Feminist way of reading - Essay Example

Your An Analysis of “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid The poem Girl is a piece of advice from mother to daughter presented as a single sentence, separated by colons. The advice is often insulting to the part of the daughter but the reader also sees the fact that the mother wants to help the daughter as well. There are a lot of practical advices that the mother is telling her child, most of them points that will help the child become a good, domesticated wife. She tells the daughter the correct ways on how to do household chores like sewing, ironing, doing the laundry, sweeping the floor; she tells the daughter useful information as to where to plant okra and how to make abortifacients.

The mother also imparts knowledge to the child regarding proper behavior amongst men, like never speaking to wharf rat boys, how to smile correctly to different kinds of people, and not squatting when playing marbles. However, the mother’s advice also turns into something more of an insult because she fears that her daughter is on her way to becoming a “slut” and this usually happens when the mother is thinking about the opposite sex. The girl, however, periodically interjects on the mother’s speech, at which time she is protesting her innocence.

The poem’s theme is talking about the woman’s gender role in the society and at the same time, the role of sexuality in the society, particularly in the Antiguan society (where the author was born and raised). The mother is constantly reminding the daughter of her role as a woman in their society. She lays down the rules to make her daughter someone respectable in her society by telling her how to sew and cook (among other things). This is because the mother strongly believes that a woman’s reputation (especially in terms of sexual reputation) strongly influences her quality of life; hence, when the woman is of ill-repute, she would have to live an impoverished life.

This is why she constantly tells her daughter the ways and means to become a respectable woman in their society by conforming to the rules and the conventional behavior. This also implies that female sexuality should be controlled for one to have a normal, happy life; even discussing how to make herbal medicines to abort children. In their society, the woman’s role is to become very domesticated. This is because that being a domesticated woman is somehow being saved from the plight of being a slut, and thus being respectable.

This poem also tells that being domesticated is being happy. This poem tells that the Antiguan society is still deeply entrenched in the notion of the respectable woman as a domestic character and a disrespectable one as someone who is “too friendly”. The stereotype continues to live on and this poem is a social commentary on how it continues to exist and still permeates their culture, hoping that the new generation (the daughter) would question the old notions of it and live the life they want to live.

Reference:Kincaid, Jamaica. “Girl”. Virtual Lit: Bedford St. Martins. Bedford St. Martins (1978). Web. July 7, 2011