Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

Introduction

The verse "Girl" by scribe Jamaica Kincaid displays love and family togetherness by conceiving microcosmic pictures of Western Caribbean familial practices and imbedding them in a apparently incomprehensible text.

"Girl," the first and likely most significant part of the assemblage, best features Kincaid's evocative use of dialect, as she discovers topics of enculturation and the "patriarchal government of oppression" (263).

 

Analysis

"Girl" was first released in 1983 in At the Bottom of the River, a assemblage of tales which won the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. "Girl" is a short part ...