Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

ENWR 106-16
Hoeflinger
25 Feb 2014
Girl
What makes a woman? Femininity and masculinity have long been defined and divided along gender lines that were never meant to be crossed; a man or woman who does not fit the archetypical picture of their strict gender-biased boundaries is shunned and stereotyped. A woman who does not embody the perception of the perfect wife and mother, especially in the 1950s-60s, would have been considered unladylike. In Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”, the matters of womanhood and femininity are expressed as a mother teaches her daughter the rules and restrictions that come along with being a lady, especially those that will help her to be accepted in society.
Though this story came out in 1978, it is very likely that
Kincaid intended it to harken back to the 1950s and 60s, when it was big for women to be very feminine, so the mother is teaching the daughter how to uphold this societal demand. The mother tells her daughter how to clean a house and mend clothing because that is what society expects her to be able to do. It is also important to note that while this story does not seem to take place in the United States, but rather in Kincaid’s childhood home of Antigua, the same subjective roles of womanhood were widely spread through the western world. During the 1970s, especially in America, women were more acceptably unrestricted in the sense that, for the first time, there were two clear categories: rebellious women, those who enjoyed calypso and disco dancing in night clubs, and the original ideal housewives. As time progressed, less and less was said for the housewives and in our modern culture, it is very uncommon to find that stay-at-home mother figure, as most women today have their own careers and activities, and the traditional values and idealities of femininity are lost to history.
There are many instances in the story where the restrictions of femininity, as defined by the culture of the time, are clear. The mother instructs her daughter to do everything in a specific manner, such as how to cook, clean, and tailor. She also expects the daughter to be able to please her future husband and “be the kind of woman who the baker [will let touch the bread]” (56). She must be the sort of woman who can look pretty and act like a lady at all times so as not to appear as a slut. The mother would have defined a slut as an unfeminine, poorly dressed girl who hangs out with “wharf-rat boys” and sings “benna in Sunday school” (56). A slut does not keep clean, and acts out of place when in the company of unfamiliar men.
The story itself is based around the idea that these are the guidelines you need to follow to be good at being a girl.
The idea of the perfect lady is that of a woman who can perform household tasks as her husband works to provide income for the family. As the mother explains, the role of a woman is to cook and clean in order to please her husband as he returns from a hard day at work. She stresses that a lady does not keep poor company or dress down. She always takes care of her man, whether that means nursing him when he is sick, feeding him well, or just being the perfect mother to his children. A lady can keep her head in public, even in company she doesn’t care for, as indicated when the mother says “…this is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much” (56). The idea behind this is that women, and we know this too be true even in our current society, can harbor resentment to other women for great lengths of time, yet can remain in polite
company.
The dialog continues as the mother explains that the daughter should also know how to take care of her father’s needs. This is perhaps indicating that the mother wishes her to take control of her duties when she has passed. This leads to the conclusion that a woman’s choices are dictated by the men and that they have no will over their lives. This is untrue, in fact, even the mother discredits this by teaching her daughter a way to self-induce an abortion in case an unwanted child comes into the picture, saying “…this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child…” (56). Perhaps this is Kincaid alluding to the progression from housewife to self-determining woman, but it is more likely that it is just the mother looking after her child.
Another instance in the story where the mother seems to be teaching her daughter something against the standard housewife rule is where she speaks of the “other ways” there are if a relationship does not work out (56). The idea at this point in the story is that the daughter shouldn’t be heartbroken if a romance ends, probably meaning that she is able to find comfort in being there for herself. This story is written as one large sentence, with breaks only twice where the daughter is speaking.
To the reader, this can be a bit overwhelming. A deeper investigation suggests that Kincaid intended the story to read quickly, as if it were a checklist of things that must be done and remembered. The pauses that are being taken, when the daughter is asking questions, break up the story in an abrupt way that may signify the growth of the daughter. Perhaps this is indicating that this is not the mother instructing her over a short period of time, but over several years, as the daughter matures into an adult. This theory would also explain how towards the end of the story, the mother speaks of spitting in the air, a practice that would previously have been forbidden by the rules of womanhood (56). It is perhaps the mother joking around because now the daughter would have known better.
One other interesting theory is that the girl Kincaid is referring to is actually herself, and that it is her mother teaching her how to act like a lady in their society. Kincaid grew up in Antigua during the time the country was governed by England. Kincaid is well known for her non-fiction stories and novels about Antigua, and it is very likely that “Girl” is a callback to her own childhood experiences (55-56). She was born in 1949, right on the cusp of the housewife movement of the 50s, and at that time, Antigua was under British rule, so they would have been forced to act the English
proper.
“Girl” represents a fundamental human narrative: What makes a woman? Is it perhaps the sway of her hips as she passes in the street? The way she cooks or cleans? Or, perhaps the definition of a woman is measured in the way she carries herself when no one is watching. The matters of femininity and masculinity have divided our genders in the past, and it is time for a change. What was once passed from mother to daughter, the guidebook on being a lady, has been lost over time and the models of housewives past have disappeared almost entirely from our society, yet it is important to remember them.

Works Cited
Kincaid, Jamaica. “Girl.” Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. Ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2012. 55-56. Print.