If you choose to submit a reading response for Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl," please do so in the comments section of this post. Remember: your response should be thoughtful, it should evidence a careful consideration of the text, and it should include at least one question for your instructor/your classmates about the text. Your response should be no less than 200 words and no more than 500 words, and at least relatively well-written (you will not be graded on grammar, but please remember that poor grammar/syntax reflects poorly on you/your ideas). If other students have posted before you, your response can be, in part, a response to their posts--feel free to take up other students questions or concerns and use this space as a forum for intelligent discussion. You may also post more than once, particularly if your initial post is short or ambiguous. Your grade for the reading response will be based on your collective input in the comments sections of this post.
This is an interesting take on what it is to be a girl. I see a few traditional thoughts listed by the author: "Don't sit down to play marbles, you are not a boy; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sew on a button." However, I also saw many lessons that are traditionally not lady-like, such as: "This is how you spit up in the air if you feel like it; this is how to bully a man; this is how you smile to someone you don't like at all." The inclusion of traditional and non-traditional lessons gives the story a sense of truth. These could be lessons that someone's mother actually taught her, whether the mother intended to or not. Most likely, some of the lessons are unintentional. I think it is normal for a young girl to pick up on things that her mother does; maybe one of these unintentional lessons was showing how to smile at someone you really do not care for.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that the mother kept telling the daughter to avoid becoming a "slut," but she teaches her daughter how to end an unwanted pregnancy. It is a bit hypocritical for the mother to demean that way of life but at the same time, prepare her daughter to live that life.
In the beginning of the story, the girl seems very innocent as she tells her mother that she does not sing benna on Sundays, almost like a child that wants to show off for her parents and make them proud; however, at the end, she seems more like a rebellious teenager, antagonizing her mother just for the fun of it as she asks, "What if the baker won't let me feel the bread?" I can see a growth throughout the story, and toward the end, it seems that the daughter is becoming more like the woman that her mother predicted, as the lessons turn more towards relationships and planning to take care of herself as she leaves the care of her mother, for example: "This is how to love a man; this is how to make ends meet."
Although the story moves toward growth, I feel like the mother had to throw in at least one lesson near the end to show the girl that growing up is not all about new responsibility; we are allowed to have fun, and that is why she includes the lesson about spitting in the air, just like a little kid might do.
Some of the lessons in this story seem a bit dated and/or a bit awkward for a mother to teach her daughter. Since I never was a daughter, I wonder what lessons might my mother have taught me had that been the case? Do some of these lessons not seem appropriate or a bit awkward for a mother and daughter to discuss with one another?
-Adam Hardesty
I did not originally want to write a response to this piece, but I found it unusually entertaining and have decided to respond. Right from the beginning the unique style of descriptions and directions kept me interested and I particularly liked the repetition or themes that developed throughout “Girl.” Clothes, keeping clean, not “singing Benna in Sunday School,” the phrase, “the slut you are bent on becoming,” and the other themes, gave this work a flow I had yet to see in short pieces.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I was quite entertained by the ending, which started when the mother says to, “always squeeze the bread to make sure it’s fresh.” The daughter asks, what if the baker doesn’t allow her to squeeze the bread, and this humorously frustrates the mother. It is as though she does not plan to heed all the directions her mother has just given her. As long as she follows what her mother has said, she will be an upstanding member of society and will be allowed to, “squeeze the bread.” Any mother would be exasperated if they had put so much work into their son/daughter only to find they decided not to follow their lead. I know my mom would be…and imagining this is probably what made it so entertaining for me.
“Girl”, overall, made me think about how much is passed on from generation to generation. This piece represents the transfer of knowledge and customs through a family’s history. Though Jamaica’s piece is specific to females, I believe both sexes can gain a greater appreciation of what they’ve learned from their elders over the years. I sat and considered all that I’ve been taught, and it is truly mind boggling. I encourage you to take a second and think about how many things, even the most simplistic actions, you have learned from your parents. Any interesting ones? Anything more unique than learning to, “spit in the air and move out of the way?” (And yeah, Adam, I agree that one is not as “lady-like” but equally entertaining.)
I feel Jamaica Kincaide, in her piece, “Girl,” did a great job portraying the growth of the main character in the piece and showing the generational learning that we all experience through life.
