Analysis of Girl by Jamaica Kincaid - Demanding Parental Advice

Demanding Parental Advice

"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid is a dialogue between a mother and her daughter. The mother has a lot of instructions and warnings that she wants her daughter to follow. The daughter only interrupted her mother twice to defend herself or ask a question. The conversation between the two offers instructions about how a woman should behave, and how she should do her chores. The short story does show many things, like the lack of options for women. Jamaica Kincaid uses language and structure to convey tone, theme, and symbolism to show the conversation, communication, and advice from a very demanding parent.

In the short story "Girl" the author uses long sentences to convey both tone and theme. The tone in the story "Girl" is demanding and repressiveness. For example, "Wash white clothes on Monday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don't walk bare head in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little clothes right after you take them off". The mother is telling the girl what she should do and how she should do things. The long sentence structure signals out the orders that the mother wants her daughter to follow. The word "slut" is mention a few times in the story. By the mother using the word "slut" it tells what the mother thinks of her daughter. Also, the long sentence shows how repressive and demanding the mother is, and how she wants her daughter to be in today's society. All of the mother's instructions on how housework and womanly things should be done show the tone of repressiveness and demand.

The theme of "Girl" is a conflict between a daughter and her mother. The mother gives her daughter a lot of advice on how to be a good woman, like "This is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a buttonhole for the button you just sewed on..." (Kincaid). The mother's advice gets stronger "This is how to behave in the presence of men who don't know you very well, and this way they won't recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming..." (Kincaid). The author wants to make sure that the reader sees the difference between the mother and daughter's age and generation. The mother doesn't ask her daughter to follow her advice, she demands it from her.

Finally, in the short story symbolism is hard to identify. One consistent symbol includes things that are and are not appropriate for a girl to do. For example, singing benna in the wrong places is obviously potentially dangerous to a young girl's reputation. So is smiling in the wrong way or improperly setting the table for guests. And if the baker knows of your sullied reputation, everyone must know (thus making him a symbol of society). The mother clearly is trying to let