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Mylinh Pham

Professor Leah

Writing 37

26 October 2017

Makings of a Girl: Analyzing the relationships of girls in Antigua

Only a page and half long, Girl by Jamaica Kincaid describes the relationship between

the speaker and the girl using literary and rhetorical devices. Written in the 1980s, this

personal essay is a description of a girls life in Antigua, sharing the daily chores and demands

that she has to go through. Although this is a personal essay, it differs from its traditional

personal essay writing styles by using a non-traditional second person point-of-view and a

critical tone. These devices help shed light on the difference that different point of views can

make in a personal essay when it comes to sharing life experiences with the audience.

Kincaid describes the relationship between the girl and the speaker by using the second

person point of view and a critical tone, through diction and syntax, to create intimacy with the

audience by sharing own experiences in life. The second person point of view is used to tell the

girl what to do and how to do it from her own experience. Living in rural Antigua, there arent

many opportunities to have something done for you, so teaching the girl about how to do these

chores themselves, shows the speaker sharing and opening up to the audience about their own

experience going through this chapter themselves. In addition, the critical tone made up of the

diction and syntax, creates a long paragraph of a must-do and learn how-to-do list that the girl
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must follow. The specific word choice and method of speaking, creates a sense that overwhelms

the girl with pressure to do all of these chores, and do them perfectly.

When writing, one of the most important aspects an author makes is the decision to tell a

story in a specific point of view. In Understanding Second Person Point of View In Fiction by

Utah State University, the report states that the Point of view affects a number in fiction

elements, but most importantly, it affects the readers experience and relationship with the

narrative (Hawke V). Though this personal essay is not fiction, the point remains strong- the

decision to choose a specific point of view to tell the story can alter the way the audience

receives it. By choosing a second point of view, one that is most peculiar, underused, and

unexplored (Hawke V), it causes the audience to consider the meaning behind the use of this

specific method and think deeper into the texts meaning.

In Phillip Lopates The Art of the Personal Essay, he states The hallmark of a personal

essay is intimacy, and that by Sharing thoughts, memories, desires, complaints, and whimsies,

the personal essayist sets up a relationship with the reader, a dialogue-a friendship, if you will

based on identification, understanding, testiness, and companionship. This is exactly what the

author is trying to do; by having the speaker tell the girl what to do, it gives the audience insight

to the speakers past life experiences to create a relationship with the reader. The speaker telling

the girl to Wash the clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap, (Kincaid 1) is letting

her know that is this what you have to do and this is how you do it. By washing the clothes on

Monday the girl can remember what day to do laundry on and by putting it on the stone heap, it

will dry the clothes. This pattern of chores continues throughout the essay with the speaker

instructing her on how to do certain things ranging from this is how you sweep a corner
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(Kincaid 23) and this is how you set up a table dinner (Kincaid 27). The readers can then infer

from these statements that the speaker has prior experience and knowledge of how to execute

these chores and is now sharing it with the girl; becoming someone who is mentoring her into the

right direction. By doing so, this creates an intimate relationship between the both of them

because the advice being passed down from the speakers own experience is going towards the

benefit of the girl- to help her help herself. From this, the audience can see how the relationship

is evolving into this bond that is created by the similarity of hardships and commands.

Besides the use of the second person point of view, the author also uses a critical tone

throughout the essay to emphasize that they are telling the girl how to do these chores not just for

her own benefit, but to also help grow their relationship. This starts with one of the two methods

contributing to the critical tone- syntax. The essay is essentially a long paragraph made up of

individual chores that she has to do and learn, connected by semicolons. The commands are

organized in such great detail and intensity that it gives an overwhelming feeling that the girl has

no other choice but to listen to all of the information and instructions. Being constantly

bombarded with these demands, there were no mentions of polite asking words like please or

can you do this creating the context of the critical tone-having a sharp and harsh undertone. In

addition to the semicolons, the parallel syntax of This is how, provides emphasis that the

speaker is teaching the girl how to do these things while theyre telling her to do it. The claim of

the this is how phrase is backed up by Carol Bailey in her Performance and the Gendered