-David Strider
I, too, found this a very intriguing piece. After reading the piece and Adam and David's comments last night, I found myself thinking about them throughout the day today.
ReplyDeleteThe part that was most interesting to me was when the mother was trying to teach her daughter against turning into “the slut she was bent on becoming.” At first I wondered why the mother would say such critical things to her daughter as to me it did not seem like a good teaching technique. After much consideration, I believe the mother was relying on her own past as a way to teach her daughter. The mother may have been looking back on her own experiences and feelings that she had had when she was the age of her daughter. Perhaps at her daughter’s age she had had an unplanned pregnancy out of wedlock that could explain the hypocrisy Adam mentioned in his comment. She wanted to warn her daughter as best as she could to not turn into the person she had been at that age but if it happened she wanted her to be prepared as well.
This also links to David’s comment of what knowledge is passed down from generation to generation. Not only do our parents teach us simple life lessons, but how many of those lessons do our parents teach us because they learned through their own experiences how important they are in growing up and becoming the person you will be. I agree with David in that the amount of information passed down from our parents is tremendous and I thank them for learning through their own experiences and mistakes to better teach me into being the person I am today. So, hopefully, if we all follow our parent’s advice we will all turn into those people that will be allowed to “be let near the bread.”
-Kelcey Flegel
When I first read “Girl” I was a little confused by the format of this short piece because I had never seen one like this. At first I was not going to write a response, but after reading Adam, David, and Kelcey’s posts, the short piece made a lot more sense. I agree with everything said thus far on this post, and would like to further comment on Kelcey’s idea.
ReplyDeleteKelcey points out the idea that the mother could be using her past as a way to teach her daughter. In other words, the mother may have made some mistakes in her past as hinted by the repeated use of “the slut you are bent on becoming” and the reference to a homemade remedy for an unwanted pregnancy. It is as if the mother is trying to prevent her daughter from a predisposition of becoming like her. I vaguely remember a quote from a movie that was along the lines of “I am my mother’s child.” I speak from experience when I say that I believe this is true. My mother has taught me many things in life, and she would always begin them with how she had done this or that and that I should learn from her mistakes.
As easy as that may sound, everyday I try not to be my mother because I can see the faults in her ways and mistakes she has made, but I am beginning to see that I am becoming just like her. This inevitably could be the reasoning behind this mother’s warnings and lessons to her daughter to try and prevent what is destined to be.
-Stacee Roberts
“Girl”, written by Jamaica Kincaid, was an interesting short read. It tied in very well with our first unit’s discussion over morality in regards to what was considered right and wrong by the mother in the story and how she conveys that to her daughter. The mother’s list on how her daughter should act vary from day to day as far as the chores she should perform, the way she keeps her appearance, and even goes as far as who she should talk to when she says, “you mustn't speak to wharf-rat boys”. While the mother has her daughter’s best interest in mind she is more concerned with how society sees her superficial reality as opposed to how she is as a person as far as actual moral decisions are concerned.
ReplyDeleteThe two major parts that I took away from the list of how a woman should be to her daughter was her points of cleanliness and performing traditional domestic duties. Throughout the piece the mother discusses how she should act around men when she says, “the slut I have warned you against becoming” and also advising her to keep herself presentable when she adds “soak your little cloths right after you take them off”. This shows how the mother again is more considered with having a clean reputation rather than a clean conscience. She also restricts her daughter from making any true positive moral decisions for herself by telling her what to do and how to do it such as how to iron her father’s khakis. In reality the daughter has no sense of morality because she is incapable of doing right and wrong in her own accord because she has to do exactly what her mother feels is right.
John Osinski
"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid was a very traditional piece to say the least. As soon as I started to read I immediately tied together some sort of conversation between a mother and daughter. My first impression of the piece was that it was a remembrance of a conversation that a daughter had once had with her mother while at the same time recalling responses that she herself made to her mother's demands. You can see that her mother's list of "duties" occur in an increasingly more mature standpoint; making it seem as if the girl is remembering what she learned from when she was an adolescent in a specific order in which they were taught.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to how the piece was written, I found it very interesting to read about the mother's morals and what exactly she was teaching her daughter. Personally, I believe that the mother in this story cares more about how she and her daughter are perceived in society way more than she possesses "good" morals for her daughter. It really rubbed me the wrong way when the mother told the daughter "this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child." Assuring her daughter that she could always have an abortion to protect both her and her daughter's name made me believe she cared a bit more about her name than her daughter living a good life.
