OU Degree 5th Sem English – Girl Poem Questions and Answers & Summary
Comprehension – I
Question 1.
List the various tasks the girl is being trained to perform.
Answer:
In the text, ‘Girl’, the mother advices her daughter to focus on doing certain household tasks that a girl or woman is traditionally supposed to perform. She tells her daughter how to do such household chores as laundry, sewing, ironing, cooking, setting the table, sweeping, and washing.
The mother also tells the girl how to do other things she’ll need to know about, including how to make herbal medicines and catch a fish. The mother also suggests to her daughter not to sing ‘benna’ (a Calypso-like folk songs, focussed on scandalous gossip and sung in a call-and-response form, broadly Antiguan folk songs) in Sunday school. She warns her not to talk to loafer boys. She talks about relationships with different people. The daughter is also supposed to do agriculture work.
Question 2.
Can you divide the various tasks into different categories (such as ‘domestic tasks’, etc.)?
Answer:
The mother prescribed to her daughter to perform different tasks. The tasks may be divided into different categories. Domestic tasks such as laundry, sewing, ironing, cooking, setting the table, sweeping, and washing; Educational tasks such as not to sing benna (traditional folk songs which are generally considered as seductive; Agriculture tasks such as growing different types of produce; Behavioural tasks such as societal etiquette-what to do and what not to do; Relationship tasks such as how to behave with boys, guests, etc.
Question 3.
Besides instructions, the passage also contains advices, warnings, etc. List all of them separately.
Answer:
The passage contains not only instructions but also advices, warnings, etc. The mother dispenses much practical and helpful advice that will help her daughter keep a house of her own someday. She tells her daughter how to do such household chores as laundry, sewing, ironing, cooking, setting the table, sweeping, and washing. The mother also advices the girl how to do other things she’ll need to know about, including how to make herbal medicines and catch a fish.
Alongside practical advice, the mother also warns her daughter on how to live a fulfilling life. She offers some suggestions about the relationships her daughter will have with men and talks about how to “bully” men and how a man may bully her daughter. She also warns her daughter “not to speak to wharf-rat boys” (loafers). She also says that there are many kinds of relationships and some never work out. The mother-advises her daughter, ‘If they (relationships) don’t work, don’t feel too bad about giving up’.
However, the mother’s advice or warning seems caustic and castigating, out of fear that her daughter is already well on her way to becoming a “slut.” She tells the girl, for example, not to squat while playing marbles, not to singbenna (Calypso-like folk songs, focussed on scandalous gossip and sung in a call-and-response form, broadly Antiguan folk songs) in Sunday school, and to always walk like a lady. The girl periodically interjects to protest her innocence.
Question 4.
Do you think the mother is giving all the instructions at once or at different times and places, and at different stages of the girl’s growing up?
Answer:
Though the prose poem “Girl” is a single literary entity, it consists of the mother giving instructions to her daughter at different times and places, and at different stages of the girl’s growing up. The mother’s instructions range from the behaviour at the school to cooking different dishes, to arranging table for the guests, to agriculture work, to maintaining relationships with different people, etc.
It indicates that they are applicable to different places and times. They are also relevant to different stages of her growing up. The mother dispenses much practical and helpful advice that will help her daughter keep a house of her own someday.
Question 5.
How does the girl respond to the instructions?
Answer:
The prose poem “Girl” consists of a single sentence, punctuated by semi-colons. Throughout the text, the mother’s voice dominates the narratives. She gives instructions to her teenage daughter to prepare the girl to be a woman, to mould her character, and to control her private and public behaviour. The entire narrative is interrupted only twice by the daughter who makes a feeble attempt to ask a question or defend herself. The girl periodically interjects to protest her innocence.
For instance, when her mother warns her not to sing benna (a Calypso-like folk songs, focussed on scandalous gossip and sung in a call-and-response form, broadly Antiguan folk songs) in Sunday school, the daughter tries to protest and says, “but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school.”
