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   jennyrocks Teacher
   High School - 11th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   I shall assume you mean Girl, by Jamaica Kinkaid. This piece is written in one long sentence and is a mother speaking to her daughter. The mother is warning her daughter and telling her what she needs to do in order to please men and be a good girl and "not the slut you are bent on becoming".

   When the mother is explaining to her daughter the duties of being a good woman, she is focusing on the aspects of the older, more oppressive ways that a woman pleased a man. Making sure that she washed her menstrual cloths immediately implies that there is something dirty and unbecoming of a woman's reproductive system and that it should be hidden. The girl is also told how to prepare fish, choose bread, and handle food. All women's domestic domains. At the end she is taught how to keep a home. So we have all three major parts of a woman's work covered: cooking, cleaning, and humility so that the men of the time would not be left uncomfortable and be provided for.

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   http://www.enotes.com/girl/expectations-opportunities-girl

   http://www.enotes.com/girl/summary

   http://www.enotes.com/girl/themes

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   Posted by jennyrocks on Monday February 2, 2009 at 7:22 PM