The Girl by Jamaica Kincaid - Essay Example

Textual Analysis: “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid The “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is an unusual work of fiction. Made up of a long one-sentence dis employing 670 words, more or less, “Girl” is a mishmash of instructions and directions emanating from an older person, possibly a mother, to a young girl in the throes of womanhood. The story lacks a clear plot that allows a reader to follow a sequence of events that builds up to a climax. What Kincaid has written is a series of phrases punctuated by semi-colons all lumped in a single sentence. The young girl in this story, who makes up one of its two characters, is symbolic of women in general who are oppressed by the constricting moral and social values imposed on them by society. Kincaid deliberately uses a style of language to impress upon the reader that society marginalizes women by tyrannically dictating and imposing upon them superficial and contradictory moral and social obligations. An initial reading of the first few lines of Kincaid’s “Girl” gives the impression that one is reading a list of to-dos and creates a feeling of coldness and impersonality. This mechanical enumeration of directions and instructions convey further that the person to whom they are directed to is an inferior or not significant enough person to merit being addressed formally by a superior. The first few lines, for example, of the story goes: “wash the clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the colour clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothes-line to dry; don’t walk barehead in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little clothes after you take them off…” The significance of this style is that it highlights society’s (or at least the society where Kincaid grew in) tyrannical and unjust treatment of women. In addition, it makes readers see women being regarded as inferior, passive and meek. The narrative style employed in the entire length of the story consisting of phrases without subjects and delivered staccato-style punctuated only by semi-colons to separate one idea from the rest all lumped together in one sentence conveys an impression of heaviness, density, endlessness and volume. It is as if the writer wants her readers to feel overwhelmed and saddled perhaps as a way of making them see and empathize with the girl who feels being drowned with too many expectations, duties and obligations imposed upon her by the elder (perhaps her mother). Kincaid perhaps is enforcing the idea of a parallelism between the girl’s dilemma of being at the receiving end of such seemingly endless instructions and directions and women’s status in society as being burdened by endless expectations of moral and social duties and obligations. Kincaid’s story does not only imply society’s inferior regard of women but also writing them off as failures and unworthy if they are unable to personify society’s vision of them as morally and socially acceptable members of the fair sex. This can be glimpsed from a closer reading of the entire prose which reveals that although “Girl” is actually an interaction between two people, an elder (perhaps the mother) and a girl, yet the entire paragraph is dominated by the mother’s constant chatter with the girl only able to sneak in two phrases which can be identified by their italicization: “but I don’t sing benna at all and never in a Sunday school,” and; “but what if the baker won’t make me feel the bread?” The first is a protestation of the allegation that she sings benna (an Antiguan genre of music) in Sunday school while the second, made near the end of the story, is a question she poses after being instructed to always squeeze bread for freshness. The first protestation is totally disregarded as if the girl has not spoken at all while the second is derided as failure of being socially acceptable. Kincaid’s employment of a series of phrases constituting instructions which are actually similar to each other interspersed between groups of phrases seems to point out that women are not free to act and behave outside of the dictates of society which must determine for them their deportment and behavior in every occasion and situation. In a series of related instructions, for example, the mother tells the girl: “this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard.” And in another: “this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast.” The idea that these series of related instructions seem to suggest is that the girl is so simple-minded that she has to be instructed for every other chore even if they are so simple and can be similarly accomplished. Perhaps, Kincaid wishes to point out to the reader that society treats women like small girls incapable of using their minds and bereft of common sense. In addition, Kincaid’s style of juxtaposing different ideas without hierarchical order and perceptible plan all throughout the passage gives a feeling of incoherence. This becomes effective in conveying the idea that even society itself does not seem to have a clear understanding of the exact role it wants women to take on. Conflicting values of morality and contradictory ideas of social demeanor permeate throughout the passage engendering disunity of purpose and confusion. The mother, for example, reminds the girl to behave properly and not “like the slut you are bent on becoming” several times in the passage, yet somewhere in the middle she tells her “this is how to make a medicine to throw away a child before it becomes a child” which implies that she is teaching the girl how to abort an unwanted child. In another instance, the mother tells the girl to “always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach” as well as not to “squat down to play marbles” because she is not a boy which implies that she is teaching the girl proper social etiquette yet these instructions on etiquette seem to be contradicted by her subsequent instruction on “how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so it doesn’t fall on you.” The overall feeling that a reader gets after contemplating on all of the mother’s instructions is that her purpose is not really imparting good moral and social values to the girl but to instill in her values in accordance to the moral and social standards acceptable to society. The mother’s purpose, it would seem, is to ensure the child’s social acceptability. This is evident in the last phrase of the passage where she states “you mean to say that after all you really are going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?” The implication of this question is that all her previous instructions and teachings to the girl are geared to make the latter socially acceptable - to the baker for instance. Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” is perhaps written to reflect the social condition of women in Antigua where the writer hails from. Nevertheless, there is a grain of truth to Kincaid’s insights even in present day America where women are comparatively freer than women in other societies. Historically, society has always imposed a more severe standard of moral and social conduct on women than on men and perhaps today, in such places as Antigua, women are still hostage to such societal pressures. Kincaid has succeeded in illustrating the tyrannical hold that society has on women through the employment of a unique style of tone of language that gives a certain kind of feel to her story. The use of mechanical and impersonal instructions, a spate of phrase one after another delivered like a long recital, the 670 words arranged in phrases and punctuated by semi-colons lumped tightly in a single sentence and contradictory and incoherent ideas all emphasize the idea of women oppression that Kincaid wants to highlight. Works Cited Kincaid, Jamaica. “Girl,” Creative Writing: A Workbook with Readings by Linda Anderson, Edition, illustrated. Taylor & Francis, 2006: 477-479. Read More