laundry. While this advice is informative in the mother's eyes, she also uses it to scold her daughter.
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Throughout the narrative, Kincaid demonstrates the overwhelming and serious nature of closed-door conversations between a mother and her daughter. “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid utilizes a plethora of compelling literary devices to convey themes within the piece such as domesticity, sexual representation, and gender identity. Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” explores perennial themes such as domesticity, sexual representation, gender identity, and mother-daughter relationships. Jamaica Kincaid uses the structure of the seemingly one-sided dialog to make the reader feel as if they were constantly being redirected, taught, belittled, and expected.
The constant bombardment was as if everything was moving too fast to even try and appease the mother. This allows the reader to be placed in the daughter's shoes, demonstrating exactly how it can feel growing up within the confines of cultural and social expectations as a young woman. Kincaid plays into themes of sexual representation by demonstrating how the mother tells her child how to “-prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming.” (Kincaid 676) The mother's words seem as if she believes that her daughter is already falling into promiscuity. She disapproves of the way her daughter sits, walks, and sings folk songs during Sunday school.
The mother bombards her daughter with domestic responsibilities to make her daughter as reputable as possible. Though her words are bitter, it seems as if the mother is frightened for her daughter and what could happen to her as a vulnerable young woman. Kincaid utilizes many literary devices in order to achieve tone within “Girl.” Throughout the narrative, the reader will notice that the tones in “Girl” are primarily loving yet harsh. When analyzing the piece, it is clear that the lecture from the mother is in fact an outstretched hand from the mother. For example, “like the girl to whom the mother speaks, the reader is pulled and drawn in by the chant of motherly admonitions” (Simmons, 468). She attempts to give her daughter advice on life and how to live it to the best of her ability.
This is the mother’s attempt at showing her love and that she indeed cares for her daughter. Kincaid displays the sternness of the piece by the rapid and intense delivery from the mother. Because of the barrage of words, the daughter is unable to speak but only twice in the lecture. For the mother, it is imperative that she gets her words across so that her daughter does not become the “the slut I know you are so bent on becoming.” (Kincaid 676) Themes of sexual representation and gender identity were explored by using the symbol of benna, the folksongs. The benna symbolizes sexuality and promiscuity, rather, than an act of such. The mother tells her daughter to refrain from singing benna on Sundays. Singing these songs in a religious environment is seen as sinful and disobedient. The daughter speaks only a few words following her mother's benna lecture “But I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school.”(Kincaid 676)
The daughter does not seem to associate Benna with sexuality as her mother does. Even so, she is insistent that she does not participate in benna on Sundays. Furthermore, the entirety of the piece is symbolic within itself. Kincaid herself grew up in Antigua. Her upbringing had a serious impact on the pieces she created; this allowed Kincaid to recast the Caribbean’s past from the perspective of a native Antiguan woman. The mother's uninterrupted lecture towards her daughter “indicates how difficult it is to grow up as a girl in Antiguan culture, which remained under the British control until 1967,” (Alhmad, Almahameed 158) The relationship between the mother and daughter is fraught with tension. This strenuous relationship is symbolic of colonial power within the Caribbean. Kincaid uses the motif of food to illustrate the idea that happiness and purpose come from domesticity. She says “This is how you throw back a fish you don't like, and that way something bad won't fall on you;” (Kincaid 677) The phrase implies that both good and bad things will come when obtaining and preparing the lifeline that is food. The act of cooking directly connects women with their families, children, and spouses.
The mother passes down her valuable traditions and recipes to her daughter as it is a generational rite of passage. “The directions and ideas that the mother gives to her daughter are discriminatory of woman in society,” (Rosenthal p.4) Such domestic skills, according to her mother and the society she lives in, will make her daughter more valuable to the community. “Girl” is a captivating story that displays a mother who truly believes she is the only person in her daughter's life who can be the voice of reason in keeping her daughter pure and essentially good. The reader is able to visualize and empathize with the daughter as her mother teaches her how to be a woman of worth. “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid utilizes a plethora of compelling literary devices to distinctly convey themes within the piece such as domesticity, sexual representation, and gender identity. Throughout the narrative, the reader will notice that the tones in “Girl” are primarily loving yet harsh.
Themes of sexual representation and gender identity were explored by using the symbol of benna, the folksongs. Following this, Kincaid used the motif of food to illustrate the idea that happiness and purpose come from domesticity. Kincaid captures the intimate closed-door discussion between a mother and a daughter by using captivating literary devices such as themes, tone, symbols, and motifs.
Works Cited
- Kincaid, Jamaica. “Girl.” The Norton Introduction to Literature Shorter 13th Edition, edited by Kelly J.Mays, W. W. Norton & Company, 2018
- Simmons, Diane. “The Rhythm of Reality in the Works of Jamaica Kincaid.” World Literature Today, vol. 68, Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma.
- Rabea, Reem Ahmad, and Nusaiba Adel Almahameed. Genre Crossing in Jamaica Kincaid’s ‘Girl’: From Short Fiction to Poetry. Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, 30 June 2018.
- Rosenthal, Pamela. “Analysis of Jamaica Kincaid’s ‘Girl.’” Panmore Institute, 30 Apr. 2020, http://panmore.com/analysis-jamaica-kincaid-girl.
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