Jamaica Kincaid's Short Story 'Girl'

Jamaica Kincaid “Girl” Meet the author, Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson, a girl born and raised in the West Indies, who later changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid. Jamaica wrote the short story “Girl” that talk about a fictional character having a very difficult upbringing, being raised in a place that was under British rule, which parents stuck to the old African cultures for the children upbringing. It seemed the mother was very fearful of the environment in which her daughter was growing up in, she felt society would take control of her daughter and she would become a “slut”. Kincaid was culturally torn between the evolving British society and the old customs from her parent’s African heritage. Throughout the story Kincaid’s mother gives …show more content…
“Mother believed her daughter was always in danger of becoming a slut”. In the eyes of her mother and her upbringing, she only believed there were two types of women, respectable ones and sluts, but in today society, there are many different type of women ranging from powerful corporate women, educators, administrators, doctors, lawyers etc. Consequently, the mother links many metaphors and tasks to the taboo topic of sexuality, such as “squeezing bread before buying it”, and just as the term “Girl” recreates the world of a young girl or teenager. “You mustn't speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions”. By no means was mother speaking of a real rats, since wharf-rat boys and sluts are even lower on the social toting pole than black, absolutely no one talks to them. Kincaid’s mother shared old-fashioned traditions and customs, and she felt that was appropriate and respectable for her daughter. Kincaid wanted to be an author, but this is not the wishes of her …show more content…
The mother was giving her tough love so that she might go in the right direction and not become a simple woman and lose respect in the eyes of her community. Within today’s language we might call that verbal abuse, but in the culture of her mother that was an acceptable tolerance of words. This story shows a breakdown on new culture and customs comparing them to old traditional customs and cultures. Jamaica moving on to pursue her goal as a writer, showed that her mother comments and words were not in vain but they were near and dear to her heart and pushed her to be a good