At the end of the text, when the mother talks about preparing bread, the daughter asks her mother a question “but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?” Except the two instances, the daughter’s role is mostly limited to passive listener.
Question 6.
List the words and phrases that suggest the setting to be West Indies.
Answer:
In the text, “Girl”, the writer tries to describe her own struggle as a young girl when she was in Antigua. She portrays the mother-daughter relationship. The entire text is contextualized in Antigua, West Indies which is Kamaica Kincaid’s birth place. There are certain words and phrases that suggest the setting to be West Indies such as
“is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?”
“this is how to make doukona”
“pepper-pot”
Here, the word ‘benna’ means Calypso-like folk songs, focussed on scandalous gossip and sung in a call-and-response form, broadly Antiguan folk songs. Antiguan folksongs, or benna, symbolize sexuality, a subject the mother fears her daughter already knows too much about.
Historically, native Antiguans sang benna to secretly spread scandalous rumors and gossip under the uncomprehending British people’s noses. Singing benna in Sunday school, therefore, represents not only disobedience but also sinful, forbidden knowledge that can’t be discussed openly in public, let alone in church.
Similarly, ‘doukona’ represents a Caribbean food item. It is a kind of pudding made from starchy food like dried corn or banana. The compound word “pepper-pot” is West Indian dish consisting of stewed meat or fish with vegetables. Therefore, it is clear that the milieu of “Girl” is purely West Indian.
Interestingly, foods such as ‘doukona’ and ‘pepper-pot’ also act as anchors that squarely place the story in Antigua and the Caribbean. Mentioning these specific regional foods allows Kincaid to recreate a world that’s vivid and different from our own without ruining the story’s structure with unnecessary descriptions.
Question 7.
What could be social and economic status of the family? What clues can you cite to justify your answer?
Answer:
The prose poem “Girl” is set in a particular social and economic milieu. There are certain words of wisdom that suggest that the women live in a poor economic and socially backward status. Similarly, it is the rural setting, wherein passing on such advice is essential for daily living.
She tells her daughter how to do such household chores as laundry, sewing, ironing, cooking, setting the table, sweeping, washing, making herbal medicines, catching a fish, making bread pudding, making pepper-pot, etc. The mother dispenses much practical and helpful advice that will help her daughter keep a house of her own someday.
Question 8.
Although the mother’s voice dominates the passage, it is titled as “Girl”? Comment on the appropriateness of the title.
Answer:
The short story “Girl,” written by Jamaica Kincaid deals with the experience of a mother as a young and female in a poor country. Kincaid’s complicated relationship with her mother comes out in the mother-daughter dynamic in the story. She describes her mother as a literate woman who struggled against her poor circumstances, eventually feeling bitterness toward her children because of all her problems.
The text explores the life of a woman stuck in poverty and resentful of her children. She has also said that her mother’s anger toward her seemed to get worse when Kincaid became a teenager. Just as the voice of the mother in “Girl” resents and worries about her daughter becoming a woman, Kincaid’s mother seemed to become more oppressive and bitter toward Kincaid as she grew older.
Throughout the text, the mother’s voice dominates the narratives. She gives instructions to her teenage daughter to prepare the girl to be a woman, to mould her character, and to control her private and public behaviour. The entire narrative is interrupted only twice by the daughter who makes a feeble attempt to ask a question or defend herself.
The girl periodically interjects to protest her innocence. For instance, when her mother warns her not to sing benna (a Calypso-like folk songs, focussed on scandalous gossip and sung in a call-and-response form, broadly Antiguan folk songs) in Sunday school, the daughter tries to protest and says, “but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school.”
At the end of the text, when the mother talks about preparing bread, the daughter asks her mother a question “but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?” Except the two instances, the daughter’s role is mostly limited to passive listener.
Comprehension – II
Question 1.
Attempt a character sketch of the mother.
