Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

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In Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl,” The main speaker is the mother. The mother sees herself as the only person who can save her daughter from living a disrespectful life. She believes that the girl has already started down this path because of her everyday life. The three central themes in the story are sexual reputation, domesticity, and the mother and daughter’s relationship. In the story, the mother is very wise; not only does she know how to cook, clean and keep a household, but she is also very etiquette. From the first clause, when the mother tells her daughter to put freshly washed white clothes on a stone heap and to wash the “color clothes” on Tuesday, I was able to recognize that the story’s setting is not present day. The speaker tells the daughter how to soak salt fish, how to cook pumpkin fritters, how to iron her father’s shirt and pants properly, how to grow okra and dasheen, how to sweep the house and yard. …show more content…

She directs her not to sing popular music in Sunday school, not to talk to wharf-rat boys for any reason, and not to eat fruit on the street, because it will make flies follow her. The mother’s sexual advice is followed with social advice. She tells the girl how to smile at someone she does not like, as well as how to smile at someone she likes very much, and tells her how to avoid evil

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