Girl (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Jamaica Kincaid
- First Published: 1983
- Type of Plot: Coming of age
- Time of Work: The early 1960's
- Setting: Antigua, West Indies
- Principal Characters: The mother, Her daughter
- Genres: Short fiction, Sketch
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, 1960’s, Mothers, Parents and children, Tradition, Caribbean, Gender roles, Islands, Abortion, Domestic work or workers, Health, Homemakers
- Locales: Antigua, West Indies
The Story
A West Indian mother orders her daughter to learn how to perform mundane domestic chores (such as washing white clothes and putting them on the stone heap on Monday and washing the colored clothes and putting them on a clothesline to dry on Tuesday). She also offers her daughter advice ranging from commonsensical health precautions about walking bareheaded in the hot sun and practical tips on cooking pumpkin fritters and soaking salt fish overnight to more intimate advice on personal hygiene.
From what appears to be relaxed lessons on blouse making and cooking,...
[The entire page is 1328 words long]
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