“Girl”Jamaica Kincaid

© Copyright Academic Year 2004- 2005, by M. Chavez. All Rights Reserved.

About the Author

• Native of Antigua (British colony in the West Indies of the Caribbean)

• Has Black and Jewish ancestry. • Lived in a restrictive environment• 1973 changed her name to

“Jamaica”• Felt liberated when she lived in

Vermont (teaching) and New York (staff writer for New Yorker magazine

© Copyright Academic Year 2004- 2005, by M. Chavez. All Rights Reserved.

Point of View/ Voice

• No narrator evident• Speech delivered by

the mother who speaks in the 1st person

• The listener (the “girl”) only speaks twice in this monologue (single speech)

© Copyright Academic Year 2004- 2005, by M. Chavez. All Rights Reserved.

Vocabulary Words

• benna– songs with African connections– forbidden in Sunday school, where everything is

connected in English

• wharf-rat boys– men who hang around the docks, who are thought to

be thieves and no-goods

• okra – a vegetable, otherwise known as ladies' fingers

• harbors– shelters

© Copyright Academic Year 2004- 2005, by M. Chavez. All Rights Reserved.

Vocabulary Words

• dasheen– a green-leafed plant, used to make soup

• doukona– a kind of pudding made of a starchy food,

wrapped in a plaintain or banana leaf and boiled

• pepper pot– meat stewed with Cayenne pepper, so that

it is hot and spicy

© Copyright Academic Year 2004- 2005, by M. Chavez. All Rights Reserved.

The Form

• One continuous sentence which demonstrates the methodical, continuous roles of women– Helps emphasize the control that

the mother has on the relationship– echoes a parent’s nagging,

suggesting that this could be either a hypothetical conversation or a real one

© Copyright Academic Year 2004- 2005, by M. Chavez. All Rights Reserved.

The Ending

• “the kind of baker who the baker won’t let near the bread”– One who isn’t respected

or trustworthy and who is probably the “slut” the mother keeps gloomily predicting the girl will be.

© Copyright Academic Year 2004- 2005, by M. Chavez. All Rights Reserved.