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YOUNG ADULT
Though Jamaica Kincaid is known as the author several books, her short story, "Girl" is also a piece of work. It was first printed in The New Yorker June 26, 1978. Girl is a dialoguebetween mother and daughter. The mother is teaching her daughter, via a series of lessons, how to behave properly. What Kincaid is trying to tell us in this essay is that her main concern both cripplingimpact of colonialism, and the ways the relation of mothers and daughters shape feminine identity have changed.
The responsibilities of a girl (in Antigua) involve such as cooking and cleaning, aswell as some instructions on proper social behavior. For example, the young girl is instructed “don’t sing benna (popular music in Antigua) on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school.” Interestingly,Kincaid emphasizes that the young girl is not only responsible for learning and maintaining a domestic ritual in general, but the young girl must also satisfy to the needs of men. For instance, thegirl is taught to iron her father’s clothes but it can be inferred that no one, other than herself, is responsible for ironing the girl’s clothes. In fact, men only appear outside of the home doinghard work throughout the story which implies that the home space is a place for women. Remaining on that theme, the girl is taught that the length of time she spends with men and how she behaves aroundmen will affect how others perceive her. For example, the girl is instructed: “you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions” and ”don’t squat down to play marbles—you are not aboy.”

However, towards the end of the story it appears that the girl not only learns from what she is told but also from what she sees. For example, she is not told but learns that “this is how to bullya man; this is how a man bullies you…” This is significant because throughout the story it appears that the mother is bullying the young girl, this shift allows the reader to realize that the...