“GIRL” BY JAMAICA KINCAID

Jamaica Kincaid 1949 -

Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter
Richardson on the island of Antigua.
Antigua was colonized by the British (and remained a
British colony until 1981). Sugarcane plantations were
established and African slaves were brought to the
island.
Most Antiguans are of African lineage and are
descendants of slaves.
September, 2019
She changed her name to Jamaica
Kincaid in 1973 because her family
disapproved of her writing.
She worked for New Yorker
magazine for 20 years (1976-1995).
She is a Professor of African and
African American Studies
at Harvard University during the
academic year, and resides in
Vermont during the summers.
“I think in many ways the problem that my
writing would have with an American reviewer is
that Americans find difficulty very hard to take.
They are inevitably looking for a happy ending.
Perversely, I will not give the happy ending. I
think life is difficult and that's that.”
- Jamaica Kincaid
“Girl” - Publication Info.
First published in the June 26,
1978, issue of The New Yorker,
“Girl” was the first of more than a
dozen short stories Jamaica
Kincaid published in that
magazine.
Five years later, “Girl” appeared
as the opening story in Kincaid's
collection of stories, At the Bottom
of the River (1983), her first book.
“Girl”
“Girl” is a one-sentence, 650-word
dialogue between a mother and
daughter.
Setting: Although no specific
setting is named, Kincaid has
revealed in interviews that it takes
place in Antigua, her island
birthplace, and is based on
Kincaid's own life and her
relationship with her mother.
It is probably set in the early
1960s.
 Characters
Mother: She lives in a
culture that looks to both
Christianity and Obeah,
an African-based religion.
Daughter: The girl speaks
only twice in the story,
voicing impulsive
objections to her
mother's accusations and
warnings.
Writing Style – “Girl”
Jamaica Kincaid’s fiction
focuses on the continuity and
community preserved and kept
alive by mothers, through their
stories and connection with
their daughters.
The mother is maintaining an
oral tradition whereby cultural
traditions and survival skills are
passed down from mother to
daughter.
Writing Style – “Girl”
The mother's speech not only manipulates, but also
teaches the art of manipulation.
“This is how to hem a dress…to prevent yourself
from looking like the slut I know you are so bent
on becoming.”
 Mother scolds the girl's impending sluttiness
 Mother tells the girl how to hide that condition
Being a “slut” is taken for granted; the advice is
aimed at preventing others from realizing it.
The mother was probably trying to tell her
daughter how to avoid all the mistakes she made
as a young girl.
This shows girls are only valued as
sexual/reproductive creatures at this time/place.
 Setting
Antigua in the mid-20th century
Laundry ‘‘on the stone heap’’ and ‘‘on the
clothesline to dry” indicate a way of life
without electrical appliances.
Foods she mentions help place the story in the
Caribbean:
 pumpkin fritters

 saltfish

 okra

 dasheen (also called taro, a tropical starchy

root)
 pepper pot
Cultural Setting
To be a good Antiguan woman
means to know how to maneuver
appropriately within a
Eurocentric culture, so the
mother is trying to guide the
daughter.
The mother is
bossy/overbearing/strict, but she
is trying to prepare her daughter
for life as a young black woman
in Antigua in the mid-20th century.
Cultural Setting: Benna
‘‘Is it true you sing benna in Church?’’
the mother asks.

Jamaica Kincaid defined this as “songs of

the sort your parents didn’t want you to
sing, at first calypso and then rock and
roll.”

Benna songs are also African folk songs,

and African cultural practices are not
compatible with traditional Christianity.
 Cultural Setting: Obeah
Many Antiguans practice a woman-
centered, African-based religion called
Obeah, similar to Voodoo or Santeria.
Caribbean Christians will often also practice
Obeah, using spells and secret medicines
when the situation calls for them.
The mother in this story probably practiced
Obeah.
Kincaid on Obeah:
‘‘…it was such an everyday part of my life,
you see. I wore things, a little black sachet
filled with things, in my undershirt. I was
always having special baths. It was a
complete part of my life for a very long
time.''
 Obeah
“Don’t throw stones at blackbirds,
because it might not be a blackbird at
all.”
The blackbird might be a “jablesse”
(La diablesse, “she devil”).
 a shape-changing spirit that often

takes the form of a beautiful,

deceptive, and deadly woman.
 The jablesse lures men with her

beauty but then isolates and devours

them.
Think of her like a boogeyman, cucuy,
La Llorona, screaming banshee, etc.
What is NOT said . . .

 No mention of love,  The mother's function is to

nurturing, school, condition her daughter, a
member of a new
dreams, friendship, generation of young
island beauty, etc. women, to feel guilty
because of her gender
rather than her behavior.
 She describes NO
satisfaction with her life.
 Jamaica Kincaid reads “Girl”

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