Hey, I'm Rebecca Balcarcel, and I wanna talk
about theme in Jamaica Kincaid's short story,
"Girl."
I think there's at least three things to say
about the theme, or the message, that Jamaica
Kincaid is trying to get across.
Uh, there are several issues raised in this
story, and I think one of them is the complicated
relationship between mothers and daughters.
Uh, obviously this mother has certain fears
for her daughter.
She loves
her daughter but is really concerned and thinks
she needs to step in and- and really direct
her daughter.
Otherwise, she really doesn't trust her daughter
to make good
decisions on her own, or to, uh, behave properly
without some direct intervention from her.
And I think a lot of mothers and daughters
have some similar tensions and
conflicts.
Uh, it's just always going to be hard to iron
all of that out.
Um, there's gonna be some tension no matter
what.
So, this story explores that for sure.
A second theme that emerges, uh, another issues
that's raised, is this notion of defining
womanhood.
The mother tries to define womanhood with
this long list, and she
gives us a version of womanhood that's quite,
uh, traditional.
Uh, the picture of womanhood that she offers,
uh, includes a lot of cooking, uh, a lot of,
uh, hosting
of, uh, you know, your- your husband has the
job and- and his clients come over and it's
your job to host them and be a hostess, um,
it- it has instructions about how
to sew, uh,
how to set the table, and all of that is very
fine to know, but it's not the only thing
that women should know, I think.
So, uh, the version of womanhood being offered
by the mother just seems incomplete to me.
She says some good things too, she has a few
fun lines in there, but mostly this is a cooking
and cleaning regimen, and, uh,
she thinks that if you can do all those things
then that'll make you a successful woman.
Uh, so this question of what even is womanhood
is certainly addressed by this
story, and judging by the girl's reaction,
even though she's trying to follow these instructions,
my sense is that the girl's growing up in
a world that's quite
different from the one the mother grew up
in, and that these skills aren't necessarily
the ones that she's going to need.
So, uh, what a woman is and what role a
woman has, is an issue raised by the story.
Okay, the third thing that I think is being
explored here in the story is, uh, whether
it's even possible to live up to
all these expectations that the mother has.
This poor girl is, uh, just, uh, you know,
burdened with instructions, uh, rules, and
expectations that are going to be
very hard to meet and achieve.
Uh, this may never be possible.
And, I think [sigh] this is very realistic.
Uh, you know, can you ever please your mother,
really?
Uh,
or can you ever please society, really?
How is it that, uh, you can be a perfect mother,
a perfect wife, a perfect daughter, uh, all
the roles that we fill?
We will
not be perfect.
Um, and men have similar pressures, you know,
to be good husbands, good fathers, etc.
Uh, so, if you could follow every rule just
right, would it
actually yield success, or is it more important
that we define our own success and choose
the kind of life we want, instead of just
accepting this- this, uh, kind of
inherited definition of success.
Uh, I think the story is encouraging us to-
to make our own definition, and- and not try
to live up to these impossible expectations
that are just unrealistic.
So, those are my thoughts about Jamaica Kincaid's
"Girl," and the themes and issues she's exploring
here.
Uh, you probably have some other ideas.
I hope so.
And, if
you'd like to talk more about this story,
check out my other videos.