Answer:
The present literary work “Girl” is taken from Kincaid’s first short story collection titled At the Bottom of the River (1983). The “prose poem” is broadly based on Kincaid’s own experiences of growing up in relative poverty with her domineering mother. It consists of a series of instructions, advices and warnings given by a mother to her teenage daughter.
The instructions are intended to prepare the girl to be a woman, to mould her character, and to control her private and public behaviour. Though the title Is after the daughter ‘Girl’, the voice erf the mother dominates throughout the text.
The mother sees herself as the only person who can save her daughter from living a. life of disrespect and promiscuity. She believes the girl has already started down this path because of the way she walks, sits, and sings benna (Antiguan folksongs) during Sunday school, and she imparts her domestic knowledge to keep the girl respectable.
In some ways, the mother is wise: not only does she know how to cook, clean, and keep a household, but she also has a keen sense of social etiquette and decorum, knowing how to act around different types of people. For her, domestic knowledge and knowing how to interact with people bring happiness along with respect from family and the larger community. Her instructions suggest that community plays a large role in Antiguans’ lives and that social standing within the community bears a great deal of weight.
However, there is bitterness in the mother’s voice, and she takes her anger and frustration out on her daughter. She seems to think that none of her wisdom will make any difference and that the girl is already destined for a life of ill repute. She even repeatedly hints that the girl wants to live promiscuously and be a “slut.”
Her fears for the girl actually belie deeper fears of the precarious state of womanhood in traditional Antiguan society. Despite the mother’s caustic remarks and accusations, the fact that she knows how to make abortion-inducing elixirs implies that she has had some illicit relations with men or at least understands that such encounters sometimes occur.
Question 2.
Describe the mother-daughter relationship in the passage.
Answer:
Jamaica Kincaid (born 1949) is an award-winning Caribbean-American writer of fiction and nonfiction. Born, Elaine Potter Richardson, on the island of Antigua, West Indies, she was sent to New York in 1965 to work as an au pair (nanny). In New York, she attended college, studied photography and worked for the New Yorker magazine.
In 1973, she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid in order to write and publish anonymously. Many of her stories and novels describe the struggles of a young girl’s growing up and the mother-daughter relationship. She teaches at Harvard University and lives in Vermont.
The present literary work “Girl” is taken from Kincaid’s first short story collection titled At the Bottom of the River (1983). The ten interconnected stories in this collection, often described as “prose poem”, are broadly based on Kincaid’s own experiences of growing up in relative poverty with her domineering mother. In turn, it also talks about the mother-daughter relationship.
The prose poem “Girl” consists of a series of instructions, advices and warnings given by a mother to her teenage daughter. The instructions are intended to prepare the girl to be a woman, to mould her character, and to control her private and public behaviour. The mother sees herself as the only person who can save her daughter from living a life of disrespect and promiscuity.
She believes the girl has already started down this path because of the way she walks, sits, and sings benna (Antiguan folksongs) during Sunday school, and she imparts her domestic knowledge to keep the girl respectable. In some ways, the mother is wise: not only does she know how to cook, clean, and keep a household, but she also has a keen sense of social etiquette and decorum, knowing
how to act around different types of people. For her, domestic knowledge and knowing how to interact with people bring happiness along with respect from family and the larger community. However, there is also bitterness in the mother’s voice, and she takes her anger and frustration out on her daughter.
She seems to think that none of her wisdom will make any difference and that the girl is already destined for a life of ill repute. She even repeatedly hints that the girl wants to live promiscuously and be a “slut.” Her fears for the girl actually belie deeper fears of the precarious state of womanhood in traditional Antiguan society.
Even though the girl says very little in the story, the fact that readers perceive the mother’s words through her ears makes her the silent narrator and protagonist. The daughter narrates “Girl” as if recalling the memory of her mother from a distant future place. “Girl” is not a word-for-word transcript of an actual conversation between the mother and daughter but a compilation of advice the daughter remembers her mother saying.
