Girl by Jamaica Kncaid Essay Sample

In 1978, Jamaica Kncaid wrote a great story that has a name â€Å"Girl†. It was published in The New Yorker and became the first published piece of writing of this author. In 1983, this short fiction story was included in the collection called â€Å"At the bottom of the river†. It became very popular in the past among different groups of people, like teenagers, African-Americans, and women. Nowadays, it is also very popular among people because it still discloses the important themes. The story â€Å"Girl, the same as other stories of the author, are based on the personal experience of this woman. The author is from Antigua, and such stories she wrote in order to present how it is to live as one of the colonies of Great Britain and as an independent stating having to deal with the after-effects of colonial rule. In her works, she speaks about discrimination, colonialism, the problem of AIDS that killed her brother, and other not less important problems that are related to the fact that she is a woman of African descent. This exact story deals with the experience of being a young woman, who live in a poor country. In general, this short story is a prose poem that reads like prose but still follows the conventional poetry rules. There are only two characters in the poem – a mother and a daughter. The story â€Å"Girl† is two pages long and consists of a dramatic monolog in which mother give advice to her daughter. It is very interesting that this prose poem is one long sentence that is separated by semi-colons. It is also easy to notice that it looks like a list of different commands about adult life. The advice given by the mother consists of how to do different domestic behaviors, like preparing Antiguan dishes, being a respectable woman, and upholding purity. Apart from this, there is a discussion how the daughter should communicate with the different people and how she should behave being in a romantic relationship with a man. Mostly, the story is a monolog of the mother because the daughter speaks only twice. The first time this has happened when she stands up for herself res ponding to one of the mother’s questions, and the second time has happened at the end of the story when she asks the mother some clarifying question. The story finishes with a rhetorical question from the mother wondering if the daughter didn’t understand how to communicate and behave with different people based on everything she was told. The story contains three main themes: domesticity, daughter and mother relationship, and sexual reputation. The mother strongly believes that knowledge of domesticity will help her to become a good member of the community. In general, the mother thinks that there are only two groups of women: the first one is the respectable women and the second one is â€Å"sluts†. The question of sexuality is presented very well. Yet, it is presented from quite a negative side. The mother is afraid that her daughter won’t be a respectable woman and she tries to teach her everything, as she thinks, her daughter should know about the world and the society. The story also demonstrates that the mother criticizes the daughter: the way how she walks and relates to people. Therefore, it possible to say that the relationship between these two women isn’t very close because they do not understand each other. The short story â€Å"Girl† will not lose her popularity until the problems described there disappear. For this reason, it is a very good idea for every young person to read this prose poem, analyze it, and take into consideration the ideas included there.