After finishing "Girl" I was really interested in a response from the daughter. Is she happy living a tradition housewife role? Assuming she eventually grew to an adult, what does she think about what her mother had to say, now that she is in a more modern society?
Does anyone else think that the mother comes off a bit selfish?
--Zach Greenberger
The first time I read this I just couldn't help but imagine a poor mother raising her daughter in the rural South back in the late 1800's. With that said, I feel that this is a daughter recalling all of the things that her mother has taught her, inadvertently or not. The lessons seem to get broader and broader as the short story goes along. The final sentence “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?” seems like the mother is trying to say I hope I’ve taught you well, go live. The last statement gives the impression of a mother trying to tell her daughter that everything she has tried to teach her is important, but that it is still her life to live as she chooses.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think the mother comes off as selfish. It appears she just wants the best for her daughter. However, the mother may just want the daughter not to end up like her. The mother teaches her daughter how to perform an abortion when the mother might not have known at the time how to perform said abortion. So the daughter might be the reason the mother teaches her this.
After reading “Girl” a few times I found it very odd and feel it is something you can re-read and every time find something that gives you a different idea to its meaning.
ReplyDeleteThe way it is presented is unusual and I believe it is a girl recalling all the advice her mother has told her in her life. I also think her mother may have passed away and these words of advice are what the girl recalls to remember her mother. Just like everyone else that has posted I find the girl being called a “slut” by her mother as odd but when I think about it most mothers and fathers want their daughters to be respectable women and not to be thought of as a slut. Of course most or all parents do not call their daughters a slut directly but indirectly try to teach them not to become or behave as one. It seems the mother cares of what people think of the girl and it is more important what people think then what is actually true. In the last line about being able the feel the bread, the mother is only concerned with the girl not becoming the kind of woman that a baker won’t want her to touch the bread because he thinks badly of her in a way. I agree with Kelcey that the mother may have been looking back on her own past experiences as a way to teach her daughter. The reason I agree with Kelcey is because of the line in the poem in which the mother explains how to get rite of an unwanted child. Maybe her mother had to deal with this when she was younger. I am still unsure of some parts of the advice because it seems she is trying to teach the girl to be a woman but some of the advice is not womanly at all, such as how to bully a man or how to spit in the air, if the mother is so concerned with how people perceive the girl why would she give her advice to about bullying and spitting? I think that would make people judge her more then if she sang in school or smiled improperly.
-Jessica Phillips
I had to read this story over and over again to get the feeling of what the story trying to tell us. Also, reading previous comments about this story was somewhat fun. After reading comments from other classmates and implicate every sentence from the beginning until the very end, I come up with a thought about the real meaning and possible reason why the mother was telling her daughter stuff she can and can’t do. There’s possibility that she only disbursed her anger because she never satisfied with what she had. I figured that could be one of the possibilities since she used few inappropriate words to her daughter, when she shouldn’t.
ReplyDeleteFrom I’ve read she described everything in such details, like how to wash your clothes, how to eat, and etc, all at once. Based from books and things that I saw around me, when you teach your kids something you can just tell them all in once. They won’t remember all of them. In this case, the mother told her daughter every little thing she should do and shouldn’t all in once. Well, with an exception if the daughter is teenager grown up, there might be chance she would remember everything that her mother told her. Otherwise she won’t remember all those things that her mother said. If the daughter was a little kid, how could she expect her to remember everything she said? If the daughter is a really only a little kid, it’s going to be even worse because she probably didn’t understand few words that her mother said, and if she’s a grown up teenager, then she might pick up bad example from her mom, like the word “slut”.
Didn’t her mother know that to raise a child you have to do it step by step? Besides that, what make me so positive that the mother was just getting tired of her life and clothed her vexation to her daughter is that in the last sentence in the last paragraph she implied, “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?.” And in my opinion the meaning behind this sentence is that no matter what she said, in the end her daughter won’t listen and would probably end up like her. Why would she tell her daughter all those things if she thinks her daughter will end up like her anyway?