She remembers, for example, how her mother constantly accused her of promiscuity and impropriety, an accusation that has apparently haunted her through the years. The inclusion of such remarks in the story illustrates how deeply they affected her while growing up and just how powerful a mother’s influence and opinions can be on her children.Therefore the text “Girl” explains all the complexities involved in the mother-daughter relationship, especially in the Antiguan society.
Question 3.
Based on the mother’s instructions and warnings, attempt a description of the society and culture they are living in?
Answer:
Jamaica Kincaid (born 1949) is an award-winning Caribbean-American writer of fiction and non-fiction. Born, Elaine Potter Richardson, on the island of Antigua, West Indies, she was sent to New York in 1965 to work as an au pair (nanny).
In New York, she attended college, studied photography and worked for the New Yorker magazine. In 1973, she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid in order to write and publish anonymously. Many of her stories and novels describe the struggles of a young girl’s growing up and the mother-daughter relationship. She teaches at Harvard University and lives in Vermont.
The present literary work “Girl” is taken from Kincaid’s first short story collection titled At the Bottom of the River (1983). The ten interconnected stories in this collection, often described as “prose poem”, are broadly based on Kincaid’s own experiences of growing up in relative poverty with her domineering mother when she was living in Antigua, West Indies.
It also talks about the mother-daughter relationship in the society. The ‘Girl’ presents the vivid description of the Antiguan society and the culture of the main characters-mother and her daughter. From the understanding of the text, we can assume that the Antiguan society is evolving one, with poverty and strong gender roles. Here, the mother is particular about her daughter’s upbringing as a responsible and acceptable young woman in the society.
Importance of Domesticity in the Antiguan Society. The mother believes that domestic knowledge will not only save her daughter from a life of promiscuity and ruin but will also empower her as the head of her household and a productive member of the Antiguan community. She basically believes that there are only two types of women: the respectable kind and the “sluts.”
Undoubtedly for many Antiguan women, domestic knowledge leads to productivity, which in turn wins respect from family and society. Household work therefore brings power and even prestige to women in addition to keeping them busy and away from temptation.
From the reading of the text ‘Girl’, we canrecognize the reverence the mother has for the power of domesticity. Hence, she gives her daughter the numerous specific instructions, such as how to cook pumpkin fritters, sweep, grow okra, buy bread, and wash clothes. For her, domesticity brings respectability in their society.
Food Habits of the Antiguan Society:
The text ‘Girl’ mentions the food habits of the Antiguan people. For example, the mother repeatedly emphasizes food throughout her lecture to reinforce her belief that happiness comes from domesticity. The acts – and art – of making pumpkin fritters, tea, bread pudding, doukona, and pepper pot thus take on greater meaning as elements that link women to their families, their households, and the greater community.
In many ways, food will also be the mother’s greatest legacy as she passes old family recipes and culinary traditions down to her daughter and future generations of women. Interestingly, foods such as doukona and pepper pot also act as anchors that squarely place the story in Antigua and the Caribbean. Mentioning these specific regional foods allows Kincaid to recreate a world that’s vivid and different from our own without ruining the story’s structure with unnecessary descriptions.
Clothing Habits of the Antiguan Society:
The text ‘Girl’ also talks about the clothing habits of the Antiguan people. Cloth and its relationship to appearances and proper housekeeping reappear throughout the story to highlight the importance of respectability. The mother knows that a person’s clothing reveals much about character and personality and that shabbiness implies laziness and poverty.
Washing, sewing, and ironing allow women not only to project their status but also their productivity and self-worth. Neatness in appearance also corresponds to the community’s perception of a woman’s sexual respectability and morality. Organized, productive, well-groomed women appear competent and in control and consequently have much less chance of falling under suspicion of having had illicit relationships with men. The mother therefore stresses the importance of dress and appearance to save the daughter from a life of disrespect.
Benna :
The mother cautions her daughter not to sing benna, i.e. Antiguan folksongs, in the Sunday school. Benna symbolizes sexuality, a subject the mother fears her daughter already knows too much about. Historically, native Antiguans sang benna to secretly spread scandalous rumours and gossip under the uncomprehending British people’s noses.
