Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid was originally Elaine Potter Richardson, an islander from Antigua. While living in Antigua, she received a British education and performed at the top of her class. She was the first of four children. Her relationship with her mother tumbled downhill once she began to birth her three sons. At age 16 she left Antigua, became an au pair, and went on to pursue her writing career while in college. Her family rejected her writing. It was then that she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid.
Her short poem Girl (1984) touches on what young women experience living in an underprivileged setting and having difficult relationships with their mothers. Kincaid depicts her mother as a very verbal woman that is bitter about her setting and sufferings. …show more content…
She speaks as if whatever she says to her daughter will go over her head and she will still go on to become her own woman; a woman that will not be socially accepted within the Antiguan community. She predetermines that her daughter has already gone down the path of promiscuity. She tells her how to dress appropriately as not entice men. She wants to prevent her daughter from becoming a prostitute, as many young girls living in poor communities do in order to make money and survive. She has no confidence in her daughter that she is aware of her surroundings and is capable of being a wholesome young …show more content…
The girl is being burdened by all of these guidelines on how to be the proper young lady. The style directly relates to the theme of the story, the reader is also in the same position as the daughter, burdened by the mother’s rambling. Her unique style is clever, the girl only speaks twice, and it shows how shy the girl is because she doesn’t interrupt her mother or the flow of the short. The mother can’t be stopped, so her rambling leads us to the setting, her message, and the understanding of the underlying theme. The traditional picture of womanhood is expressed throughout the short, however the traditional womanly duties are not the only aspects of a woman as time progresses. The girl is trying to follow the mother’s instructions, but by the girl’s reaction, the time she is living in, the rules given may not apply to her “but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?; you mean to say after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread” (80). This last bit of conversation between the girl and her mother shows how the mother can’t communicate effectively with her daughter. She assumes her daughter will be the outsider, and harsher term, slut of the community. The way the mother overwhelms and demeans the girl leads her to a very confused path on