Elaine Potter Richardson

Presented by Sarah Carlson, Danielle Wilkinson, and

Chelsea Zerbe

Otherwise known as...

Background & Early Life

Basic Facts
Kincaid was born May 25th, 1949.
She was born in St. Johns, Antigua.
She had three younger half brothers.
She left her home in Antigua for the
States in 1965.
Author of many works including the short
story Girl
For me, writing is like going to the
psychiatrist. I just discover things
about myself.

Edwards, Justin D. Understanding Jamaica Kincaid. Columbia: U of

South Carolina, 2007. Print.

Name Change
Happened in 1973
Jamaica because of her Caribbean Origins.
Kincaid just because it seemed to go with
Jamaica.
Changed her name for a new start and to keep from
being discovered by her family if she were to fail as
a writer.
Bouson, J. Brooks. Jamaica Kincaid: Writing Memory, Writing Back to the Mother. Albany: State U
of New York, 2005. Print.

Antiguan Influence

Antiguas Early History

Antigua is a country that makes up the Leeward Islands of the

Caribbean along with Barbuda and Redonda.
It was colonized by the British from 1871 until 1956.
The country became fully independent in 1981.
Women were impacted by the social and political structures of the island
colony.
Women earned less than men in Antigua and most households were
headed by unmarried women, therefore most Antiguan households were
highly impoverished.

 GIRLS
who enroll in primary school do not complete their primary education.

Kincaids Life in Antigua

Very depressed and full of rage due to her relationship with her mother.
They had a love-hate relationship after her brothers were born because she felt
she had to put aside her education to take care of her family.
She says It was one of the biggest betrayals of my life was my familys
interruption of my education after the birth of my brothers.(Bouson 6)
She grew a resentment towards her family because each of her brothers were
expected to have high status jobs and no one expected her to have a future of
her own.
Because of Antiguas culture, Kincaid had to fall into the typical gender roles of
a woman to take care of the men in the household as a top priority.
Because of this she was forced to give up her passion of literature.

New Yorks Influence

Kincaid in New York

Sent to New York to earn money for her family.

But she realized that she didnt have to do that and started a new
life on her own.
Changed her name
Jamaica practically became famous overnight after befriending the
New York writer, George Trow.
Feminist movement was peaking in the 1960s

Bouson, J. Brooks. Jamaica Kincaid: Writing Memory, Writing Back to the Mother. Albany: State U of New York,
2005. Print.

Big Boom of Feminism

The 1960s experience of women

students who were militant in the
radical protest movement.
This time period was known as
The 2nd Wave of Feminism.
NOW (National Organization for
Women)

Castro, Ginette. American Feminism: A Contemporary History. Trans. Elisabeth Loverde-Blackwell. New York and London: New
York UP, 1990. Print.

Big Boom Of Feminism

The Housewife Syndrome.

Affected primarily middle class

women
Claimed physical illnesses such as:

Migraines
Hypertension
Pain
Constipation
Sexual troubles

Thesis; While Kincaids short story

Girl is surely impacted by Antiguan
culture, we argue Kincaids writings
were more so influenced by American
feminism because they were written
after she was strongly exposed to the
feminist culture.

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

Girl was published in the June 26,

1978 edition of The New Yorker, and
was included in Kincaids At the
Bottom of a Rver (1983).
Girl was written through the voice
of her own mother as the narrator.
It is closely related to her own life and
her own experiences with her mother.

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

This is how you make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child
(580).
Girl also related to her mothers beliefs in the native culture called Obeah.
...the African-based system of beliefs that involves the supernatural, witchcraft, sorcery, and
magic and acknowledges the power of spells to inflict harm or help in healing(ParavisiniGerbert, 53).
It can be found within the text when it mentions warnings about catching something if the
girl picks up someone elses flower. Or saying not to throw stones at blackbirds because they
could be spirits in disguise.

Paravisini-Gebert, Lizabeth. "Chapter 3 At the Bottom of the River." Jamaica Kincaid: A Critical Companion. Westport, CT:
Greenwood, 1999. 51-54. Print.

Girl Through a Feminist Lens

Kincaids mother teaches her the limitations of becoming a proper English lady.
This depicts the gender roles that link the child to domesticity and acceptance of
the patriarchal paraments(ex. assuring the comforts of the males in the family.)
The mothers injunctions can be seen as an agent in the imposition of foreign
values on her daughter.
Links the tensions between mother and daughter to the tensions between the
colonizer and the colonized.

Girl Through a Feminist Lens

From a feminists perspective, Girl is highly sexist and offensive.

It was published in New York, which carried heavy weight.
It is highly based on its audience- New yorkers are feminists.
If this short story were published in Antigua, it would be read as a lesson book
because it goes by the Antiguan culture.
But because it was published in New York, the story created a controversy
within the feminist movement.

Quotes From Girl

This is how you iron your fathers khaki pants so that they dont have a crease
(579)
This is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how
you sweep a yard.(579)
This is how to behave in the presence of men who dont know you very well, and
this way they wont recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against
becoming.(579)

Conclusion
In conclusion, the short story Girl can
be read in a feminist view towards the
Antiguan culture. Jamaica Kincaid wrote
Girl after being exposed to Americas
feminist culture in New York. She
published it with the intention of the
readers being predominately American,
whom dont know what it was like to be
in the highly patriarchal country of
Antigua. Kincaid shares her experiences
in such a way that makes the reader feel
the gender discrimination just by reading
her works. Thus showing her feminist
point of view in a diverted way.

Thanks!

Works Cited
Bouson, J. Brooks. Jamaica Kincaid: Writing Memory, Writing Back to the Mother. Albany: State U of New York, 2005. Print.
Castro, Ginette. American Feminism: A Contemporary History. Trans. Elisabeth Loverde-Blackwell. New York and London: New York UP,
1990. Print.
Edwards, Justin D. Understanding Jamaica Kincaid. Columbia: U of South Carolina, 2007. Print.
Kincaid, Jamaica. Girl. San Francisco: San Francisco Examiner, 1991. Print.
Paravisini-Gebert, Lizabeth. "Chapter 3 At the Bottom of the River." Jamaica Kincaid: A Critical Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood,
1999. 51-54. Print.
Williams, Christolyn A. "Chapter 3 Women in a Modern Colony." No Women Jump Out!: Gender Exclusion, Labour Organization and
Political Leadership in Antigua 1917-1970. N.p.: Peter Lang, 1999. 75-105. Print.
Wright, Edmund. "Antigua and Barbuda." A Dictionary of World History. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. N. pag. Print.