Therefore, singing benna in Sunday school represents not only disobedience but also sinful, forbidden knowledge that can’t be discussed openly in public, let alone in church. Even though the daughter may not consciously equate benna with sexuality as her mother does, her protestations nevertheless suggest she knows full well benna’s seductive power, mystique, and forbidden qualities. In fact, the girl desperately denies that she has not sung benna in Sunday school with her friends.
Question 4.
Beyond being one mother’s instructions to her daughter, what is the larger relevance of the passage? Explain.
Answer:
Jamaica Kincaid (born 1949) is an award-winning Caribbean-American writer of fiction and nonfiction. Born, Elaine Potter Richardson, on the island of Antigua, West Indies, she was sent to New York in 1965 to work as an au pair (nanny). In New York, she attended college, studied photography and worked for the New Yorker magazine.
In 1973, she changed her name- to Jamaica Kincaid in order to write and publish anonymously. Many of her stories and novels describe the struggles of a young girl’s growing up and the mother-daughter relationship. She teaches at Harvard University and lives in Vermont.
The present literary work “Girl” is taken from JamaicaKincaid’s first short story collection titled At the Bottom of the River (1983). The ten interconnected stories in this collection, often described as “prose poem”, are broadly based on Kincaid’s own experiences of growing up in relative poverty with her domineering mother. In turn, it also talks about the mother-daughter relationship, the gender roles in the traditional. Antiguan society, poverty, food habits, clothing habits, and traditional folk songs, etc.
The prose poem “Girl” represents the mother – daughter relationships. The relationship is presented in the form mother’s instructions to the daughter and the daughter’s little interaction. The text consists of a series of instructions, advices and warnings given by a mother to her teenage daughter.
She tells her daughter how to do such household chores as laundry, sewing, ironing, cooking, setting the table, sweeping, washing, making herbal medicines, catching a fish, making bread pudding, making pepper-pot, etc. The mother dispenses much practical and helpful advice and imparts her domestic knowledge to keep the girl respectable. The instructions are intended to prepare the girl to be a woman, to mould her character, and to control her private and public behaviour.
The prose poem “Girl” is set in a particular social and economic milieu. There are certain words of wisdom that suggest that the women live in a poor economic and socially backward status. Similarly, it is the rural setting, wherein passing on such advice is essential for daily living.
In the text, “Girl”, the writer tries to describe her own struggle as a young girl when she was in Antigua. The entire text is contextualized in Antigua, West Indies which is Kamaica Kincaid’s birth place. There are certain words and phrases that suggest the setting to be West Indies such as
“is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?”
“this is how to make doukona”
“pepper-pot”
The word ‘benna’ means a Calypso-like folk songs, focussed on scandalous gossip and sung in a call-and-response form, broadly Antiguan folk songs. Antiguan folksongs, or benna, symbolize sexuality, a subject the mother fears her daughter already knows too much about.
Historically, native Antiguans sang benna to secretly spread scandalous rumours and gossip under the uncomprehending British people’s noses. Singing benna in Sunday school, therefore, represents not only disobedience but also sinful, forbidden knowledge that can’t be discussed openly in public, let alone in church.
Similarly, ‘doukona’ represents a Caribbean food item. It is a kind of pudding made from starchy food like dried corn or banana. The compound word “pepper-pot” is West Indian dish consisting of stewed meat or fish with vegetables. Therefore, it is clear that the milieu of “Girl” is purely West Indian.
Interestingly, foods such as ‘doukona’ and ‘pepper pot.’ also act as anchors that squarely place the story in Antigua and the Caribbean. Mentioning these specific regional foods allows Kincaid to recreate a world that’s vivid and different from our own without mining the story’s structure with unnecessary descriptions.
Therefore, the text ‘Girl’ has more than just a mother’s instructions to her daughter. It also talks about the mother daughter relationship, importance of domesticity and gender roles in the Antiguan society in West Indies. It offers the social, economic, and cultural conditions of the traditional Antiguan society.
