Girl By Jamaica Kincaid

“Girl”, a short story written by Jamaica Kincaid, illustrates the constant pressure many women receive in order to be shaped into the ideal girl – or woman. It explores themes of gender, identity, and cultural expectations. Its format, although somewhat shapeless, brings readers into the shoes of a woman being told a constant stream of random constructs and ideas to try and fit her into a close to impossible mold to achieve. The story is structured as a series of instructions given by a mother to her daughter, and it is through these instructions that the mother's expectations for her daughter's behavior can be learned. Being from the west Indies,

Kincaid details some context that may be unfamiliar to most Americans. Published in the late

1970’s,

Benna is a folk music characterized by sexually suggestive lyrics, call-and-response, and local gossip” (Sutton), which suggests why the mother would not want the girl to be singing benna in Sunday school. Instead of discussing this disagreement with the girl, the mother ignores her and continues on with her listing the many things the girl must do or never do. The entire story includes no periods and instead a semicolon between every statement. This creates the feeling of a never-ending lecture from a parent, that doesn’t seem to have any point and contains various irrelevant details. The format brings readers in and allows the focus to be on the uneasy feeling it produces, rather than the words it says.

Throughout the story, it is clear that the mother is trying to impart her wisdom and experience to her daughter, but the tone of her voice feels harsh and critical. She is constantly correcting her daughter's behavior and pointing out her flaws, such as her supposed tendency to

"sing benna in Sunday school" or her inability to "walk like a lady and not like the slut [she is] so bent on becoming;" (Kincaid). This creates a sense of tension between the two characters, and

She places a great deal of emphasis on conformity and obedience, and she expects her daughter to conform to the norms of their society. This can be seen in her instructions on how to dress, how to walk, and how to speak. The daughter is given very little room for self-expression, and it is clear that her mother's expectations are limiting her ability to explore her own identity.

However; she warns her daughter about the various threats that women face, such as sexual harassment and unwanted advances from men through her critiques and instructions. She also emphasizes the importance of reputation and how a woman's behavior can affect how she is perceived by others with, “this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child;” (Kincaid). In this sense, the mother's instructions can be seen as a form of tough love, designed to prepare her daughter for the challenges that lie ahead.

The mother's instructions, or advice, to her daughter, cover a wide range of topics that seem to progress to becoming more and more impractical as the story approaches its end. It’s clear Kincaid wanted to emphasize the absurdness of the instructions with the mother