"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid

In the very short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, I noticed that I didn’t like the mother at all. She seemed really pushy and overbearing. I felt sorry for the girl. I also don’t like the mother because she keeps telling her daughter that she is going to be a slut. That, to me, was not something anyone should be telling their daughter. But there is also the possibility that she was only saying that to scare her daughter into obeying.
As I was reading this story I also noticed that it was all one sentence. That is very unusual; I have never seen a story like that, ever. And it was all dialogue, without the quotation marks or anything else. The style is very original and very eye catching. I liked the fact that she did it that way, I don’t think it would have been as good if it were in a ‘normal’ format. I like this new style so much that I am even thinking of writing a piece like this one just to try it out.
The message that I got from this story was that back then there were, maybe still are, so many things that a woman has to know how to do to be considered a lady, there are so many rules for women in society. I like this message; I think that it is very true, maybe even today. It seems like no matter what era you look at, women are expected to behave a certain way and to be able to do certain things.
I also noticed that the relationship that this mother and daughter has seems to be like every other mother-daughter relationship. The mother is talking 90% of the time and the daughter barely able to get two sentences in.
On that note; I feel sorry for the daughter having so much asked of her, being told she is acting like a slut, and seeming like she can defend herself against some of the accusations thrown at her.
And as I noted that the mother did have some points going for her. Some of the stuff she mentioned were good things to know; like how to “…sweep a whole house…” (2) ext.
I love how the story is written and I would never think of changing it but I really would have liked to know what brought on this speech of hers to her daughter.