ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Poem Videos 28 videos
Indecision may or may not be this man's biggest problem. All he can do is go left or right. It's not that big of a deal...or is it?
Odysseus should have checked out How to Return Home from War for Dummies. Step One: Do not mess with the son of a god. Actually, no need to read on...
Girl (Jamaica Kincaid) 9528 Views
Share It!
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.
Related Videos
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
This video defines utopias and dystopias, and investigates how a utopia might become a dystopia. Can a seemingly perfect world actually be a dystop...
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.
Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...