Girl-Jamaica Kincaid
This prose is a conversation between the mother and daughter even though the
daughter seldom replies. This reflects the lack of understanding and communication
in their mother-daughter relationship.
The relationship between the speaker and the “girl” is perhaps of a mother and
daughter relationship .Their relationship is somewhat cold and distant.
This is seen when the mother asked her not to sing “benna” during Sunday school,
however, she does not have the habit of singing “benna” and it illustrates that the
mother does not understand her daughter.
Somehow, the mother is rather dominant, authoritative and some sort of a dictator.
It seems like she doesn’t exactly understand her daughter and demands the best for
her daughter’s attitude and behavior. Evidence of her authoritative nature is seen
throughout the prose where the mother seems to be giving her daughter a fixed set
of instructions and expects her to abide in it. It goes to the extreme where she even
wants to control the way her daughter walks and eats: “on Sunday try to walk like a
lady” and “always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s
stomach”.
Throughout the prose, the mother uses a very authoritative tone to speak to her
daughter. We can sense that the words “don’t” and the phrase “this is how” has
been used umpteen times. Although it may be seen as a mother giving advice and a
word of caution to her daughter, but we as readers are able to feel the tension and
strain existing in the relationship as the mother really lack vast understanding for the
daughter. However, the mother may nag at the daughter because it is out of
motherly love and wants her daughter to be the best.
Hey Shin Fen,
Your writing is refreshingly clear. In terms of establishing tone, be explicit that
diction (don’t) and repetition to establish. Also, make sure you point out the
device/element/technique the author uses. For instance, more than “giving advice”
and “caution” to her daughter, the speaker uses the imperative grammatical mood
(this is the technique) to convey an authoritative, unbalanced relationship. I would
also add that you can go further with your analysis when you say the mother doesn’t
understand her daughter. The reason she doesn’t understand her daughter is
because she is not listening to her daughter (the mother berates the daughter for
singing, but apparently the daughter doesn’t sing). The author uses specific
techniques to make the daughter hard for the reader to hear as well. Kincaid avoids
the normal conventions of dialogue (using punctuation like quotation marks to set
off different speakers), which makes it hard to distinguish who is speaking. The
mother’s speech obscures her daughter’s speech. In terms of thematics, we could
argue that the just as the mother’s speech silences the daughter, the mother
articulates the fears of the larger society—fears about women and promiscuity that
reduce women to an angel or a “slut.” This dichotomy does not acknowledge women
as individuals with agency of their own that might exist somewhere between these
two extremes. 4/5