That Girl Jamaica Kincaid
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
“Girl” is one long enduring sentence that is characterized as a poem by Jamaica Kincaid that brings to light the tensions between mother and daughter at a young vital age. Throughout the poem we see a list of loaded commands and a detailed blueprint from mother to daughter on the topics of household chores, how to cook, proper table and social etiquette, and relationships with men from mother to daughter, but the poem mainly depicts the dynamic of a their relationship. Even though it is never revealed if the speaker is actually the mother, we can assume this based on nature of her advices, domestic commands and even what she says in line 14, “ this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants.” We see the juxtaposition of a woman of one generation and that of a daughter in a different generation but also a development of the central tension of the mother’s more experienced maturity versus the innocence of the daughter.
The poem begins with domestic commands from the mother to child, such as when to “wash the white clothes” and how to “cook pumpkin fritters” portraying to us a typical dynamic of any mother and daughter relationship as in regards to domesticity but as the poem progresses we see changes and reasons for domestic commands as well as non domestic charges (Kincaid. Line 1,3). As the mother speaks, the young girl hears of the acceptable and unacceptable roles of a domesticated and conformed woman that her mother requires her to be. The poem then takes shift when the mother tells her daughter, “try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming” suggesting that the rest of the poem will be the mother’s commands and advice to the daughter on everything to do and not do so that she does not become a slut, (l.8). This seems rather deviant for a mother to tell her seemingly young child such a thing but throughout the series of instructions given in the poem we see that the mother is of an older generation
“Girl” is one long enduring sentence that is characterized as a poem by Jamaica Kincaid that brings to light the tensions between mother and daughter at a young vital age. Throughout the poem we see a list of loaded commands and a detailed blueprint from mother to daughter on the topics of household chores, how to cook, proper table and social etiquette, and relationships with men from mother to daughter, but the poem mainly depicts the dynamic of a their relationship. Even though it is never revealed if the speaker is actually the mother, we can assume this based on nature of her advices, domestic commands and even what she says in line 14, “ this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants.” We see the juxtaposition of a woman of one generation and that of a daughter in a different generation but also a development of the central tension of the mother’s more experienced maturity versus the innocence of the daughter.
The poem begins with domestic commands from the mother to child, such as when to “wash the white clothes” and how to “cook pumpkin fritters” portraying to us a typical dynamic of any mother and daughter relationship as in regards to domesticity but as the poem progresses we see changes and reasons for domestic commands as well as non domestic charges (Kincaid. Line 1,3). As the mother speaks, the young girl hears of the acceptable and unacceptable roles of a domesticated and conformed woman that her mother requires her to be. The poem then takes shift when the mother tells her daughter, “try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming” suggesting that the rest of the poem will be the mother’s commands and advice to the daughter on everything to do and not do so that she does not become a slut, (l.8). This seems rather deviant for a mother to tell her seemingly young child such a thing but throughout the series of instructions given in the poem we see that the mother is of an older generation
Cited: Page Jamaica, Kincaid. “Girl.” Schmidt, Jan and Crockett, Lynne. Portable Legacies: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, Nonfiction. 2nd Ed. : Michael Rosenberg, 2009.