-Poppy Aprilia-
I have read this piece before in an English class and have always found it interesting. What I take from the piece “The Girl” is that it is about a mother giving advice to her daughter about how to appear to be moral to other people. She stresses the importance and warns the girl that the decisions she makes will affect her future life and how people view her. Promiscuous behavior or being a “slut” could seriously hurt her future. She tells the girl what to do and how to act in order to seem to be moral even if she isn’t truly moral. She gives her advice on things not to do and things to do if she doesn’t follow her instructions, like terminating a pregnancy, so that she has the right image and reputation.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion the mother believes that a woman’s job is to be domestic house wife, and to cook, clean, and do the laundry; therefore she explains to her how to set the table, sew on a button, and ironing. I believe these basic things the mother tells the daughter are the type of things that are typically and traditionally passed on to a daughter from her mother.
To me it is clear the mother believes that women and men have certain gender roles and should behave in a certain way. I also feel that the mother is giving her daughter all this advice because she wants a good life for a daughter and to possibly not end up like her, or make the same mistakes she has. Did others get the feeling that the mother had made mistakes in her life she did not want her daughter to go through?
-Megan Switzer
To my understanding, this fictional piece by Jamaica Kincaid is about a mother speaking to her daughter and training her daughter how to conform to the rules and expectations of society in order to prepare for the future. The piece appears to start with the girl at a very young age. For example near the beginning, the mother asks her daughter, “is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?” The girl responds very innocently, “I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday School”. As the story goes on, the mother tells and shows her daughter how to keep a decent, orderly household. “Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap… this is how you iron your father’s khaki shirt… this is how you sweep a whole house… this is how you set a table for breakfast.” As the daughter matures, her mother’s advice becomes more serious and the girl’s responsibility increases significantly. “This is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest… this is how to make a good medicine for a cold...this is how to behave in the presence of men who don't know you very well… this is how to make a good medicine for a cold… this is how to love a man.”
ReplyDeleteFrom the mother’s cautious instructions, I would agree that the mother is trying to prevent the girl from the pain the mother experienced in the past. For example, the mother possibly has felt the same “slutty” feelings that she assumes her daughter has and the unwanted pregnancy. Because of this, the mother may expect more and have set higher standards for her daughter so that the girl will behave appropriately and avoid making the wrong choices.
Overall, the mother seems to be so focused on outward behavior and conformity that she never realizes the inward feelings and state of her daughter’s heart. It isn’t until the mother speaks of testing the bread to see if it’s fresh that she asks, “You mean to say that afterall you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?” At this point the mother wonders if her daughter truly desires to live and behave the way she was taught. I believe the mother was so focused on her daughter’s outward appearance and performance during the girl’s growing up years that the mother lost perspective and was unable to build a deeper and more personal relationship with her daughter. So do you think the girl will decide to take heed to her mother’s advice and lessons and to put them into practice in her own life or else decide not to?
-Taci Hodgins
This poem seemed to be about a mother and her daughter having a discussion on what her daughter needs to do in order to be considered a lady. During that time, the woman's job was to cook, clean, and be a "servant" to their husband. Throughout the poem, the woman describes what chores need to be done on what days and how to dress and act like a lady. Looking back on all the requests of the mother, I began to ponder on whether or not the girl's mother acted this way when she was a child. In some cases, overly strict parents are the ones who had regrets about their past and did not want their children to make the same mistakes they made. Also, the behavior of a parent's child reflects on them. So this mother wanted the best for her girl, but also wanted to be seen as a good mother, at least in public.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the mother also talked about unladylike things to her daughter such as: getting rid of an unwanted pregnancy. Though getting pregnant before marriage was looked down upon back then, in my opinion, killing a child is worse. This made me question the mother's values and morals she was teaching her daughter. Yes having a child before marriage is not the best situation, but should the mother be teaching her child how to murder a baby? I believe the mother is more concerned about her appearance than her own daughter. She does not want to be looked at as a bad parent and rather put her daughter in danger by making her get an abortion if she ever had an unwanted pregnancy.
When I first read "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid I had no idea what to think about it except for the fact that it seemed like a bunch of random stereo types about women in some sort of conversation. When I went back to read it again, I still did not understand it fully, but it became much more clear.
