What is the summary of Girl by Jamaica Kincaid?
“Girl” consists of a single sentence of advice a mother imparts to her daughter, only twice interrupted by the girl to ask a question or defend herself. She intends the advice to both help her daughter and scold her at the same time.
What is the main idea of the story Girl?
Structure. The theme for “Girl” is mother-daughter dispute. In this story, the mother goes on and on teaching the daughter how to be the perfect woman in society. As the story goes on, the mother’s directions get more demanding.
Why is story called Girl?
By titling the text “Girl,” Kincaid tells us 1) that this story isn’t just about her own personal experiences; it’s about some kind of universal experience of girlhood; and 2) that the girl is the important one.
Why is story called girl?
How many sentences are in the story girl?
Technically, there is only one sentence in this entire story. It’s comprised of many subordinate clauses, usually separated with semicolons. Many of these clauses are phrased as imperatives….
Why was girl by Jamaica Kincaid written?
Kincaid visited her homeland in 1985, four years after independence. The rampant poverty shocked her so much that she felt compelled to write about it, describing the conditions in a nonfiction book called A Small Place (1988).
What point of view is Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl?
The point of view is first person narrator in that almost all of the story comes to the reader as the voice of the mother speaking to her daughter. Only twice does the daughter’s voice break in to make brief comments. She is merely the listener to whom the mother speaks.
What is the syntax in Girl?
The syntax in the story creates the effect of making the reader share in the daughter’s experience of being “instructed”—or harangued—by her mother. The story, written as a single run-on sentence, mirrors the kind of breathless talk the daughter must endure from her mother. It is a kind of stream-of-consciousness…
Why did Kincaid change her name?
She changed her name from Elaine Potter Richardson to Jamaica Kincaid – partly so that the people of Antigua wouldn’t know she was writing. She found a place for herself at the New Yorker, where the editor, William Shawn was impressed by her writing and what she had to say.
What was the girl thinking when she asked her mother but what if the Baker won’t let me feel the bread?
The second time, near the end of the story, her growing anger causes her to irrationally hear the daughter’s innocent question, “but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?” as confirmation of her suspicions, that the girl is thinking about “sluttish” behavior, that she is going to become “the kind of woman who …
What is the author’s purpose in the story Girl?
At times, the structure briefly shifts as the young girl responds to her mother with italicized lines either defending herself or asking a question, but the sole purpose of the narrative is to reinforce all of the unspoken societal rules her daughter should know including how to act, speak, and respond to different …
Who is telling the story in Girl?
By Jamaica Kincaid Normally, in a first-person narrative, the protagonist is narrating her story. But in “Girl,” there’s no real narrator. Of course not—there’s no action, so there’s nothing to narrate.
What’s the point of the poem girl by Jamaica Kincaid?
The poem Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, appears to be something like a lecture from a mother to her daughter. It takes the form of a series of lessons; the point of the lessons, according to the mother, is to teach her daughter to behave and act properly.
What does the mother say in the book The Girl?
The mother’s sexual advice is intermingled with social advice. She tells the girl how to smile at someone she does not like, as well as how to smile at someone she likes very much, and tells her how to avoid evil spirits (what looks like a blackbird, the mother says, may be something else entirely).
How many words are in the Book Girl?
Last Updated on September 15, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 544 Like Kincaid’s other short stories, “Girl” is extremely brief and can hardly be said to have a plot, although the reader can easily imagine a dramatic context in which this monologue might be spoken.