For my second freestyle reading this week I chose "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid. This story is a bit funny, a bit disturbing and just a little confusing.
I find it funny the way the story is written in that it's just like a mom to go on and on about things you should do and how you should do them. Of course there has to be plenty of don'ts in there too. I presume it's the mom telling the girl all of the do's and don'ts of life and the way she rambles from one to the other with the occaisional side-note of why thrown in is amusing.
I was a bit disturbed by the continued reference to the fact that she thought the girl was going to be a slut. What kind of mother says that to their daughter-even if they think it? Why they would think it is another question that comes to mind. She went from "..the slut you are so bent on becoming" (Kincaid 366). To "..the slut I have warned you against becoming" (Kincaid 366). That just seems such a mean thing to say to a girl.
The confusing part comes at the end "..you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let near the bread?" (Kincaid 366). Does that mean she thinks after all the advice she has given the girl is still going to end up a slut? Or is there some other meaning there? Did bakers really not let certain kinds of girls near bread? :)
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Tonya,
ReplyDeleteI would agree with the comment you made about this story being "disturbing" to read. The mother not only sounds like a complete nag, but a psychotic woman, all the same. I gathered that she was speaking to a rather young daughter because she was discussing playing marbles with the boys. Who talks to a young girl of that age about sluts anyway? And why would she tell her about a medicine that would "throw away a child before it even becomes a child;" (Kincaid 366)?
The only thing that I can figure regarding the mother is that she was taking her own previous sins out on her daughter with her accusations. I'm with you...give the poor girl a chance!
I enjoyed your posting. Thanks!
~Lisa