“GIRL” BY JAMAICA KINCAID
Class Notes
Jamaica Kincaid
Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid was
born in 1949 as
Elaine Potter
Richardson on
the island of Antigua.
Jamaica Kincaid
Mother: Annie
Richardson Drew
…believer in obeah, a
West Indian religion
incorporating magic
and ritual
Jamaica Kincaid - life
Kincaid was an
only child until
she was 9, and
felt happy and
loved.
Jamaica Kincaid - life
When Kincaid’s three
brothers were born, she
felt that her mother
rejected her.
This betrayal and longing
for a distant mother’s
love is a recurring theme
in Kincaid's work.
Story Overview
Kincaid on her mother’s influence:

‘‘the fertile soil of my creative life is my
mother. When I write, in some things I
use my mother's voice, because I like my
mother's voice ... I feel I would have no
creative life or no real interest in art
without my mother. It's really my ‘fertile
soil’.’’
Kincaid lived with her
mother and stepfather
until 1965 when she
was sent to
Westchester, New
York to work as an
au pair.
Her first writing
experience involved
a series of articles
for Ingenue
magazine.
In 1973, she changed
her name to
Jamaica
Kincaid because
her family
disapproved of her
writing.
She worked for
New Yorker
magazine for 20
years.
 She now resides in
Bennington Vermont.

“I think in many ways the problem that my
writing would have with an American reviewer is
that Americans find difficulty very hard to take.
They are inevitably looking for a happy ending.
Perversely, I will not give the happy ending. I
think life is difficult and that's that.”
- Jamaica Kincaid
“Girl” - Publication Info.
First published in the June 26,
1978, issue of The New
Yorker, “Girl” was the first of
what would become more than
a dozen short stories Jamaica
Kincaid published in that
magazine.
“Girl” - Publication Info.
Five years later, “Girl”
appeared as the
opening story in
Kincaid's collection of
stories, At the Bottom
of the River (1983), her
first book.
Story Overview
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
Story overview
The story begins
abruptly with
words spoken by
an unidentified
voice
Story overview
The voice continues, offering
instructions about how a
woman should do her
chores, and then about
how she should behave
Story overview
At the end of the
first third of the
story, another
voice responds,
signaled by italics.
Story overview
It becomes clear that the speaker
is an adult female, one in
authority, probably a family
member, and she is speaking to
a younger female
Story overview
“Girl” is a one-
sentence, 650word dialogue
between a
mother and
daughter.
Story overview
The story is told in the 2nd
person POV. The mother
does most of the talking;
she delivers a long series
of instructions and
warnings to the daughter.
Story overview
The daughter
responds only twice,
but her responses
go unnoticed by the
mother.
Story overview
There is no
introduction of the
characters, no
action, and no
traditional plotline.
Story overview
As the story progresses, the mother's tone becomes more
insistent and more critical.
Story overview
The chores and behaviors are more directly
related to a woman's duties to men, such as
ironing a man's clothes.
Story overview
The mother warns the
girl/daughter about being
promiscuous—she seems
to believe the girl is on her
way to becoming a “slut”
Story overview
The story ends abruptly with the line: “you mean to say that
after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the
baker won't let near the bread?”
Story overview
There is no action, no
exposition of any kind,
and no resolution or hint
of what happens to the
characters after this
conversation.
Story overview
Setting: Although no specific setting is
named, Kincaid has revealed in
interviews that it takes place in
Antigua, her island birthplace.
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
Characters
Mother :
The mother is a
woman in
Antigua who
understands a
woman's
“place.”
Mother :
She lives in a
culture that looks
to both
Christianity and
obeah, an
African-based
religion.
Mother :
Her culture holds
women in a
position of
subservience to
men.
Mother :
She recites a
catalog of advice
and warnings to
help her daughter
learn all a woman
should know.
Mother :
Many of her lines are practical pieces of
advice about laundry, sewing, ironing,
sweeping, and setting a table for
different occasions.
Mother :
Other harsher admonitions warn the
daughter against being careless with
her sexuality, “so to prevent yourself
from looking like the slut I know you
are so bent on becoming.”
Mother
“Girl” is based on
Kincaid's own life
and her
relationship with
her mother.
Daughter:
The daughter is an
adolescent or preadolescent girl in
Antigua, learning from
her mother how to be
a proper woman.
Daughter:
The girl speaks
only twice in the
story, voicing
impulsive
objections to her
mother's
accusations and
warnings.
Writing Style
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
Writing Style – “Girl”
“Girl” is more like a
dramatic
monologue than
short prose fiction.
Writing Style – “Girl”
The story could be the
girl's own internal
monologue.
The advice could be from
a melding of many
voices in the girl’s
memory.
Writing Style – “Girl”
Jamaica Kincaid’s fiction
focuses on the continuity
and community
preserved and kept alive
by mothers, through their
stories and connection
with their daughters.
Writing Style – “Girl”
The mother is maintaining an
oral tradition
whereby cultural traditions
and survival skills are
passed down from mother
to daughter.
Writing Style – “Girl”
Throughout the story,
Kincaid manipulates
the reader by
juxtaposing:
positive/negative
benign/ominous
virtue/sin
Writing Style – “Girl”
As the contradictions draw closer
--as nurture and condemnation become
increasingly intertwined—
the language seems to become more rhythmic.
Writing Style – “Girl”
The story begins with manipulative
rhythm and repetition
Writing Style – “Girl”
It begins with
the mother's
voice giving
simple,
benevolent,
and
appropriately
maternal
advice.
Writing Style – “Girl”
Like the girl to whom the mother speaks, the
reader is drawn in by the chant of
motherly admonitions.
Writing Style – “Girl”
Readers are caught
unaware by an
admonition that
suddenly veers the story
in a new direction.
Writing Style – “Girl”
Inviting with
nurturing
advice
Repelling with
condemnation
vs.
Writing Style – “Girl”
The mother's speech,
not only
manipulates but
also teaches the art
of manipulation
Writing Style – “Girl”


