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Abstract: The fiction Girl, written by Jamaica Kincaid, is a one-sentence, 650-word dialogue between a mother and daughter. It is an examination of the relationship between the girl of the title and her mother. It is in the form of list-like of the narrative. This papper, based on the one-sentence, analyses the characters of the daughter and mother.
Key Words: Girl, Character analysis, mother and daughter
I. Introduction
The whole text Girl is a dialogue between mother and daughter. The whole text creates microcosmic images of western Caribbean familial practices and it imbeds a seemingly incomprehensible text. Upon closer examination, we can see that the text is a string images that are the cultural practices and moral principles that a Caribbean woman is passing along to her young daughter. There are no event or series of events to be acted out or be told about by the characters or by a third-person narrator outside the action. There is nothing shown to develop the character but the dialogue.
II. Character development of “Mother”
Mother is the primary character, because her comments take up the most part of the fiction. She delivers a long series of instructions and warnings to the daughter, who twice responds but whose responses go unnoticed by the mother. The mother are keeping telling her daughter to behave properly. She just uses the imperative sentence, without even a modal particle “please” usually used in such an imperative sentence. The mother’s reluctance to speak gently or even use the word "please" strongly suggests that the mother is in full and overwhelming control of her daughter.
Undoubtedly, Kincaid’s most startling insight in Girl is the tremendous amount of detailed information the girl is being told. From proper table-setting to correct cooking methods to “womanly” walking, the girl’s lessons are many and extremely precise. Many of the phrases the mother spits out at the girl seem silly and unnecessary. The exactness with which the mother preaches lessons to her daughter gives the impression that children grew up under the direction of a drill sergeant.
Besides these, we can conclude that what kind of mother she is. When the mother teaches his daughter how to wash clothes. There is so weak logicality in the dialogue. So we can conclude the mother is not so strong in logicality, and maybe she is just a woman from a lower class.
III. Character development of “Daughter”
According to the words used by the mother and the two sentences by the daughter, we can guess that probably the daughter is an adolescent or pre-adolescent girl in Antigua.
The whole fiction is that the mother shows the way of insuring that her daughter has the tools that she needs to survive as an adult. What the mother says is in the form of a series of lessons. The daughter speaks only twice in the story, voicing impulsive objection to her mother. The first phrase the girl mutters represents the distance in the relationship between the girl and the mother, as the girl interrupts her mother with “but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school”. The mother, however, continues with her lecture without any response. Another sentence by the girl is “but what if the baker won't let me feel the bread”. The girl’s comment is truly evidence of the mother’s expectation that her daughter be quiet to listen to the lecture, regardless of whether the girl knows the lessons already.
IV. Relationship between mother and daughter
The reader gets the impression that the advice that the mother gives her daughter has been passed down from many mothers to their daughter. Most probably it is what the character “mother” was told by her mother when she was a girl. It seems as if the character “mother” is only giving her advice because it is her duty. What he does is just to repeat what her mother has got from her mother’s mother. What the mother wants the girl to do is just to listen carefully and then follow her instruction. Despite the fact that the mother commands, suffocates, and repeats lessons to her daughter, the girl is, nevertheless, learning about values and morals. Although times today may have graduated mothers from house cleaners and lecturers, there is a dire need for a revival of the old-fashioned concern.
Bibliography
[1] 马红旗；后殖民主义文学批评的对象[J]；四川外语学院学报；2003年06期
[2] 乔纳森·卡勒，当代学术入门：文学理论[M]，李平译，沈阳：辽宁教育出版社，1998
[3] 舒奇志；殖民地文化的成长之旅[J]；四川外语学院学报；2005年 第04期
作者简介：赵丽(1981- )，女，汉族，山西省晋中市人，英语语言文学硕士，西安外事学院外国语学院讲师，研究方向：英语语言教学。
Key Words: Girl, Character analysis, mother and daughter
I. Introduction
The whole text Girl is a dialogue between mother and daughter. The whole text creates microcosmic images of western Caribbean familial practices and it imbeds a seemingly incomprehensible text. Upon closer examination, we can see that the text is a string images that are the cultural practices and moral principles that a Caribbean woman is passing along to her young daughter. There are no event or series of events to be acted out or be told about by the characters or by a third-person narrator outside the action. There is nothing shown to develop the character but the dialogue.
II. Character development of “Mother”
Mother is the primary character, because her comments take up the most part of the fiction. She delivers a long series of instructions and warnings to the daughter, who twice responds but whose responses go unnoticed by the mother. The mother are keeping telling her daughter to behave properly. She just uses the imperative sentence, without even a modal particle “please” usually used in such an imperative sentence. The mother’s reluctance to speak gently or even use the word "please" strongly suggests that the mother is in full and overwhelming control of her daughter.
Undoubtedly, Kincaid’s most startling insight in Girl is the tremendous amount of detailed information the girl is being told. From proper table-setting to correct cooking methods to “womanly” walking, the girl’s lessons are many and extremely precise. Many of the phrases the mother spits out at the girl seem silly and unnecessary. The exactness with which the mother preaches lessons to her daughter gives the impression that children grew up under the direction of a drill sergeant.
Besides these, we can conclude that what kind of mother she is. When the mother teaches his daughter how to wash clothes. There is so weak logicality in the dialogue. So we can conclude the mother is not so strong in logicality, and maybe she is just a woman from a lower class.
III. Character development of “Daughter”
According to the words used by the mother and the two sentences by the daughter, we can guess that probably the daughter is an adolescent or pre-adolescent girl in Antigua.
The whole fiction is that the mother shows the way of insuring that her daughter has the tools that she needs to survive as an adult. What the mother says is in the form of a series of lessons. The daughter speaks only twice in the story, voicing impulsive objection to her mother. The first phrase the girl mutters represents the distance in the relationship between the girl and the mother, as the girl interrupts her mother with “but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school”. The mother, however, continues with her lecture without any response. Another sentence by the girl is “but what if the baker won't let me feel the bread”. The girl’s comment is truly evidence of the mother’s expectation that her daughter be quiet to listen to the lecture, regardless of whether the girl knows the lessons already.
IV. Relationship between mother and daughter
The reader gets the impression that the advice that the mother gives her daughter has been passed down from many mothers to their daughter. Most probably it is what the character “mother” was told by her mother when she was a girl. It seems as if the character “mother” is only giving her advice because it is her duty. What he does is just to repeat what her mother has got from her mother’s mother. What the mother wants the girl to do is just to listen carefully and then follow her instruction. Despite the fact that the mother commands, suffocates, and repeats lessons to her daughter, the girl is, nevertheless, learning about values and morals. Although times today may have graduated mothers from house cleaners and lecturers, there is a dire need for a revival of the old-fashioned concern.
Bibliography
[1] 马红旗；后殖民主义文学批评的对象[J]；四川外语学院学报；2003年06期
[2] 乔纳森·卡勒，当代学术入门：文学理论[M]，李平译，沈阳：辽宁教育出版社，1998
[3] 舒奇志；殖民地文化的成长之旅[J]；四川外语学院学报；2005年 第04期
作者简介：赵丽(1981- )，女，汉族，山西省晋中市人，英语语言文学硕士，西安外事学院外国语学院讲师，研究方向：英语语言教学。