Analysis of Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

1st evaluation. Value 20% (this table is 10%) – Infographic is 10% - Due date: Nov 8th by 6PM

Name of the student: María José Bojorge Téllez

Identify the different aspects seen in literature class.

Complete the following table.

General Aspects of Gilr by Jamaica Kincaid

Author Jamaica Kincaid
Author´s historical context and background Jamaica Kincaid was born under the name of Elaine Potter Richardson
in 1949, in the current country of Antigua and Barbudan. This country
was a colony of USA till 1981 when it was declared independent. That
is why our author has a clear connection and experience of being part
of a black community that has in their background the suffering from
white colonization. Her family and she were influence for the Frech,
African and Portuguese culture in that country. She worked hard as an
Au pair for years in New York and studied photography effort help her
to be hired in a magazine in New York, and with the influence of what
she captures in her photos, she started writing. “Jamaica Kincaid
teaches in the English, African and African American Studies
Department at Harvard University and lives in Vermont.” (British
Council, 2023, par. 3).

It is important to mention that one of her biggest inspirations was her

mother, and family in general, and most of her literary pieces are part
of her own experiences. “Well, it is my mother's voice exactly over
many years. There are two times that I talked in my life as a child, as a
powerless person. Now I talk all the time.” (Jamaica Kincaid, 1994,
p.171).
Genre Short Story / Fiction: “is a work of short, narrative prose that is usually
centered around one single event. Although a short story has much in
common with a novel, it is written with much greater precision.”
(Palmer, 2020, par.1)
Point of view Second person (overcrowd) - “you are not a boy; you know – don’t
pick people’s flowers”
Protagonist The woman or mother figure. It is the person who is presented in the
text the most. Basically, she is the teacher.
Antagonist Sexism. – “This is how a man bullies you; This is how to love a man.”
Setting Caribbean Place, probably in the country where the author grew up:
“but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school”.
 Benna is a genre of Antiguan and Barbudan music. Benna is a calypso-
like genre
Climax The question of the girl “but, what if the baker won’t let me feel the
bread?” This is the climax because is just a little intervention that for
me symbolize the opportunity to show how contradictory was her
mother related of what it is supposed to be a girl/daughter/woman.
Resolution The mother answer to the unique question of her daughter with
another question, that for me confirm how contradictory is rules of
how to be a woman: - “you mean that after all you are really going to
be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?”.
In better words, the mother´s answer suggest that how it is possible
that she could not use her attributes or woman’s charms to achieve
what she wants. Something that was severally said not to be. “In this
way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warmed you
against becoming”.
Symbolism (if applies) Blackbirds – “Don’t throw stones to blackbirds, they might be not
blackbirds at al”. The fact that blackbirds could not be birds at all,
sound like a bad augury.

Author’s purpose
My interpretation of such purpose (theme)
Argumentation 1 for my interpretation (at
least 1 paragraph)
Argumentation 2 for my interpretation (at
least 1 paragraph)
Personal Analysis
The author purpose in my opinion was to talk about a topic that was
not talk at al some years ago, but also, to show up how she was raced
with the same ideas, and how overwhelming this could be for a child
or little girl. The author even mentions in an interview that during an
afternoon in her house, she just sat down and started writing her
mother voice that endure in her head. – “had been trying to write
fiction, and I just sat down and wrote this thing called "Girl," and I said
to myself as I was writing it, "I don't care who likes it. I don't care if no
one ever reads it or no one ever publishes it. This is what I am going to
do." (Ferguson, 1994, p.171).
“Women transmitting oppressive sexist ideas to the new women
generation.”
During the entire time that I spent reading this short fictional story I
had an unceasing word in may head: Sexism. Someone could say that
there were any men presence in the text, but that is not right. The
entire text is about them, and how as a little girl she has to obey, act,
speak, smile, even to clean in order to be accepted by man, and to
look like something that she already is in her mother’s eyes, an slut.
-“this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know you
very well, and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I
have warned you against becoming;” (Kincaid, 2003, p.2). Even, that
she had to expect one day to be sexually abuse by a man, and how to
deal with the consequences by herself. - “this is how to make a good
medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child”
(Kincaid, 2003, p.2).
The second point to discuss about is related of how women transmit
sexist ideas to the next girls in the family, or even in the community. In

Argumentation 3 for my interpretation (at
least 1 paragraph)
my opinion, women through history have been in charge to keep the
traditional point of view in relation of what is women role, and for
what women were made for. This in specific has a specific term that is
called “Internalized sexism”. This is explained by Bearman et al (2009)
that “Internalized sexism refers to women’s incorporation of sexist
practices, and to the circulation of those practices among women,
even in the absence of men.”(p.11). It is kind of contradictory these
days to support this ideas or comments that perpetuate ideas of how
we have to life, but in the past, there were not option. It could be a
way to survive in a men’s world.
The final topic to talk about it is related to why do I think these ideas
oppressed her daughter. As is easy to see, the mother figure has any
filter in the way of how she called her daughter. The words whore,
bitch, slut, witch and other had been said to women in several period
of human history. These adjectives come when a woman does not
follow society statements, rules, or duties. I would like to add the
comment by Marriot-Fabre (2018) that says, “society views women as
“second-class citizens” and instead should be considered equal.”
(par.5). That why women need to probe that she is efficient, a good
woman, a good mother, a good boss every single day of their lives. As
in the text, - “this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem
coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I
know you are so bent on becoming”. (Kincaid, 2003, p.2)

Bibliography:

Bearman, S., Koroboz, N., and Thorne, A. (2009). The Fabric of Internalized Sexism. Journal of
Integrated Social Sciences, 1(1): 10-47.
https://www.jiss.org/documents/volume_1/issue_1/JISS_2009_1-1_10-
47_Fabric_of_Internalized_Sexism.pdf

Kincaid, J. (2003). “Girl” by from Charters, Ann, Ed. The Story and its Writer: An Introduction to
Short Fiction. 6th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Marriot-Febre. (2022). Internalized misogyny limits female self-expression, success. The Standard.
https://standard.asl.org/20284/features/internalized-misogyny-limits-female-self-
expression-success/