Manipulation…
Mother scolds the girl's impending sluttishness
Mother tells the girl how
condition
to hide that
“this is how to hem a dress…to prevent yourself from looking like the
slut I know you are so bent on becoming.”
Writing Style – “Girl”
Being a “slut” is
taken for
granted; the
advice is aimed
at preventing
others from
realizing it.
Writing Style – “Girl”
Toward the end, the mother's voice continues with
domestic instruction + comment on a
world in which nothing is ever what it seems to
be.
Writing Style – “Girl”
The tone of motherly advice lightens the sinister
nature of the information and then makes the
disclosures even more frightening.
Writing Style – “Girl”
Eventually we see that,
in a world in which a
recipe for stew
moves on to a recipe
for the death of a
child, nothing is
safe.
Antigua
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
Antigua
Kincaid grew up with a mix of European and
African cultural influences, and these cultures
are both present in “Girl.”
Antigua
Colonized by the British and
Portuguese
port
for British commerce
producer of sugarcane
Antigua
Sugarcane plantations were
established and African slaves
were brought to the island.
Antigua
Most Antiguans are of African lineage, descendants of
slaves brought to the island centuries ago to labor in the
sugarcane fields.
Antigua
Slavery left a bitter legacy on
Antigua:
Freedom came on August 1,
1834, but the lack of transition
period left former slaves
instantly impoverished.
Antigua
They had no choice but to continue working on
the sugar plantations, where conditions and
wages kept them dependent on their
former masters.
“Girl” - Setting
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
Cultural Setting
"Girl” clearly has a Caribbean setting.
Cultural Setting
Kincaid grew up in a home
without electricity or
running water.
These conditions were fairly
common among the poor
and working class people.
Cultural Setting
Laundry ‘‘on the stone
heap’’
and
‘‘on the clothesline to
dry”
indicate a way of life
without electrical
appliances.
Cultural Setting
saltfish
pumpkin fritters
pepper pot
Foods she mentions help place
the story in the Caribbean:
 pumpkin fritters
 saltfish
 okra
 dasheen (also called taro, a
tropical starchy root)
 pepper pot
Cultural Setting
Most families, like the
mother and daughter in
"Girl," grew most of their
own fruits and
vegetables and ate little
meat beyond the fish they
caught themselves.
Cultural Setting
The lessons reflect
Western
behaviors,
traditional island
culture, and
African influence.
Cultural Setting
To be a good Antiguan
woman means then to
know how to
maneuver
appropriately within
a Eurocentric culture.
Cultural Setting
The mother’s speech is a
conscious
initiation into the
expected
behaviors of a
woman in this culture.
Cultural Setting
Public appearances
are very important
and subtle
differences among
those appearances
are also significant.
Afro-Caribbean Heritage
“Girl”
Afro-Caribbean Heritage
The family lives simultaneously in two cultures:
Traditional African
Western/Christian
Singing benna, calypso music
(but not in the European church. )
Practicing obeah
(but also attending Christian Sunday school.)
Cultural Setting
"Girl" also contains confusing
and
contradictory messages about the
daughter's relationship to her African
heritage
and culture.
Cultural Setting
‘‘Is it true you sing benna
in Church?’’ the mother
asks.


