Girl, One of these days - Essay Example

Answers Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl is, by no means, a story. The text is just a precautionary guide for a girl to improve her performance in the marriage as well as in the society. A story is essentially a coherent flow of events leading to a destination whereas the text in Girl lacks both origin and destination. Although one may think that the destination is to make a girl prudent in her mannerism, but again, there is no girl! Therefore, Girl has no story. Various events that form part of a story, when synthesized in a purposeful manner, develop the plot for the story.

In order for a story to have a plot, it is imperative that events are sequenced in a sensible way. There may either be a cause and effect relationship between events, or else, the events may just coincidently occur, but in either case, the subsequent events should be linked with the preceding ones. This being the definition of plot, it can be safely said that Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl has no plot at all, because there is no link whatsoever between the various events. In fact, there is no event at all.

Though Girl lacks story and plot, yet it essentially fulfills the purpose of character development. From the beginning till the end of Girl, an unknown narrator is advising something that seems to be a girl so that the latter may become a responsible and prudent woman and wife. There are traces of conflict and resolution in the text. Occasionally, the narrator tells why a girl thinks in a particular way, and what she should do to get rid of the problem. 2. There is a dentist who is busy doing his work while a Mayor approaches and sends message to the dentist via dentist’s son that he wants his tooth taken out.

The dentist is reluctant to do so and tells his son to tell the Mayor that he is not there. But the Mayor knows he is there. He tells the dentist’s son to tell him that if he did not take out the Mayor’s tooth, he would shoot the dentist. The dentist calls him in, and he makes the Mayor pour in the chair. He warns the Mayor that he would be given no anesthesia because the Mayor has an abscess. The Mayor tells him to proceed. The dentist takes the lower wisdom tooth out, while the Mayor holds his breath to bear the pain.

When the tooth has been taken out, the Mayor wishes him a good-bye after receiving instructions from the dentist. The Mayor tells him to send the bill, hearing which, the dentist sarcastically questions him if he would pay from the town’s budget. The Mayor says it means the same either way. In this story, the audience gets a feel of revenge taken by the dentist for the Mayor for his display of corruption. The story does not convey an objective lesson, though if one makes an attempt to derive a lesson, it would be that the dentist tries to make the Mayor realize how pain feels because the Mayor has formerly killed twenty people.

The plot makes me realize how common people with no power want to take revenge from those in authority for the misdeeds of the latter.