"Girl," by Jamaica Kincaid, is not really a story, but rather a long series of instructions and advice that a mother gives to her daughter.
Some of the instructions are about very simple matters of housekeeping:
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 dry;
this is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona; this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine for a cold;
Other pieces of advice are on a more serious note: the mother suspects that the daughter is becoming a "slut," and she wants to prevent this.
on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming
this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming;
this is how to behave in the presence of men who don't know you very well, and this way they won't recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming
For your paper, perhaps you could discuss the kind of instructions and advice that your mother gives to you. What does she stress: education, cleanliness, morality, money? How does she phrase her instructions? Do you agree with them? Would you give the same advice to your daughters?
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