Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”

ANSWER PROMPT ONE INSTRUCTIONS ARE ATTACHED

Original Discussion Board Question: Who is the speaker of the text? How do you know (provide proof from the text)? Who is the you being spoken to? How can you tell? What does the main speaker find most important in terms of their advice? What does the you identify as most important by their response? How much time passes during the progression of the story? How do you know? What phrases/ideas are repeated in the text and why do you think they are repeated? What does that repetition imply for the listener, for the reader? How does this help flesh out two characters for whom we never get any physical description?

Original Discussion Board Response:
Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”

The persona in Jamaica Kincaid is not identified in this very brief story. Besides, the speaker is a third-person objective. It can, however, be inferred that the individual is an adult addressing a child, or perhaps an adolescent (most probably the mother). The speaker may be an older girl, like an elder sister. The speaker, however, feels competent and obligated to advise the presented person. All that can be learned from the story is the use of a simple second-person address (speaking to “you” commands). A mother speaking to a daughter is a possible example. We have an unreasonable curiosity about the future or previous inappropriate sexual activity (“slut”). The persona could as well be someone alone who remembers what was said to the “girl.”

The narrative reveals that the mother attempts to apply the actions she experiences to people in this relationship. She waits for the child (Kincaid) and applies certain habits. The mother gives her daughter a great deal of advice to show her how to run a home properly and live peacefully. The mother scolds the little girl intermittently, as she worries that her daughter will pursue promiscuity or a career. The daughter does nothing to defend herself from the claims of her mother that she is going to be a “slut” one day. The girl cries suggest that she has anger, but Kincaid does not offer her real feelings or emotions.

Kincaid employs the convention of repetition in the story “Girl.” Most of the statements begin with “this is how.” Additionally, the poet uses the variant “like the slut I know you are bent on becoming” in more than three instances. The repetitions attempt to classify this piece as a poem. Nevertheless, the amount of time detail going into the distinction between the two “characters” in the poem, for instance, the titular “Girl” and the person administering the advice besides portraying the connection that exists between the two is common in longer proses. Kincaid repeatedly uses the word “girl”, which depicts that the mother continues giving the advice.

Works Cited

Kincaid, Jamaica. Girl. 1991.

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