Question

Reading JAMAICA KINCAID (b. 1949)

"Girl"

Raised in poverty by her homemaker mother and car- penter stepfather on the small Caribbean island of Antigua, Elaine Potter Richardson was sent to the United States to earn her own living at age seven- teen, much like the protagonists of her first novels, Annie John (1983) and Lucy (1990). Working as an au

pair and receptionist, she earned her high-school equivalency degree and studied pho- tography at the New School for Social Research in New York and, briefly, Franconia College in New Hampshire. Returning to New York, she took the name of a character in a George Bernard Shaw play, at least in part out of resentment toward her mother, with whom she had once been very close. After a short stint as a freelance journalist, Kincaid worked as a regular contributor to the New Yorker from 1976 until 1995, in 1979 marry- ing its editor’s son, composer Allen Shawn, with whom she would eventually move to Bennington, Vermont and raise two children. “Girl,” her first published story, appeared in the New Yorker in 1978 and was later republished in her first collection, At the Bottom of the River (1983). Subsequent novels include The Autobiography of My Mother (1996), paradoxically the least autobiographical of her books; Mr. Potter (2002), a fictionalized account of her efforts to understand the biological father she never knew; and See Now Then (2013). Kincaid’s equally impressive nonfiction includes My Brother (1997), a mem- oir inspired by her youngest brother’s death from AIDS, and A Small Place (1988), an essay exploring the profound economic and psychological impact of Antigua’s depen- dence on tourism. Divorced in 2002, Kincaid is currently Professor of African and Afri- can American Studies in Residence at Harvard.

2. May he rest in peace (Latin).

Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don’t walk barehead in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn’t have gum on it, because that way it won’t hold up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook it; is it true that you sing benna1 in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slot (replace o with u) you are so bent on becoming; don’t sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give direc- tions; don’t eat fruits on the street—flies will follow you; but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a buttonhole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slot (replace o with u) I know you are so bent on becoming; this is how you iron your father’s khaki shirt so that it doesn’t have a crease; this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants so that they don’t have a crease; this is how you grow okra—far from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants; when you are growing dasheen, make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat itch when you are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t recognize imme- diately the slot (replace o with u) I have warned you against becoming; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit; don’t squat down to play marbles—you are not a boy, you know; don’t pick people’s flowers—you might catch something; don’t throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all; this is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona;2 this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child; this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a fish you don’t like, and that way something bad won’t fall on you; this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man, and if this doesn’t work there are other ways, and if they don’t work don’t feel too bad about giving up; this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn’t fall on you; this is how to make ends meet; 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?

Help with these questions:

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?

2. Look closely at the indications of time in the story. What actions take place at certain times? Does any event or action happen only once? Is there a plot in "Girl"? If so, how would you summarize it?

3. The instructions in "Girl" have different qualities, as if they come from different people or have different purposes. Why are two phrases in italics? Can you pick out the phrases that are more positive from the girl's point of view? Are there some that seem humorous or ironic?

4. What genre is “Girl”?  Is it a short story, essay, or something else?  Classify the text and justify your answer.  Use third person to answer all four questions and quote and/or paraphrase as necessary.  

Answer 1

1. The focus in 'Girl' is on the advice kincaid's mother gave to her in her youth when she was travellng from her hometown to United States. The story is single sentence advice separated by semicolons for admonishments and words of wisdom. the story is narrator in second person and the narrator is authors mother. The focus and voice contribute to show the mother’s dominant behavior and constrictive conditions toward the girl.

2. The chores and behaviors that the mother makes the daughter inhabit are directly related to how women's duties should relate to a man's. During the story, her mother's voice sounds somewhat condescending and critical when speaking, suggesting that the girl is likely to become a "slut." No one event or chore has been repeated in the story.

3. Yes the instructions have a different purpose and different qualities as well. The instructions are in positive and negative form where the mother is scold the girl but also teaching her certain things of how and what to do in a household and while out. The Italic phrases are when the 'Girl' speaks up, to differentiate her words from her mother's. the mother says that the daughter should not play marbles like a boy, and that the girl should do household chores- is ironic because the mother does not take in consider about whether or not the girl does that or not.

4. The genre of 'Girl' is short story because the story is about mother-daughter dispute. In this story, the mother goes on and on teaching the daughter how to be the perfect woman in society. As the story goes on, the mother’s directions get more demanding. Whenever the daughter says something, which is rare, it’s a snap back at her mother.