Girl (poem)

"Girl" is a short story/poem written by Jamaica Kincaid that was included in At the Bottom of the River (1983). It appeared in the June 26, 1978 issue of The New Yorker.

Plot summary

The story is a to-do list and a how-to-do list. It lists things to do and when to do them. How to do things and how not to do them. It doesn't describe how to do anything precisely; instead it simply says things like "This is how to catch a fish; this is you; this is how to bully a man." The mother repeatedly admonishes the daughter for singing benna in Sunday school and repeatedly calls her a slut. The poem ends with the exchange:

but what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?; 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?

Theme

The theme for "Girl" is mother-daughter dispute. In this poem, 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. Whenever the daughter says something, which is rare, it’s a snap back at the mother.

At the end of the story, the daughter says “but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?” and the mother replies with “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?” This could be the mother questioning the daughter’s standards. After the mother went through step-by-step telling her daughter how to be perfect by her definition, she asks what if she’s not good enough. That’s like the daughter saying that everything her mother has learned is bogus.

References

Kincaid, Jamaica. "Girl." An Introduction to Fiction. 'Comp'. X. J. Kennedy & Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Print.

External links

• online text of the poem