Angela Welch
Professor Mitchell
ENC 1141
14 September 2010
One Sentence; Lifetime Lessons
Many authors grab a reader’s interest depending on how the story is fabricated as a whole. Sure anyone can write a good short story or even a poem, but putting it into the right composer is a key element. Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”, wrote in a charismatic way, giving the feel of a mother and daughter bond, not many can successfully accomplish. Wrote in one sentence with six hundred sixty-eight words, it gives a sense of reality, even a flashback to childhood. The style Kincaid conveys in the story added its own element within itself. Choice of tone and style of writing made this story a much stronger piece.
As the story starts, Kincaid lists off the simple things in life that every young girl learns to be a successful woman line by line. Covering anything from “Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; (53)” to “Soak salt fish overnight before you cook it (53).” Kincaid’s tone starts to cover topics that become more difficult coming from past experience to share with her daughter. Thoughts are connected line by line with an occasional outburst changing the tone periodically. The occasional outburst gives the feel that the daughter is listening to the mother, and proves it when the mother tells the daughter not to do something. By the daughter stepping in, it defends her actions that her mother had been predicting she’d been doing, and proves she’s not doing them. For example if you look at a part of the text in the beginning, the mother is going on about cooking and soaking fish then adds:
“Is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don’t sing benna in Sunday school; (53)”
After questioning signing benna, the lessons continue it gives a sense of... [continues]
Professor Mitchell
ENC 1141
14 September 2010
One Sentence; Lifetime Lessons
Many authors grab a reader’s interest depending on how the story is fabricated as a whole. Sure anyone can write a good short story or even a poem, but putting it into the right composer is a key element. Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”, wrote in a charismatic way, giving the feel of a mother and daughter bond, not many can successfully accomplish. Wrote in one sentence with six hundred sixty-eight words, it gives a sense of reality, even a flashback to childhood. The style Kincaid conveys in the story added its own element within itself. Choice of tone and style of writing made this story a much stronger piece.
As the story starts, Kincaid lists off the simple things in life that every young girl learns to be a successful woman line by line. Covering anything from “Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; (53)” to “Soak salt fish overnight before you cook it (53).” Kincaid’s tone starts to cover topics that become more difficult coming from past experience to share with her daughter. Thoughts are connected line by line with an occasional outburst changing the tone periodically. The occasional outburst gives the feel that the daughter is listening to the mother, and proves it when the mother tells the daughter not to do something. By the daughter stepping in, it defends her actions that her mother had been predicting she’d been doing, and proves she’s not doing them. For example if you look at a part of the text in the beginning, the mother is going on about cooking and soaking fish then adds:
“Is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don’t sing benna in Sunday school; (53)”
After questioning signing benna, the lessons continue it gives a sense of... [continues]
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