Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

Story Time

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid should be categorized as a story because it has many elements of fiction. Girl contains a beginning, middle, and end, it has conflict or tension to keep the plot moving, and it has character development which is the elements of plot and structure. 

 

Girl was a story because it demonstrates clear plot and structure. Throughout the passage, the phrase “This is how…” is used 31 times and acts as an example of structure within the story. The repetition not only works toward the flow of the writing, it also adds a sense of time. At one point it goes from ‘this is how you set the table for breakfast’ to, ‘this is how you set the table to lunch’ and then to dinner – from morning to evening and so on – showing an abstract progression of time. It progresses from a young girl learning basic skills to being a woman and fearful of being rejected in society – perhaps due to her promiscuity. The insertions of the young girls comments in italics works as a sort of conversation between her and her mother and therein creates a conflict to keep the story moving – further classifying it as a story. 

 

Girl is a story because it shows character development. Kincaid went from “Walk like a lady and not the slut,” (Kincaid p.270) early in the story to, “But what if the baker won’t let me touch the bread” (Kincaid p.271) at the end of the story. These two quotes show the character development. We see that she was fearful she had become the slut she was warned against. This example also shows time progression because the girl has gone from young to adult. Throughout the passage the girl only makes two remarks. Her first remark was about how she doesn’t even sing the song her mother was telling her not to sing in Sunday school. It is clear to the reader the girl felt her mother didn’t even need to be warning her – it was rebellious sounding in a way. The first italicized comment Kincaid used was to show the reader the girl does not want to take the advice of the speaker – she does not feel it applies to her. Contrary to Kincaid’s second use of italics at which time the girl shows a mark of fear in her remark. The reader can infer the girl should have taken the speakers advice all along. 

 

Girl has a clear beginning, middle, and end and shows character development. The story is about a little girl, a daughter, – in Sunday school and learning how to sew – and the mother is the one telling the story. The reader may infer that the story is actually about the author. The story also is a discussion about how mothers and daughters interact in society. Sociologically speaking, the girl is being trained on how to properly conduct herself by some authority figure – most likely, her mother.

©February 2012