Girl Poem Summary in English
Jamaica Kincaid (born 1949) is an award-winning Canbbearì-American writer of fiction and non-fiction. Born, Elaine Rtter Richardson, on the island of Antigua, West Indies, she was sent to New York In 1965 to work as an au pair (nanny). In New York, she attended college, studied photography and worked for the New Yorker magazine. In 1973, she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid in order to write and publish anonymously.
Many of her stories and novels describe the struggles of a young girl’s growing up and the mother-daughter relationship. She teaches at Harvard University and lives in Vermont. The present literary work “Girl” is taken from Kincaid’s first short story collection titled At the Bottom of the River (1983). The ten interconnected stories in this collection, often described as “prose poem”, are broadly based on Kincaid’s own experiences of growing up in relative poverty with her domineering mother.
The prose poem “Girl” consists of a series of instructions, advices and warnings given by a mother to her teenage daughter. The instructions are intended to prepare the girl to be a woman, to mould her character, and to control her private and public behaviour.
The entire text consists of a single sentence, punctuated by semi-colons. The mother’s voice dominates the narratives and is interrupted only twice by the daughter who makes a feeble attempt to ask a question or defend herself. The mother intends the advice to both help her daughter and scold her at the same time. Kincaid uses semi-colons to separate the admonishments and words of wisdom but often repeats herself, especially to warn her daughter against becoming a “slut.”
Besides these repetitions, the prose poem “Girl” doesn’t move forward chronologically: there is no beginning, middle, or end to the stream. The mother dispenses much practical and helpful advice that will help her daughter keep a house of her own someday.
She tells her daughter how to do such household chores as laundry, sewing, ironing, cooking, setting the table, sweeping, arid washing. The mother also tells the girl how to do other things she’ll need to know about, including how to make herbal medicines and catch a fish. These words of wisdom suggest that the women live in a poor, rural setting, where passing on such advice is essential for daily living. Moreover, the repetition of phrases observes a specific structural pattern which moves from the part to the whole. See for example the lines below:
This is how you sweep a corner;
This is how you sweep a whole house;
This is how you sweep a yard;
Those lines quoted above also show the mother’s way of thinking and reveal the daughter’s over whelmingness, stress position and submission in opposite to the mother’s pressing, persuasive and oppressive instructive tone.
Alongside practical advice, the mother also instructs her daughter on how to live a fulfIlling lIfe. She offers sampathy, such as when she talks about the relationships her daughter will have with men and talks about how to “bully” men and how a man may bully her daughter. She also warns her daughter “not to speak to wharf-rat boys” (loafers).
She also says that there are many kinds of relationships and some never work out. The mother advises her daughter, ‘If they (relationships) don’t work, don’t feel too bad about giving up’. The mother also tells the girl how to behave in different situations, including how to talk with people she doesn’t like.
However, the, mother’s advice seems caustic and castigating, out of fear that her daughter is already well on her way to becoming a “slut.” She tells the girl, for example, not to squat while playing marbles, not to singbenna(Calypso-like folk songs, focussed on scandalous gossip and sung in a call-and-response form, broadly Antiguan folk songs) in Sunday school, and to always walk like a lady. The girl periodically Inteijects to protest her innocence.
