ENGLISH 102
01/28/2014

Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” is a one paragraph story about a how a Caribbean mother teaches her daughter to be independent in her own way. Written in 1978, “Girl” teaches the lessons of a typical Caribbean woman in her short literary pieces. Kincaid’s story explicitly defining the roles of a woman in a manner to Kincaid’s may appear sexiest and seem to limit what a woman cannot do. However, Kincaid’s piece empowered allots various degrees of power, freedom and control to woman. In the story, a mother was giving her daughter advice about life, cooking, cleaning, men, and keeping up her reputation. Firstly, the mother stressed on woman and ferminity. She said “ this is how you iron your father’s Khaki pants so that they don’t have crease; this is how grow okra-far from the house, this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house, this is how you sweep a yard” (14). Here the she meant that ferminity means hard work but not just makeup and high heels but rather cleaning the house; keeping the house nice and neat. Accoording the mother being a woman synonymous with keeping a house clean and wants to pass it from generation to generation. Although ironing, preparing food, and house cleaning are traditional feminine roles and may seem insignificant, it should be not be forgotten that these roles cannot be ignored as a woman in Caribbean culture and some part of the world. The mother seems to be serious on telling her daughter on how to do those house chores which is a good behavior. Because a typical Caribbean woman will think a household will not flourish if a woman will think is not there to take care of it in the house ,there is a believe that makes people think some household chores are basically for woman. Although, feminine roles may seem insignificant, there must