"Girl"

In the short story “Girl” by Jamica Kincaid, she shows us the life struggles of a single mother household. This story is composed of a list of commands which in my opinion have an offensive tone with a since of instruction, such commands according to the mother are to raise her daughter to be successful in order to be ready for the future. I have never read a story like this one before. The way the author writes this story is as if she wanted to educate women. Her writing format starts with the first step of being a woman followed by the consequences of not doing as told.

In this story women are presented in such way that they are segregated to live a life of condemned household duties. The author gives a list of all the things that women are, according to her, by nature entitle to do, For example, ”his is how you set the table for tea; this is how you set the table for dinner.” I believe that the daughter in this short story is manipulated by the mother’s way to raise a daughter “the old school way.”