ReplyDeleteIn class we talked a lot about how it was a conversation between a girl and her mother, and I can definitely see that in this story. Especially because most of the parts are a mother type figure saying things, like "the slut she is bent on becoming," and all of the other commands. However, another way that portrayed it was that the girl was the only one talking and she was almost mocking things that her mother and said to her in the past, and she was talking about them in anger. For example, "don't squat down to play marblebsyou are not a boy, you know; don't pick people's flowerbsyou might catch something; don't throw stones at blackbirds." To me it seems like these are all things that she wanted to do but her mother would always scold her and tell her that those are things that a lady should not do.
If it was a conversation between the mother and the girl, then I am confused as to why any mother would say such hurtful and mean things to their daughter. I understand her trying to teach her daughter things that she needs to know when she becomes older and becomes a housewife, but assuming that she is a slut and not letting her have fun with her friends does not make sense.
Overall, I thought that this short story was very intriguing and Jamaica Kincaid did a great job of stimulating people's thoughts about how a "lady" should or should not act.
-Marco Ferrara
The Girl by Kincaid subtly put on display what I think is a crisis of character we have in society: Far too many people are less concerned with who they are than they are with what they do and/or who others think and say they are. People have a tendency to have outwardly focused measures of goodness, virtue and value. As opposed to focusing on how our children think, which would ultimately control how they act, we focus instead on how they act immediately because we can’t risk people thinking our children are not good. Worse yet, we couldn’t possibly risk people thinking that we are bad parents.
ReplyDeleteIn the story, we see how restrictive and negatively focused this approach becomes. The daughter gets a laundry list of “don’t do’s” (don’t hang around the wharf rat boys, etc.). Her mother has apparently given no thought to the fact that this still leaves her clueless about who should hang with. She tells her what not to sing and do in church, but gives her no (at least to our knowledge) instruction on what she should be doing in church and why.
And of course, ultimately she tells her daughter that the worst possible outcome of her church action wouldn’t be eternity in hell nor would the worst outcome of keeping bad company be compromised morality based on assimilating with that company. The worst outcome would be people thinking and saying less of you … again reinforcing that who you are is less important than who people (specifically men) say you are.
Donte Lazarus
What I thought was interesting about the story “the Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is the format by which the author wrote the story. There is not an introduction of the characters. It starts off with a conversation and it does not even sees to follow a flow. It seems like the author just took parts of several conversations she had before and put them together on a text. The plot consists of a dialog between mother and daughter in which basically there is only one way to be morally correct. You have a choice between doing the house chores (cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, etc) or you are a slut. The mother portrays the feminine gender as a synonym of servitude in which a girl ought to not squat because man can see her underwear. Her mother has controversial behavior she gives advice to her daughter with regards to being a lady and a proper housewife but at the same time we can also see her telling her daughter how to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. One might think of the underlying reasons for this controversy. Could it be that the mother itself in the past had to face an unwanted pregnancy which resulted in the birth of her daughter or an abortion or even the fact that the daughter has already faced an unwanted pregnancy and they are trying to prevent the same thing from happening again.
ReplyDeleteXana Guerreiro
In the Girl the mother addresses the daughter and says” this is how you smile to someone you don't like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don't like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely.” This really does get me because in the world we are in today no matter if you try to or not we all have different smiles we give for different kinds of people.
ReplyDeleteReferring to Zach’s blog post about how the mother had seemed like she had heard it before that it just flowed like it had been said before. It could have been a family tradition handed down for ages that they practice and teach all the ladies in the family so they aren’t scrutinized in society because we all know how bad it was for the African Americans during those times. I didn’t really look into that way until I read his blog post but after rereading it again it does sound like a sort of story of etiquette.
I agree that it is comical that the mother tries to teach her daughter the right ways but there is question not about the abortion part but how she did it. She didn’t seem to really give thought on how to teach her daughter but just a quick run through almost as if she didn’t care. You would think that she would sit down teach her and help her understand over time because we all know that taking all that in so quickly would be hard for the young girl.
My question from reading all of this, was what had the mother been through and what kind of mother was the daughter being taught right from wrong? The mother seemed to have encountered some of these things she was telling her daughter. So maybe she wasn’t a truly good role model for the girl to be hearing some of the things the mother was saying.
- David Erbacher
Girl, by Jamaica Kincaid is a very unique dialogue, the fact that it is one sentence, and how it is someone purely ranting for several hundred words. The first time I read it, I could not make out who the narrator was, but it was easy for me to tell that he or she was speaking to a girl, because of the giveaways "for you are not a boy" and "that slut that you are so bent on becoming". In class when we discussed that the narrator was a mother lecturing her daughter, the entire story's point became clear to me.