Benna songs are African
folk songs
African cultural practices
are not compatible with
traditional Christianity.
obeah
Many Antiguans practice a womancentered, African-based religion
called obeah, similar to voodoo.
obeah
Caribbean Christians will
often also practice
obeah, using spells
and secret medicines
when the situation calls
for them.
obeah
Because objects
may conceal
spirits, the
mother warns
about the
blackbird being
something other
than it appears
obeah
The blackbird might be a
“jablesse”
(La diablesse, “she devil”).
a
shape-changing spirit that
often takes the form of a
beautiful, deceptive, and
deadly woman.
obeah
The jablesse lures
men with her beauty
but then isolates and
devours them.
(Note how the folklore
reflects attitudes about
female gender roles)
obeah
Kincaid on obeah:
‘‘…it was such an everyday part of my life, you
see. I wore things, a little black sachet filled
with things, in my undershirt. I was always
having special baths. It was a complete part of
my life for a very long time.''
--Jamaica Kincaid
Cultural Setting
Fish appear in many Caribbean
myths.
Cultural Setting
Fish are caught with various foreign
objects inside them, revealing a truth,
foretelling an event, or invoking a
curse.
Cultural Setting
The toxic venom of
the puffer fish has
been used in
Caribbean
voodoo to create
a zombie-like
state.
Cultural Setting
According to Caribbean folklore, when a
pretty woman spits on the lure, the fish
will surely bite.
Cultural Setting
The “good medicine” is most
likely folk medicine, much
of which is based upon
natural cures and/or
spiritual combined with
physical remedies.
Cultural Setting
The medicine to prevent
pregnancy and/or
induce abortion would
have been kept by the
women and passed by
word of mouth
generationally.
Cultural Setting
In much folk medicine, the power of nature to do
harm is taken for granted, thereby requiring
various remedies to counteract malevolence.
European traditions:
help the
daughter be
successful
turn her
against her
true self.
Resentment about this dichotomy
may account for the mother's
growing coldness throughout “Girl.”
Cultural Setting
The mother becomes angry
because, however dutifully
she passes along her
knowledge, her heart may
not believe in its usefulness.
What is NOT Said
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
What is NOT Said
Sometimes what is NOT
said (but reasonably expected )
…is as important as
what IS said.
What is NOT Said
There are no instructions for
how to make beautiful
things, or how to make
oneself happy.
No mention of Caribbean…
 colorful
 rich
folk art
textiles
 local
crafts
 exuberant
music
What is NOT Said
No mention is made of Antigua’s beautiful
flowers and birds.
The mother refers to
flowers only once:
‘‘don't pick
people's
flowers…you
might catch
something.’’
What is NOT Said


She gives no advice about
how to be a friend,
or how to sense which
women to confide in.
Women are suspect – no
mention of positive female
relationships.
What is NOT Said
No tips about nurturing a
child in any way
 The
mother mentions children
only when she shows "how to
make a good medicine to throw
away a child before it even
becomes a child.’’
What is NOT Said
No self improvement;
no dreams.

Nothing about
possibilities beyond
home and domestic
duties.
What is NOT Said
She does not speak of school or books,
nor of travel or a career.
What the girl
may want is
not important.
Kincaid wanted more than what she was offered on Antigua:
"I did not know what would happen to me. I was just
leaving, with great bitterness in my heart towards
everyone I've ever known, but I could not have
articulated why. I knew that I wanted something, but
I did not know what. I knew I did not want
convention. I wanted to risk something.’’
–Jamiaca Kincaid, on leaving Antigua
Women’s Roles & Sexuality
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
Women’s Roles & Sexuality
The warnings and the assumptions behind them
indicate the importance of the suppression of
female sexuality, at least in any form not
authorized by the society.
Women’s Roles & Sexuality
The mother's function is to
condition a new generation
of young women to
experience themselves as
guilty because of their
gender rather than their
behavior.
Women’s Roles & Sexuality
If the mother feels that the tasks
allotted to a woman are
demeaning or subservient, she
also does not say so.
But she describes NO satisfaction
with her life.
Women’s Roles & Sexuality
When she thinks of sex, and
of her daughter's supposed
or real flirtation with it, her
tone becomes colder, even
angry.
Women’s Roles & Sexuality
The instructions in "Girl'' are a far cry from the advice
given to American women today, which may
include:
“creative outlets”
‘‘making time for yourself ”
“balancing family with career aspirations”
“smart financial planning for your future”
Discussion Questions
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
Discussion Questions




How do you classify the mother’s advice? IS it nurturing
and supporting? Is it condemning and admonishing? Is it
both? What does the nature of the mother’s advice tell
you about growing up as a woman in Antigua?
Why do you think the author titled this story “Girl” and
not a specific name?
“Girl” is written in only one paragraph, made up of a
run-on sentence. What is the effect of this style? What
effect does it have on the reader? What impression
does it make?
Is there a particular moral code implied in this story?
Discussion Questions

A. Choose a line that stands out to you, underline it,
and write it on your paper.
B. Why did you choose this line?
C. What does this line say about the Girl’s
life/childhood?