I was scrolling on my phone when I stumbled on a video of someone reading the short story "Girl". It sparked my interest and made me look it up and read it.
When reading this short story, at a quick glance it makes you believe its just a list of instructions a mother is telling her daughter on how to do certain traditions or chores. The mother tells the daughter how to do so many different things, from washing clothing, to cooking, and the "correct" way to present yourself. However when you look at it a second time, you start to understand what the true meaning is behind the writing.
This writing allows you to see the complicated mother-daughter dynamic, where you can start to see guidance start shifting more in controlling, with the mothers attempts to make her daughter into a "good" woman. The mother tells the daughter how to sew/hem certain skirts so that they reach a length accepted by society.
The piece, also allows you to understand the certain ideals of woman-hood and societal pressures at this time and place. The author said that she wrote this piece as a semi-autobiographical to display the things she went through growing up in Antigua, which is in the Caribbean during 1949. Around this time in the 1960s, the second wave of feminism happened which would have been during her Kincaid's teen year. So Kincaid in this piece talks about the certain societal things, like singing benna on Sundays. The way this is written, also makes it seem as if the daughter were to become an outcast the mother would be more hurt the the daughter. This all reflects the strict, misogynistic, social standards Kincaid was put into.
I think this short story is definitely one to check out and see the world from some else's perspective.
As always, thanks for reading my blog post!
It’s so cool how the short story is a semi autobiography!
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