ReplyDeleteThe mother's demands, although expressing them in a seemingly angry way, is showing pure love for her daughter. I think from a first glance, it sounds unreasonable, but it seems like she wants the best for her daughter. Do you think that also the mother made the mistakes she warned her about, and that she does not want her daughter to repeat what she did when she was young?
It seems this is a point in the girl's life where she is indeed becoming the way her mother does not want her to be, but I think her mother is more pleading and giving last hope that it will not happen. This is shown by the only time the daughter speaks: "but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?”. This question makes it clear that the daughter is likely becoming a slut, or is at least planning on engaging in behavior that her mother has forbidden to do.
-Mark Menezes
This piece of work gives detail into what many mothers would have liked to say to their daughters in the past, but probably never did. This is also an example of what many mothers today SHOULD say to their daughters at a young, appropriate age. The mother in “Girl” has a lot on her mind, but conveys it in a very concise manner. She gives her daughter advice on how almost every aspect of being a good person/woman. Her suggestions are generally positive, but some are blunt criticisms of things she should completely avoid. I’m sure a large part of these suggestions are not even openly spoken, but rather implied through example (monkey see, monkey do). An example of this would be “this is how you sweep a whole house. In this case, the mother is simply doing an action, so that her daughter will know how to replicate it when asked. Not only this, but when she is older she will know that it is a duty that is expected of her.
ReplyDeleteThe mother in “Girl” is simply making damn sure that her daughter will be a good housekeeper/wife/person when she grows in to a young lady. The mother would be extremely embarrassed if the girl she brought up was a floozy peasant. The mother warns her against making assumptions mistakes.
I realize that the use of “mother” does make a few simple assumptions, but after the conversation in class, most people generally assumed that the narrator is a mother.
-Chris Lendrim
This is quite a unique piece of poetry. I don’t think I have read anything quite like this before. It’s basically a dialogue between two people. You can assume that one is sort of a mother figure. It is mostly just a list of things that the mother is telling the daughter to do. They can, however, be divided into categories. There are commands that have to do with performing tasks, some that deal with morals, and one question from the mother. The daughter only gets a chance to respond to any of these things twice.
ReplyDeleteThe commands with performing task are probably the least interesting, but they convey a social understanding by the mother of what a woman is supposed to do in terms of the household. She is passing on this knowledge of the way things are “supposed” to be. She tells her things like, “this is how you set a table for dinner” among other menial tasks that she thought her daughter would have to perform on a daily basis.
When the mother starts going into morals it becomes a little more complex, especially when she says, “On Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming.” This is the first command where you really start to get a picture of the mother figure ideas. She assumes that the daughter is so intent on becoming a slut and tells her several things throughout the poem to try and dissuade the daughter from doing this. Why the mother assumes this we don’t really know. It is quite possible that she participated in many of the things that she is telling her daughter not to do and is hoping she won’t make the same mistakes. The poem get even more complicated when the mother says, “this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child.” This really confused me because I wasn’t sure exactly what she meant by this. She could be talking about abortion, but that doesn’t really make much sense to me in the context of this poem. Also, it doesn’t seem to fit in with the other moral ideas that the mother has been preaching this entire poem.
Only once does the mother ask a question when she says, “is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?” This is the only real response we get from the daughter when she replies to this question after several other commands have already been spit out by the mother. She responds with, “but I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school.” The daughter doesn’t yet realize why her mother is telling her all of these things, but maybe she will with time. The only other time the daughter says anything is at the end when she asks a question herself, but the mother responds by basically saying haven’t you learned anything yet. I think this poem exemplifies the inexperience of young people and shows that many of these lessons can only be learned through time.