Body in Jamaica Kincaids Girl and Oonya Kempadoos Buxton Spice, by stating that The

storys primary refrain, this is how, shows a clear emphasis on particular ways of being that

depend on defined ways of acting.. (Bailey 108) This shows that Bailey, a Literature Professor
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at Westfield State University, agrees with the thought that the idea that the this is how is telling

the girl to do certain things a certain way, specifically the way that the speaker tells her. The

speaker isnt just telling the girl what to do and leaving her to figure it out, but guiding her

through the this is how. Though the tone that the author uses to give instructions may be

critical, the use of syntax is meant to let the audience know that this is building the relationship

between them.

The other aspect that contributes to the overall critical tone is the diction that the author

uses. Between the phrases of this is how the speaker calls the girl a slut twice only for the

girl to speak up and defend that she isnt. For example, the use of the word slut especially in

the sentence Try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming (Kincaid

10) gives insight to what the speaker truly thinks of the girl. The word slut is typically used

against women frequently references to the context of women or girls having multiple sex

partners and low standards of expectations, and in this specific sentence, the speaker is accusing

the girl of trying to become one. With no prior actions of proving this claim, the speaker uses this

word in a derogatory way to express their concern. It is not just what they said, but how they said

it. The way that the speaker interjects with these thoughts are, help emphasize their feelings

towards the girl and the meaning of the chores. They tell the girl to do the list of chores, and then

stop to call her a slut and then continue with the list. This helps create the critical tone, to help

the audience see that through the brutal honesty of the speakers thoughts, this helps the speaker

and girls understand each other on a more intimate level within their relationship to help it

grow.
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In the end, Kincaid successfully describes the relationship between the speaker and the

girl to create intimacy with the audience. Through the use of the second person point of view, the

relationship established by the speaker advising the girl on what to do and how to do it, allows

the audience and girl to see into the speakers past. By having them open up to share their

experiences, it makes the demands of doing these chores more personal. In addition to the second

person point of view, the critical tone created by specific use of diction and syntax, allows the

relationship between the girl and speaker to grow more through brutal honesty. The speaker

telling the girl what she thinks of her, opens up their relationship to a whole new dynamic of

being comfortable enough to share critical thoughts with each other, making an even more

intimate relationship for the audience to see. Through reading the personal essay, readers are able

to analyze and understand the relationship between the girl and the speaker because of its

intimacy. As a reader of this personal essay, I was able to relate to the chores and demands that

the girl had to go through, along with the critical words like slut. This reminds me of my

childhood days when I thought I was the only person going through this, but reading this

personal essay makes me feel better that I wasnt the only one. I hope that other readers can

either relate or sympathize to understand this story like how I did and understand that the true

intention of all of this is tough love.

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Works Cited

Lopate, Phillip. Introduction. The Art of the Personal Essay: an Anthology from the Classical

Era to the Present, Doubleday, 1995, pp. Xxii-xlv.

Hawke, Anastasia. Understanding Second Person Point of View in Fiction. All Graduate Plan

B and Other Reports. Utah State University, 2015

www.digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports/465?utm_source=digitalcommons.usu.edu%2Fgradre

ports%2F465&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages.

Bailey, Carol. Performance and Gendered Body in Jamaica Kincaids Girl and Oonya

Kempadoos Buxton Spice. Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, Vol. 10, no. 2, Oct

2010, pp.106-123. EBSCOHOST,

www.web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=ed49e412-a6cc-4775-9692-3fc627e9b

e3a%40sessionmgr120&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=5979554

4&db=a9h

Kincaid, Jamaica. Girl. The New Yorker. 26 June 1978,

www.newyorker.com/magazine/1978/06/26/girl