Interpretation of "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid

Interpretation of "Girl" quotes.

1. "soak your little clothes"
Clothes need to be clean all the time because it have a relationship to physical appearances to others. A person’s clothing reveals much about character and personality, and if they are dirty implies laziness and poverty. Washing allow women not only to project their status to the society, but also their productivity and self-worth.

2. "always eat your food so it won't turn someone else's stomach"
They live in a poor community and isn't good to eat food in a explicit way, because it would make neighbors more hungry. Isn't good to show food in front of others who are starving. The mother are trying to show her daughter how to behave, to be humble and grateful with the things they have.

3. "you mustn't speak to wharf-rat boys"

Refers to homeless people who are outside of the society and nobody cares about them. Because of that the mother want the girl to stay away from them because it could be seem "ugly" or not proper to talk with that "kind of person". 

4. "the slut you are so bent on becoming..."
It can be that the girl is being and acting different towards the society expectations and the mother calls her a slut or maybe she is acting normal but the mother do it to scare her and make her a "proper lady" because the mom ideology is that a woman can act wrong, a man never. 

5. "this is how to smile at someone you don't like"
The mother tells the girl how to behave in different situations, including how to talk with people she doesn’t like. Maybe the author means with this that your supposed to act or do things sometimes even though you don’t want to do it, in life there’s situations that we need something and maybe the easy way to get it surrender ourselves with people that we don’t like but they have all what we want so we pretend that we like them just to get what we want.

6. "this is how to behave..."

The mother isn’t giving advices to her daughter, she is telling her how to live, how she is supposed to live. Her mother is giving her instructions of how to make everything in life but not in a good kind of way. 

7. "medicine to throw away a child"
With this line, the mother is saying to her daughter that exist a way to abort an unwanted pregnancy.


8. "...it might not be a black bird at all..."
With this phrase which is trying to say is you have to be careful because maybe everything you've been taught is a lie.

9. What gender scripts were you taught as a child? Explain with a phrase or quotation you heard.
Patria:"Dolls are for girls, cars for boys"
Marilliam: "Seat like a lady"
Andrea: "Boys don't cry"
Carlos: "Boys with boys and girls with girls."
Dorimar: "Women are from the house and men are from the street"

10. What are some sayings about women/girls in your culture?

In a society where there male chauvinism can hear countless sayings that desprestician the value of women and girls. Apart from sexist comments, I personally live in a culture where Puerto Rican women unpleasant things to say. One of those sayings are: "God created man first ... and seeing so much perfection, he created a maid”, "If you know not cook, you'll never get a boyfriend", "A virgin woman is worthless" or "If you do not have sex when you turn fifteen you're a loser ". These sayings and many more, make a deteriorated society.