-Sean Graham
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, although slightly provocative, was an interesting way to tell truth through fiction. After reading this piece, I honestly felt somewhat angry that this girl was being told by her hypocritical mother how to behave in society so as to appear “proper” to others. Although it was hypocritical of her mother to be “shaping” her in this fashion, it is a relevant issue in todays society. I do believe that there is a standard for girls to appear to be something they might not actually be. I am lucky enough to not have had my mother do the same to me, but a lot of my girl friends growing up had the same type of authority giving them some- not all- of these kinds of guidance. I agree with some of the previous posts when they say that her instructions did not seem all that bad, until she started making reference to abortions and other questionable advisements. I also agree that she may have been wanting to prevent some things that happened in her past to happen to her daughter, but she is simply teaching her daughter to be a fake member of society that is seen only for her manners and physical composition rather than what she has to offer on this inside. I also think that the mother in “Girl” is an accurate representation of todays standards that are put on girls to weigh heavily on what other people think of them. I thought one of the more interesting comments her mother made was “this is how to love a man; and if this doesn’t work there are other ways”. It was just sad to know that even the concept of love seems to be a source of insincerity to her mother.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid I was a little in shock. The story was list of what to do and what not to do. The mother seemed to be training her daughter to be a servant or a house wife but most of all it seemed she wanted her daughter to make better decisions than she did. Everytime the mother brings up the word "slut" I tend to think that the mother was a very unproper woman when she was growing up and made some wrong decisions. This is why I feel the mother is almost saying do as I say not as I've done kind of thing. This kind of goes along with what Lauren said about teaching her to be a fake member of society. The mother tells her to have a good public image which I think the mother probably didn't. So if the girl does what her mother is telling her she will be perceived as a good person and will be someone the baker will let touch the bread.
ReplyDelete"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid is a fascinating poem that more closely describes a life cycle than a lot of people probably realize. It focuses on the life progression for a young girl; however, I strongly feel like it serves as a guide for parents on how to raise a child equally as much it portrays a girl's life. It starts off with what most likely seems to be a mother teaching her small daughter to do certain things like chores. The entire poem acts as a lesson plan for life.
ReplyDeleteThe poem takes our original child and progresses her into a teen, then young adult, and eventually a wife/mother. As basic lessons are taught near the beginning of the poem, the girl learns other things that a parent would teach when she becomes an adolescent. Her mother warns of troublesome boys in the line "you mustn't speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions." To me this sounds like a typical parent. A true caring parent cares about the people and "boys" that their daughter associates with. I think that this is completely true because of the repeated warnings "the slut you are so bent on becoming." I can be honest and say that even though I'm only 21 I have actually thought about the day I may have a daughter, and one of my biggest fears is that she is a slut, especially while it seems so easy to become one in our modern times. I get the feeling "Girl" has a setting that takes place in more traditional times, and back then it would be embarrassing and degrading to a family's name if their daughter was a slut. I don't think the mother is being harsh at all with her words.
Also, the line "this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child" seems extremely human to me. That natural essence of this poem speaks to me. How true is it that a parent could easily choose between pro-choice or pro-life when it comes to your own daughter? And the fact that the mother knows how to make her own medicine could possibly confirm my thoughts that this poem was written earlier and in a less advanced place.
I think the poem is also cleverly written in a way that makes the mother seem like a mean person at times, but caring at others. To me, this seems very reflective of real life. If you can tell me that a mother isn't mean at times, then prove me wrong. My point is that as a child, one can be unreasonable and not understand a parent's thoughts or orders.
I would lastly like to point out that the author stresses the importance of maintaining youth in age with the line "this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it." Overall, I think "Girl" is foreshadowing life more closely than many know. So even though the mother seems like a bitch, I find that she is merely being a mother. Can you really judge one's methods of parenting?
This poem is narrated by a woman who is sharing her experience with another girl. She is telling her how to do basic things and is giving her advice on how to basically live her life so that she doesn’t become a slut. She tells her how to fold and prepare clothes to have ready for herself and her father, grow food, sweep and do other household chores. She tells her how to take care of her house and keep up with the yard work in the hopes that if she kept herself busy on becoming the ultimate house-wife candidate, that she would be transfixed on finding a man that was worth her time and would want to settle down; rather than mess around and become a whore. She tells her how to be lady-like with things like not ever squatting, always showering (even if it had to be done with her own spit), and how to love. One of the most interesting things that came from this article was near the end where she was telling her how to make medicine. After this statement she proceeds to tell her about how to have abortion; which is kind of confusing, because of the fact that she has been telling her the entire time about how to be emotionally strong and not be a slut. The last thing was that she told her if she was at the bakery trying to make sure that she gets bread that is fresh enough, and if someone refused to let her touch it before she bought it, do you really think she would back down? She said if she can go through that entire life that she has and then back down for this, what is the point really?
