Significance of Jamaica Kincaid
Born in St. John's, Antigua on May 25, 1949, Jamaica Kincaid is a novelist and essayist whose writing covers themes of gender, family, racism, and American imperialism, among others. Kincaid worked as a staff writer for The New Yorker column "The Talk of the Town" for over twenty years and had several works published including A Small Place and Lucy. "Girl," one of her most well-known short stories, was published in The New Yorker's print edition on June 26, 1978. Incorporating her own experience growing up as woman in the West Indies, Kincaid highlights the tension inherent in mother-daughter relationships as well as how a woman's rebellion and desire for independence conflicts with the sexist mores of society. In doing so, she provides a genuine voice for those who struggle with similar experiences while boldly addressing issues surrounding social inequality and cultural expectations.
Elements of Writing in "Girl"
FormKincaid's "Girl" follows a simple yet highly effective writing structure: the list. Speaking from the point of view of a mother lecturing her daughter, Kincaid delivers requirement after requirement to cement how stereotypes are passed from generation to generation and how these hurtful messages can strain a relationship between family members.
However, by combining all her sentences into one, she refuses to treat each sentence as an entirely separate entry. These sentences all form integral parts of her story with each entry fleshing out the others. Similarly, the mother's instructions to her daughter are just one moment in a long-standing history of sexism and societal expectations that build as time goes on. |
Julie Wu | Wrap Your Arms Around Me 1, photography
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Julie Wu | Wrap Your Arms Around Me 2, photography
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FlowThe combining of sentences allows Kincaid to avoid the monotony of the list as she creates a rhythm where each line acts as a lyric, or a measure, and each semicolon acts as a breath, or the end of a measure. Kincaid's writing style, often described as musical, adds motion to the narrative and prevents stutters, even when rhetorical questions and italicized statements appear mid-lecture.
This flow also gives the impression of practiced ease as if the mother and her daughter have heard these very same words fed to her many, many times before. The flow, therefore, forwards the story's theme of female inheritance as the instructions and expectations build on each other in an overwhelming manner. |
VoiceConsidering the structure of Kincaid's "Girl," it is no surprise the tone reads as imperative. With the use of second person comes the customary interpretations-- demanding, expecting, unyielding-- which all align with the mother's voice and the author's intention.
Kincaid incorporates her voice seamlessly into the story by including cultural details. There are untranslated words, such as doukona and benna, and vibrant descriptions of growing okra and dasheen and frying pumpkin that Kincaid uses to immerse the reader in the surroundings and community. In doing so, Kincaid ensures "Girl" could not have been written by anyone else. These details are hers alone to bring to life. |
Julie Wu | Wrap Your Arms Around Me 3, photography
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Connecting Kincaid's "Girl" to the Classroom
Exploring the works of Jamaica Kincaid provides rich insight into what it means to be a woman of color and brings diversity to the English classroom experience. For Ms. Tania Pope, an English teacher here at Northview, the study of "Girl" specifically demonstrates how an author's stylistic choices serve a purpose. For instance, Kincaid's choice to combine all of the sentences highlights the immense expectations that come with being a girl. By analyzing this form of writing, students learn to purposefully incorporate stylistic choices into their own stories.
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Dress Rehearsal
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Successful
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Pressure
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Dress Rehearsal by Vaishali Prahalad
They told me to smile, to arrange my facial features into a grin that showed all my teeth; they told me to appear beautiful, to appeal to an audience that I was not going to see; they told me not to touch the itchy microphone wire that was shoved down my back and wrapped around my neck; they told me to stand exactly where an X was hastily taped onto the ground; they told me to flatten out my dress and stop touching my hair; they told me to look straight with my chin up, a light from overhead blinding my eyes; they told me to speak loudly and clearly, so that my nonexistent audience could hear me; they told me to enunciate, to dramatize everything I said, to roll out my r's and hold out my s's and fade with my words at the end of my sentences; they told me to be polite, to be formal, not to be childish or silly or immature; they told me not to fidget or rap my feet or bite my lip; they told me to smile, smile, and keep smiling, smile to the point where my lips hurt; they told me not to breathe loudly, to keep everything in; they told me to relax my shoulders and keep my head up straight; they told me to appeal to my invisible audience, to be someone that an audience would like; and in doing so, they told me to be someone that I was not.
Successful by Terri Gan
Do these problems; write those notes; take this class; participate in that club; do these extracurriculars; play this instrument- and this sport; focus on school, you must be successful; listen to everything we say so you can be successful; we just want you to be successful.
Don’t get below an A in school, you can’t let your grades slip; go to swim practice, you don’t have time for fun; don’t watch TV on weekdays, you have to study instead; don’t spend time on your fiction books, they are a waste of time; don’t slow down and relax, you can do that when you are successful; we sacrificed our time so you could be successful; we just want you to be successful.
Why are your grades so bad; why don’t you study more; why aren’t you doing these clubs; why didn’t you take these AP classes; why didn’t you try harder; why didn’t you ask for help; we just wanted you to be successful.
Maybe your idea of “successful” is different from mine.
Don’t get below an A in school, you can’t let your grades slip; go to swim practice, you don’t have time for fun; don’t watch TV on weekdays, you have to study instead; don’t spend time on your fiction books, they are a waste of time; don’t slow down and relax, you can do that when you are successful; we sacrificed our time so you could be successful; we just want you to be successful.
Why are your grades so bad; why don’t you study more; why aren’t you doing these clubs; why didn’t you take these AP classes; why didn’t you try harder; why didn’t you ask for help; we just wanted you to be successful.
Maybe your idea of “successful” is different from mine.
Pressure by Samee Agarwal
They told me to work day and night; they told me to overwork my mind and tire my body; they told me to do everything I could to qualify for the highest level of the math competition; they told me that I was worthless; they told me to not waste the extensive amount of money they spent on books, classes, and other materials; they told me that my watery and bloodshot eyes didn't matter; that this was for my own good; that I should cast away any personal leisure; they told me to plaster a smile in front of everyone, so wide that it hurt my lips, no matter how miserable I was; they told me that all my accomplishments were a waste; they told me that I better place in the top one percent of the nation; they told me that this onus to overwork and barely sleep were all for my own good; they told me that this was the most crucial thing of my life.