Analysis of "girl" by Jamaica Kincaid

Prompt: One way stories such as these cast spells on the reader is by mentioning numerous surfaces in close-up, such as skin or clothing, without offering long views or wide perspectives. Find examples of these narrative strategies and consider their consequences.

In Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl, the mother is giving her daughter instructions to become a proper and respectable woman within their community. One of the constant underlying themes etched within these directions is the danger of female sexuality. According the mother, a woman’s reputation or respectability determines the quality of her life and therefore, sexuality must be attentively guarded and perhaps even concealed to maintain that respectable facade. Through the subject of clothing, the narrator is able to depict the mother’s persistent message to the daughter. Cloth and its link to physical presentation and proper housekeeping reappears throughout this story to accentuate the significance of respectability and reputation. The mother’s believes that a person’s style and quality of clothing exposes one’s character and personality to the public. Regardless of people telling their kids to never “judge a book by its cover”, it is human instinct for one to observe and unconsciously criticize the physical appearance of others. She also believes that there are only two kinds of women in the world, the respectable kind and the “sluts”. Through the mother’s mind, sewing, washing, and ironing allows women not only to display their social status but also their productivity and dignity. Having the domestic knowledge of housework would not only just give the community the impression that the woman is proper and has good standards and morals, but would also keep the woman busy and occupied from any sexual or inappropriate temptation. Negligibleness in appearance signifies lethargy and poverty and so therefore, cleanliness directly correlates to the community’s perception of a woman’s sexual respectability and ethics. If a woman is organized, productive, and orderly, she appears much more in control both physically and mentally, and will have less of a chance of being labeled as a “slut”, “this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like a slut I know you are so bent on becoming”. Sewing the hem of a dress has become so much more than just a chore or an act of maintenance, it has basically become a protective armor for the reputation of woman. By emphasizing the relevance of attire and physical appearance, the mother is trying to shield her daughter from a possible life of disrespect and hardship.

If the mother in Girl was in the same story as the mother in Night Women by Edwidge Danticat, she would immediately be disgusted and label her as the unrespectable type of women, a slut; which frankly is what she is, but her work can also be respectable because she is doing it so her son could have a better future. There are two recurring motifs in Night Women, the lace curtain that separates the sleeping son from his mother’s workplace, and the stars that the mother sees through the roof of her house. The usage of the curtain is commonly used in legends and religions as a veil between the dead and the living, the evil and pure, and in the story, the mother’s work and her son. It is also hinted that this curtain is what separates their reality into two worlds, “the innocent fabric that splits our one room house into two spaces, two mats, two worlds.” The side where she does her work is the world (theme of death and evil) that she is desperately trying to save her son from, hoping that he would have a life and future better than what she had. Therefore, she constantly goes back to the other side (life and purity), to check on her son, “I lean my face against his lips to feel the calming heat from his mouth,” and “I blow on his long eyelashes to see if he’s truly asleep;” it is almost as if she is checking to make sure he is still alive (remaining in the world of purity) and not waking up to learn the truth of her work.

Another motif is the stars that could be seen through a roof in her house because “none of her suitors will fix,” which reveals to the readers the poverty she lives in and the selfishness of her suitors. She