Like Mother, Like Daughter
Growing up, the advice my mother would give me would often be her cautioning me
about the actions or choices I would make. It seemed as though after anything and everything
that had even the minimal possibility of going wrong, she would most always be right in warning
me not to do so. In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, I feel as though the mother is attempting to give
her daughter advice, but there are certain points in which she does it in a very scolding and bitter
manner. When the mother warns her daughter about “the slut [she] is so bent on becoming,” I
feel as though her mother doesn’t really think highly of her daughter and she herself has possibly
been a victim of being objectified or accused of being promiscuous. The mother has a bitterness
about her daughter growing up. I think when she hints her daughter to be wary of becoming a
“slut” may also be an indicator that she had been in the same position and doesn’t want her
daughter to take the wrong path in life. Taking into account the time period Kincaid wrote this
story, it’s credible to say that it was a conservative time in history. I can’t even imagine my own
mother speaking to me in this manner. She would never tell me that I must walk like a lady to
not look like a slut or how I can properly dress and present myself to prevent looking like a slut