Introduction
Jamaica Kincaid wrote a short story titled “Girl,” which reflected her daily routine imposed by her mother. The short story is a series of moral teachings imparted by a mother to her daughter to teach her proper behavior in society. The girl must internalize the mother’s notions to become an ideal woman. This essay aims to determine how Jamaica’s environment shaped her upbringing and what her mother tried to teach her. The setting in the story is the complicated, socially-oriented journey of a girl who does not understand why she has to become the perfect woman in poverty and the absence of her native culture.
Who is Jamaica Kincaid?
Jamaica Kincaid was born and raised in Antigua in a relatively low-income family. Her relationship with her mother was warm, but Jamaica was sidelined as her brothers came along. She became a writer in an attempt to talk about her experience of being a black woman who had to battle societal pressures (Bily, 2000).
In addition, the experience of living in Antigua showed her how tradition can change the consciousness of a society, leading to a clash of generations and perceptions of one’s role. It should also not be forgotten that Jamaica accepts her ancestry; however, in her writing experience, she talks about how it changed her. In Setting in Girl, Jamaica reflected on her own life, pointing out its imperfections and the complicated process of growing up, which later shaped her views on life.
Setting in “Girl”
Setting in Girl refers to Jamaica’s adolescence while living in Antigua with her family. Throughout the story, the character receives criticism from matters with warnings on how to live life and what schedule to follow. For example, white clothes are washed on Mondays, one must not pluck other people’s flowers, and one must love a man properly (Kincaid, 1978).
This is a short set of precepts that the heroine’s mother projects onto her to create the ideal man that “the baker will let the baker feel the bread” (Kincaid, 1978). In the mother’s view, a real woman absorbs traditions and carries them forward, teaching them to herself and her children (Brent, 2000). Although the primary pronoun is “I,” the action is not directed at the speaker. Instead, “you” becomes the leader because the person needs to behave in a certain way and conform to the socio-cultural reality.
The socio-cultural context of the story is essential in understanding Jamaica’s perception of growing up. In the clash of Antiguan culture and imposed British beliefs, she has to combine the two and find a way to pay equal attention to each element. For example, she is not allowed to “sing benna in Sunday school” (p. 11), yet she must be able to “set the table for tea” (p. 28) (Kincaid, 1978).
This combines the two worlds in which she has to grow up to become an ideal woman and conform to societal perception. However, it can be seen that it is difficult for the girl to do this. Sometimes, the narrative is interrupted by the child’s objections, who does not understand why she should demean her dignity (Kincaid, 1978). Typical social expectations are not met in many educational aspects. Thus, the narrative becomes the loud voice of the child looking for the real thing.
The story’s setting can also be understood by filling in details describing the girl’s childhood. In particular, attention must be paid to poverty indicators, e.g., soaking rags, choosing cotton, and sewing independently (Kincaid, 1978). Her family also could not afford electricity, so all labor was manual, which depressed the family and made the child unhappy. In addition, the girl lived in an environment where she did all the housework because her father was probably working (Bily, 2000).
In the father’s absence, she had to catch and salt fish, although this is the man’s responsibility even in a traditional patriarchal family. The mother teaches the girl “how you make ends meet,” again indicating that their situation is quite dire and this skill will allow her to exist despite poverty (Kincaid, 1978). Poverty accompanies this family, and teaching the child to become an ideal woman is not an obstacle.
The complex mother-daughter relationship can be traced amid poverty and the need to conform to the social environment. One can agree that the mother seeks the best for her child despite her poverty and needing to prepare her own medicine (Kincaid, 1978). However, she probably loves her even though she seeks to control and pressure her. She believes this will improve her life, creating tension and conflict and setting the story’s pace (Rabae & Almahameed, 2018).
Instead of a calm environment where mother and child talk about coping with daily challenges, the girl is uncomfortable. No sweet fruits interest her because it is forbidden to pluck them; she is not interested in playing with a ball because it is only for boys (Kincaid, 1978). The world around her is confined and rough, and the girl cannot access the freedom that would follow her colonial past.
One must also not forget the feminist view of Jamaica, who is trained to be a woman. According to her mother, she should set the table for breakfast, not be a whore, wash every day, and smile at everyone (Kincaid, 1978). Sexism has always gone hand in hand with slavery and colonialism, so the fate of women was more complex: they had more demands and expectations than men. The mother in the story teaches the girl good behavior, constrained by normative ideas about women (Shaden, 2020).
As much as Antigua’s culture was eager to break through, Britain’s influence was too high to allow women to be born into its cultural traditions (Brent, 2000). The girl could have grown more robust and innovative if the Antiguan culture had flourished. However, now she is learning to make tea and bread because that is what her community is filled with different people expect (Kincaid, 1978). The culture wants to break through, but for now, conditions force her to be a woman similar to the English women.
Conclusion
Consequently, the setting in Girl by Jamaica Kincaid is the complex environment of poverty and sadness in which a teenage girl has to grow up. The need to make ends meet, strive for the image of the perfect woman, and combine Antiguan and British cultures are challenging tasks for a child. In constant conflict with her mother, the girl lives in an environment where it is challenging to realize herself because too many inhibitions hinder her freedom. Jamaica Kincaid’s goal was to show the realities of growing up in poverty and cultural inferiority through a dreary life and the constant prohibition of the benefits of one’s own culture.
References
Bily, C. (2000). Girl in Short series for students. The Gale Group, pp. 84-94.
Brent, L. (2000). Girl in Short series for students. The Gale Group, pp. 94-96.
Kincaid, J. (1978). Girl. The New Yorker. Web.
Rabae, R. A., & Almahameed, N. A. (2018). Genre crossing in Jamaica Kincaid’s ‘Girl’: From short fiction to poetry. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 9(3), 157-165. Web.
Shaden, A. N. (2020). Mother-daughter conflict in Margaret Atwood’s “The Art of Cooking and Serving” and Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”. Journal of Scientific Research in Arts, 24(1), 1-24. Web.
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