Intro to Green Canes and Juicy Flotsam and “Girl”
In the Introduction to Green Cane and Juicy Flotsam, we learnt he context of the stories to which we will soon be exposed regarding the women of the Caribbean. Generally speaking, these women have experienced both social oppression and suppression of their identities and voices. The stories of this Unit are intended to focus largely on the theme of “the problem of voicelessness of marginalized groups in Caribbean societies” (p. 121).
Opening with Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl,” we immediately see the contrast between the expectations of women in Africa and those of the women in the Caribbean. Kincaid depicts the relationship between a mother and daughter, in which the mother advises her daughter as to her responsibilities to her family, her community, and herself. She cautions against a life of promiscuity while emphasizing the importance of a balanced, productive domestic life. While the mother’s words appear to have good intentions, the tone Kincaid communicates is one of resentment or lack of sympathy. In some cases, the mother comes off as deliberately cruel, as is the case when she tells her daughter, “Walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming” (p.129) I think the bitter tone of the mother reflects her views on the importance of a woman’s reputation and respectability in the community. She fears that if that reputation is not upheld, her daughter’s quality of life may suffer, and she will become a social outcast. This is a stark difference from the social expectations of women in Africa, and they were seen as sexual objects rather than respectable, productive members of society. Here in the Caribbean, however, the sexuality of a women is seen as something to cherish and guard. At the same time, we are able to see the similarities of the pressures faced by young females coming of age in poor countries, despite those countries being so far apart. Some things to consider regarding the themes and intentions of this story:
What do you think the “benna” songs represent in the context of Kincaid’s story?
What could the mother is implying about her daughter regarding the bread?
What can we infer from the mother’s advice about her ideas of female responsibility/domesticity in their community?
The mother in this piece seems to have a very low opinion of her daughter. She refers to her as the “slut [she] is so bent on becoming” (123). She therefore feels the need to teach her every little thing about being a “proper” woman as she can. She even discusses things as small as how to sew on a button correctly. She thinks she is the type of girl that would sing benna songs, which generally centered around scandal or gossip, on holy days. To the mother, these stories represent her daughter’s future scandals that were bound to be gossiped about. This theme of her daughter as a promiscuous and therefore disgraceful person is upheld throughout the work and seemingly comes to a peak when the baker is mentioned. By the mother scolding her about the baker not letting her near the bread one day the mother is implying that she would bring great shame on her mother if she were to become too dirty and coated in scandal to lose the respect of this important man in their society. Clearly the responsibility of the daughter to “Be a good wife” like we heard in Snapshots of a Wedding are still held in very high regard. The women in this society seem to have a similar role as the women in the African cultures that we have studied in the past unit. However, in this piece there seems to be an even greater influence on how this would reflect on the mother if their daughter were to become a bad wife and mother. All in all it sounded very old fashioned to me so I looked up old articles on “How to be a Good Wife” and found the same sort of instruction manual that this mother gave her daughter so I thought some of you might want to see it. It is a 1955 article from Housekeeping Monthly.
This is the link to the article because it had to be translated for readability:
http://j-walk.com/other/goodwife/index.htm