Postmodern literature, a movement that began in the 1960s, is characterized by being experimental. The postmodern aspects of “Girl” are visible in Kincaid’s experiments with form. For example, the story is written in the second-person perspective, which is unusual for traditional short fiction. “Girl” is also structured as one long run-on sentence; this would be considered an experiment in syntax. Postmodernist stories are often hard to categorize, and Kincaid’s work could actually be considered a prose poem. There are no paragraph breaks, and the story creates a constant rhythm due to the repeating “This is how.” phrase. There is dialogue between the mother and daughter in the story at the very end, but it is represented through italics (“but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?”). Kincaid’s postmodern technique is also seen through the lack of quotation marks or indentation; this experimental structure challenges the reader.

There is no introduction to the characters or setting and explicit narration—the reader is thrown into the story with no context. This almost feels mischievous on Kincaid’s part, and that playfulness is another postmodern technique. Before understanding that they are reading about a mother giving directions to her daughter, it’s as if the reader is being given orders directly. Postmodernist literature often throws questions and confusion at its readers, who are trusted to figure out what the author means. As the story progresses, the reader gets a better sense of the cultural background of the story and understands that it’s about the relationship between a specific mother and daughter.

“Girl” also uses the postmodern concept of fragmentation, meaning it plays with time and orientation. The setting of the story isn’t immediately clear, and there is no obvious narrative arc, action, or grounding details. The story exists without a clear timeline—it could be a compilation of everything a mother told her daughter to do over time, or it could be one particular rant. As is typical in postmodern literature, the interpretation is up to the reader.