ReplyDelete-Allie Nicosia
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid gives us a conversation between a young girl and her mom about how the she should lead her life. It seems to start off as a normal conversation that might actually take place between parents and their kids but then she adds extreme advice about how the young girl is bent on becoming a slut. It almost seems like the mother knows her child is going to become slut no matter what advice she gives her. So, instead of preventing her child from becoming a slut she ends up just telling her how to cover up her actions so other people don’t realize what she really is. The mom tells her how to prevent an unwanted baby and how to love a man. In the end the mother knows her daughter will be a slut but what she really cares about if the public sees her as the kind of girl they would let touch the bread.
ReplyDeleteThis is a pretty depressing way to look at raising kids but at the same time seems pretty realistic because nobody is perfect and that is what this short story is trying to get at. So, instead of trying to raise your kid to be perfect you should raise your kid the best you can and give them advice they can really use in real life because they won’t be perfect.
Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” is a poem about a mother giving her daughter advice on life. She explains how to do tasks that are considered to traditional for women. She is very vague saying “this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard”. I found it interesting that the mother did not stop with the more traditional tasks of being a woman. The mother teaches her daughter how to “smile to someone you don't like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don't like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely”. In my opinion, the reason the mother teaches her daughter how to smile at someone she does not like is because she wants her daughter to be able to put on a mask in front of other people. The mother understands that women are supposed to be lady like. She is trying to instill proper manners in her daughter.
ReplyDeleteI have also read in other comments that people believe the mother is a hypocrite, because she tells her daughter not to be a slut and then goes on to tell her how to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. Even though this could be the case, I do not agree. I think the mother is saying do not go out and be a “slut” but if a pregnancy was to happen here is how you handle it.
Overall this poem was a great insight into what it is like to be a woman back in the ‘60s. It shows indirectly how woman were treated. Reading between the lines, you can understand that Kincaid is showing everything women are suppose to do and how they are suppose to act. She is mentioning everything women are stereotyped into being.
Ryan Stonaker
I feel Jamaica Kincaide, in her piece, “Girl,” did a great job portraying the growth of the main character in the piece and showing the generational learning that we all experience through life.
ReplyDeleteJamaica Kincaide’s “Girl was definitely one I had to reread a few times. I understood what I was reading at first, I just didn’t understand why. Here is this girl getting bombarded with warnings and rules on how to behave as a girl and how to become a lady. These rules, while good to know I guess, are given to her pretty rough. I mean what kind of mother (at least I’m assuming that is who is talking to her) warns her daughter of becoming a slut. Sure no one wants their daughter to become a slut but there are better ways of putting it.
There is a feeling of urgency in the way the mother “teaches” the girl. She is spitting out every possible rule you can think of without taking a breath. The girl barely gets to put in her two cents at the end of the story. This plus the coarse way the mother instructs her daughter makes for a very intense lecture. And thinking about this helped me understand that story a little better.
During this time, women are under a lot of pressure. Not just to do a laundry list of jobs but to do them in a certain manner. The world expects all of this from them and wont wait up on them to figure it out. So the girl needs to figure all she can as fast as she can. There is no need to sugar coat and slow down these instructions on how to be a lady because when she steps out on her own, she can bet the world isn’t going to be sugar coated either.
So while I could be wrong, I think Kincaide’s story shows us a good example of tough love. It very well might be written out of resentment but I believe it is a story of a mother telling her daughter what it takes to be a lady in this world, and there can’t be any pampering in her instruction.
Jeff Kibler
After I read “Girl,” I didn’t really think that it was worth a response from me because it really caught me off guard. The story was a little strange to read because it seemed to be nothing but a list. After reading deeper into it, I realized that it was a sort of guideline for becoming a well-respected woman.
ReplyDeleteThe story is being told to a girl by her mother and it touches on what she should do, shouldn’t do, how she should act, and how she shouldn’t act. The mother’s morals were a little different than most mothers however that is what makes people unique. The story gave me a little insight on what it was like to be a young girl growing up at that time in the world and what they needed to do to become our future elders. I feel that this is important because our elders are ultimately who we learn about stuff like that from.
I feel that “Girl” was pretty good in the long run; just a little different from everything I have read in the past. I actually ended up appreciating it because it opened my mind to thinking deeper and reading deeper as well as to new things.
-Ryan Cormack