Voices Of Women Writers Lesson

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Although, in their works, Kincaid, Hong Kingston and Davenport depict their protagonists searching for their own identities, yet being influenced in different ways by their mothers. Jamaica Kincaid’s poem Girl, is about a young woman coming-of-age receiving helpful advice from her mother. In this poem, Kincaid addresses several issues where a mother’s influence is beneficial to a young woman’s character. The mother, or speaker, in Girl, offers advice to her daughter- advice that she otherwise would not learn without being told or shown. The mother advises the daughter about everyday tasks, and how to go about them properly (in her opinion).
“Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to day; don’t walk bare-head in the hot sun;…this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a buttonhole for the button you have just sewed on; … this is ...

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the mother overrides her, especially at the end of the poem.
“…but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread? ; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?”
Although it is not defined whether or not the daughter follows her mother’s advice, it is obvious that the mother wants her daughter to mold her character into what she sees as proper. In order to find her own voice and identity, the daughter must first learn from these lessons that her mother has provided, like feeling the bread for herself. And from her mistake and/ or successes, the daughter will discover her ...

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