Girl

Response to “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid.
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is an is a story about a mother’s list of guidelines and rules for   her daughter to be accepted into society and to be the perfect spouse to a husband. All while trying to prevent her from becoming a ‘slut.’ The mother makes herself to be the only person that can save her daughter from being promiscuous.   When first reading this story I can tell it was from a Caribbean background. It can easily be related to if your familiar with the Caribbean culture. I also noticed all the punctuation, it made me read the text   twice as fast and not at a normal pace of reading a story. Reading the story fast made me read it in an instructional manner, seems as if the mother was giving the daughter instructions instead of telling her. The story is also told in a very poetic way,   the author made the lines rhyme. “Wash the white cloths on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color cloths on Thursday and put them on the line to dry.”(914) She dose the same with other lines in throughout the story.
The story has a Caribbean feel to it, by the mention of pepperpot a West Indian dish consisting of stewed meat or fish with vegetables, typically flavored with cassareep, bread pudding which is dessert consisting of slices of bread baked together with dried fruit, sugar, spices, eggs, and milk and doukona which is pudding made from starchy food then   sweetened, spiced, and traditionally wrapped in plantain or banana leaf. She also talks about washing clothing and hanging them outside, back in the day everyone wasn’t fortunate in having a washer and dryer in our homes. Talked about growing crops outside. How to catch a fish or how to sweep a house or yard, are all things I use to do as a child back in my home country. This is why I feel that I can relate to this story.
The mother seems to be very caring. Trying to teach her daughter the proper way to carry herself in society. The mother has many lessons to teach...