Editor's Choice
Whose voice dominates "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid?
Quick answer:
The voice that dominates "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid is that of the mother, who delivers a monologue filled with instructions and advice to her daughter. This authoritative voice emphasizes cultural traditions, domestic duties, and proper behavior, reflecting concerns about the daughter's reputation and future as a woman. The mother's voice is relentless and prescriptive, with little room for the daughter's input, underscoring the generational transmission of expectations and cultural norms.
As the previous Educators have mentioned, it is the voice of a mother which dominates the narrative, which is a monologue. We know that it's more than likely a mother speaking, as opposed to a grandmother, an older sister, or an aunt, due to the admonishing tone of someone who is worried that, if the girl misbehaves, it'll reflect poorly back on her. The speaker also tells the girl how to iron her father's khaki shirt and pants—a task that would have usually been performed by a wife.
The other Educators have discussed the narrator's focus on propriety, but the speaker also passes down key aspects of culture, particularly cuisine and home remedies:
this is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona; this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to...
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make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child . . .
The repetition of "this is how" stresses to the girl that there is a particular way to do something. This part of the narrative is interesting because, often, people put their own spins on recipes, varying them according to their tastes. However, by saying "this is how" as opposed to "let me show you how" (the latter would emphasize one's personal approach), the speaker is reinforcing the understanding that there is only one way to go about things. The speaker is likely instructing the girl according to what she learned from her own mother and what her mother learned before her, embracing both tradition and rigidity. These traditions work both to preserve a culture and to help women find a way to survive in difficult circumstances—hence the remedies for colds and abortions.
The speaker's advice is not only limited to domestic concerns but tries to prepare the girl for every aspect of life, even showing her how to perform tasks that would have been traditionally performed by men, such as fishing and managing income. The problem with the speaker is not that she provides instruction—which, after all is the job of a parent or guardian—but that she doesn't trust that the girl has her own good judgment and cannot envision circumstances that may vary from her day-to day experiences. When the girl interrupts the monologue, she does so both to show that she does, indeed, know better (but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all andnever in Sunday school) and that she can't control everyone's response to her (but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?). However, the speaker either doesn't listen to her or foists blame upon her: "you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?"
Certainly, it is the voice of an authority figure that dominates this text. This figure, perhaps a mother—but certainly some female authority in relation to the younger "girl" to whom she speaks—issues instruction after instruction, presumably in order to educate this young person about how best to present herself as a woman and as a wife. She is to "walk like a lady and not like the slut [she is] so bent on becoming," and she is told, over and over, how to behave (and that she must behave) with the utmost propriety and respect so that she is treated as someone deserving of respect from others. The dominant authority figure seems especially concerned with the younger woman's reputation within the community, especially her sexual reputation.
There are only two "voices" (characters) in Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl": a mother and her daughter. The story is told in a very loose, kind of stream-of-consciousness voice, and every line in the piece is spoken by the mother--except for two.
We know which lines are spoken by the daughter because they are set in italics, and it is clear that her mother is much more interested in talking than in listening. The entire piece is full of advice (sometimes in the form of condemnation) about how a woman should conduct herself as a wife and a female of good character. The advice is blunt and practical, but it presumes that the daughter is not a good girl. (She may not be, but how would we know?)
The story is all one sentence, with each piece of advice separated from the others by a semi-colon. After ten different pieces of advice, the mother says this:
...don't sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn't speak to wharf–rat boys, not even to give directions; don't eat fruits on the street—flies will follow you; but I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a button–hole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming....
As you can see, the mother barely takes a breath while her daughter speaks--and then she just keeps on going. She does not listen and, even worse, she does not care what her daughter has to say. The mother clearly dominates this one-sided conversation (lecture).