Jamaica Kincaid Girl

“Girl,”written by Jamaica Kincaid, is a prose poem about the relationship between a mother and daughter. In reality, it reflects the actual living background in Kincaid's time by listing a series of important sentences; as read, it shows that her mother disciplined her for a certain lifestyle; moreover, now she wants the same living for her daughter. In this poem, the setting, tone, and characters engage and work together to create an acute description of a day-to-day conversation between mother and daughter.

In the “Girl,” the mother seems to be the primary speaker, based on the giving an authorial voice of her comments; on the other hand, it's clear that the daughter is the protagonist. In addition, the poem is being told from a feminist

The mother seems like she don’t play any jokes when it comes to teaching her daughter to become a proper woman. Throughout the entire poem the mother tells her daughter the smart ways to be able to accomplish all the household chores, from ironing her father's pants to how to grow okra. While many may have read the story and believe the mother is demanding her daughter to do as she says. After each series of orders concludes with a follow-up question or negative statement in which the mother’s shows her disapproval toward her daughter. For example, “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.”, (line 16-17;80) basically her

While the daughter, feels instill is aging and oppressing her, whom response by being rebellious. She (the daughter) has her own atmosphere of what she wants to do, this is why she's instill with her mother.

As for the daughter, she is an adolescent, who is learning from her mother to be a proper woman. In addition, she only speaks twice in the poem voicing emotional disapproval towards her mother accusations and warnings. Furthermore, she mentioned in the text “but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school.”,(line 11;80) daughter denying her mother about singing benna while in church; but, noticing her mother isn't telling her not to sing at all elsewhere.

In continuation, “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?” (line 29-31;80), As the poem finalizes, the mother interprets the baker’s attempt to allowing her daughter to be able to touch the bread because she’s (daughter) becoming a slut; however, her daughter mentions if the baker doesn’t let her feel the bread and mother gets angry because she knows that her daughter understands what she