Story #4

I enjoyed reading Girl by Jamaica Kincaid. In the story Kincaid uses the mother’s instructions about life and how she is supposed to do the laundry, what manners are appropriate and what are not, how she is to spit in the air without it hitting you, etc. to show how things were like at the time and most specifically what was expected of women at the time. I noticed that the author didn’t use any periods through the story, not even at the end of the story, instead she concluded it with a question mark almost as if to leave the story hanging or, this is a stretch, maybe to conclude that her list of how-to’s might not be what’s best.

I especially liked how the author went into specifics about how to certain things on how to do or not to do. One that stood out to me was when she was instructing her daughter how to smile to people depending on the different degrees to which you like or dislike them. It was interesting to me because it showed the deliberate thoroughness that you wouldn’t expect to be paired with how to iron pants or how to love a man. It seems like the girl the mother is talking to should already know how to evaluate a situation and smile appropriately if she is expected to iron clothes. That leads me to wonder how old this girl is because all these lessons seem like they are targeted for different ages or stages in the daughter’s growing up.