English
There exist conflicts between the older and the younger generation, in relation to moral, cultural and behavioural presentation. The story talks about the mother-daughter relationship, in the line of perceptions and objectives of life. First, the mother is a perfectionist and cautionary towards daughter’s life. What is more, the conservative nature of the mother raises conflicts the modern generation. On the other side, the daughter adopts contemporary way of life and resigns to the mother’s wrath on ideal living. The chronological structure of the story addresses stages of human development among women. The study aims at extrapolating on the structure, the use of similes and moral lesson from the "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid.
In terms of structure, Jamaica Kid presents the story in a chronological manner of events. The daughter acquires information from the mother in various matters of life. The mother starts by highlighting the duties and responsibilities of the daughter as a child. These include household chores such as cleaning the house. As the story progresses, the mother addresses the daughter on mannerisms and etiquettes. The mother educates the daughter on how behave at dinner time and how to socialize with the opposite gender. This depicts sense of maturity in the side of the girl who is still young to experience real life. Later in the story, the mother introduces advice on independence and responsibilities to the daughter. This is through stating that the daughter should acquire life skills such as sewing and ironing clothes. This depicts pre-teenage hood advice to the daughter. What is more, the mother advises the daughter on relationships, which depicts entry into adulthood. This is through providing social interaction skills, which aim at improving daughter’s behaviour towards the other people. In addition, the mother presents to the daughter the qualities of an ideal family woman, in relation to home-making and association. Consequently, the structure reveals the themes of sexuality, conservatism and resignation. The mother represent older generation, who is yet to conform to the modern lifestyles. The lack of daughter-mother relationship depicts resignation.
According to the mother, the baker and the bread represent social life of the daughter. The mother worries that the society will be refuse her daughter immoral actions in the future. Similarly, the structuring and the use of similes provide the hidden meaning to the reader. The mother directives to the daughter depict aspects of feminism, in the contemporary world. The daughter must obey and behave well in the presence of male-figures. The reader also acknowledges the generation gap between the mother and daughter, in relation to the outlook of issues. In addition, the reader pinpoints themes of conservatism, society and feminism.
Conclusively, the story depicts the authoritative nature of the mother to daughter. It is evident that the daughter may not apply the advice of the mother, but will adopt modern way of life. The suspense in the story depicts unending conflicts, which will occur between the mother and daughter. The generation gap will contribute to the occurrence of such conflicts. The story advocates for holistic and interactive way of addressing life issues in families.
