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Girl (Jamaica Kincaid) 9528 Views
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Description:
"Girl," by Jamaica Kincaid, is a poem—er, a story... er... what is this thing? Either way, it's about a mother's advice to her daughter. And nothing is sugarcoated.
Transcript
- 00:00
Girl, a la Shmoop: She’ll Be a Woman Soon. From the Stone Age. . .
- 00:13
. . .to the Middle Ages. . .
- 00:15
. . .to the Renaissance. . .
- 00:18
. . .to the 21st Century. . .
- 00:22
. . . mother-daughter relationships have been… complicated.
Full Transcript
- 00:26
Take the mother and daughter
- 00:27
. . .in Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl. The mom barely comes up for air. . .
- 00:33
. . .as she hurls a series of instructions. . .
- 00:35
. . .as well as a few less-than-motherly comments, at her almost silent daughter.
- 00:41
So, we just have to ask. . .
- 00:43
. . .why does this mother come down so hard on her kid?
- 00:47
Is she just being a good mom. . .
- 00:48
. . .trying to prepare her daughter for the rocky road she faces?
- 00:53
Could be. . .Jamaica Kincaid was raised by a single mom in Antigua<<An-tee-guh>>. . .
- 00:58
. . .a patriarchal, British colony that was challenging for black women.
- 01:03
Mom’s got a lot to cover . . .
- 01:04
. . . and maybe she's just not the sugar-coating type.
- 01:08
Or maybe she’s barking all those orders . .
- 01:10
. . .to make sure her daughter doesn’t end up like dear old mom.
- 01:14
She talks about being bullied by men. . .
- 01:16
. . .and how to get rid of an unwanted baby.
- 01:19
Maybe her own life has been so difficult. . .
- 01:21
. . .that she’ll do anything to stop her child from repeating her mistakes.
- 01:26
Or maybe we should consider the opposite.
- 01:29
Perhaps this woman is one heck of a bad mother. . .
- 01:31
. . .who loves getting on her daughter’s case.
- 01:34
It could be she’s just a mean and miserable person. . .
- 01:36
. . .rattling off a to-do list with no regard for her daughter’s feelings.
- 01:49
That nurturing mom gene has been known to take a hike once in a while.
- 01:53
So, what’s your take? Does the Mother come down hard on Girl to
- 01:56
get her ready for an inevitably tough life. . .
- 01:58
. . .to keep her from ending up in her shoes. . .
- 02:01
. . .or because she’s just a nag who likes ordering her kid around?
- 02:06
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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