Girl/ literary terms

Looking at Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”, I noticed that a particular literary term used was a Rhythm. Through out the story the mother and daughter relationship was particularity made up of the mother being very socially aware of their socioeconomic status. The mother wants her daughter to know certain women’s roles in order to live everyday life. The mother uses command verbs like wash, cook, and soak but also explains in the text “This how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard.” Not only does the mother talk to her daughter about cleaning and cooking but also how to react in social situations like how to react if someone smiles at you that you do and don’t like. That particular passage on how to sweep and smile goes into a rhythm that the mother knows first hand how to react to. She must have gone through the experience of getting rid a baby, bullying men as well as being bullied by.  The mother seems to have acceptance of her socioeconomic status and wants her daughter to be just as aware. Another Literary term used is verbal irony shown in the last phrase in the story, “always squeeze bread to make sure it’s fresh; but what if the baker wont 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 wont let near the bread?” The mother finally achieves her goal for the daughter to be socially aware of her position in society yet wonders why her daughter feels a like the baker wont let her squeeze the bread, shaking her confidence she once had. The mother throughout the story tells her that she’s bent on becoming a slut and the daughter defends herself in the beginning knowing in some sense who she is. I found it ironic that the mother states that she should be confident to know that she will wont let the baker push her around yet the mother does that as well as teaching her women’s roles and a women’s status. The mother degrades her daughter by telling her that hanging out with wharf-rat boys will make her slut and that see is bent on becoming one. Teaching these warnings becomes the girl’s identity. The mother tells her daughter how to sweep, clean, a get rid of unwanted babies making them all part of everyday life. The mother in a way suggests that becoming a slut is part of everyday life if she includes abortions just as easily as she includes how to clean and wash. The mother is aware of gender roles telling her daughter “don’t swat down to play marbles-you are not a boy.” Her tone through out is very critical of her daughter. Through out the story the mother is the one narrating what she expects from her daughter, then what her daughter does talk she it in italics.