Girl Poem Summary in Telugu
జమైకా కిన్కైడ్ (జననం 1949) కరేబియన్ – అమెరికన్ కల్పన మరియు నాన్-ఫిక్ష్ రచయిత. వెస్టిండీస్లోని ఆందిగ్వా ద్వీపంలో జన్మించిన, ఎలైన్ పాటర్ రిచర్డ్సన్, ఆమెను 1965 లో న్యూయార్క్కు పంపారు. న్యూయార్క్రీ, ఆమె కళాశాలలో చదువుకుంది, ఫోటోగ్రోఫిని అభ్యసించింది మరియు న్యూయార్కర్ మ్యాగజైన్లో పనిచేసింది. 1973లో, అనామకంగా ప్రాయడానికి మరియు ప్రచురించడానికి ఆమె తన పేరును జమైకా కిన్కైడ్గా మార్చుకుంది. ఆమె అనేక కథలు మరియు నవలలు ఒక యువతి పెరుగుతున్న పోరాటాలను మరియు తల్లి-కుమార్తె సంబంధాన్ని వివరిస్తాయి. ఆమె హోర్వర్డ్ విశ్వవిద్యాలయంలో టోధిస్తంది మరియు వెర్మోంట్లో నివసిస్తుంది.
ప్రస్తుత సాహిత్య రచన “గర్ల” కిన్కైడ్ యొక్క మొదటి చిన్న కథా సంకలనం ఎట్ ది బాటమ్ ఆఫ్ ది రివర్ (1983) నుండి తీసుకోబడింది. ఈ సంకలనంలో పరస్పరం అనుసంధానించదిిన పది కథలు, తరచుగా “గద్య పద్యం” గా వర్ణించబడ్డాయి, ఆమె ఆధిపత్య తల్లితో సాపేక్ష పేదరికంలో పెరిగిన కిిన్కైడ్ యొక్క సొంత అనుభవాలపై విస్తృతంగా ఆధారపడి ఉన్నాయి. “గర్ల్ల” అనే గద్య కవితలో ఒక తల్లి తన్ దీనేజ్ కుమార్తెకు ఇచ్చిన సూచనలు, సలహాలు మరియు హెచ్చరికల (శేణి ఉంటుంది.
అమ్మాయిని ఒక మహిళగా తయారు చేయడానికి, ఆమె పాత్రను మలచడానికి మరియు ఆమె ढైవేట్ మరియు పబ్లిక్ ప్రవర్తనను నియంత్రించడానికి ఈ సూచనలు ఉద్దేశించబడ్డాయి. మొత్తం టెక్ప్ ఒకే వాక్యాన్ని కలిగి ఉంటుంది, సెమీ కోలన్లతో విరామ చిహ్నాలు ఉంటాయి. తల్లి స్వరం కథనాలపై ఆధిపత్యం చెలాయిస్తుంది మరియు ఒక ప్రశ్న అడగడానికి లేదా తనను తాను రక్షించుకోవడానికి బలహీనమైన ప్రయత్నం చేసిన కుమార్తె రెండుసార్లు మాత్రమే అంతరాయం కలిగింది.
తల్లి తన కుమార్తెకు సహాయం చేయడానికి మరియు అదే సమయంలో ఆమెను తిట్టడానికి సలహా ఇస్తుంది. కిన్కాయిడ్ సెమీ కోలన్లను వివేకం యొక్క హెచ్చరికలు మరియు పదాలను వేరు చేయడానికి ఉపయోగిస్తుంది, కానీ తరచూ ఆమె పునరావృతం, చేస్తుంది, ప్రత్యేకించి తన కుమార్తె “మురికివాడ” గా మారకుండా హెచ్చరించడానికి.
ఈ పునరావృత్తులు కాకుండా, గర్ల్ పద్యం “అమ్మాయి” కాలక్రమంలో ముందుకు సాగదు: ప్రవాహానికి ప్రారంభం, మధ్య లేదా ముగింపు లేదు. తల్లి చాలా ఆచరణాత్మకమైన మరియు సహాయకరమైన సలహాలను అందజేస్తుంది, అది తన కుమార్తెకు ఏదో ఒక రోజు స్వంత ఇందిని ఉంచుకోవడంలో సహాయపడుతుంది. బట్టలు ఉతకడం, కుట్టుపని చేయడం, ఇ్ట్రీ చేయడం, వంట చేయడం, టేబుల్ వేయడం, ఉడ్చడం, ఉతకడం వంటి ఇంది పనులు ఎలా చేయాలో ఆమె తన కూతురికి చెబుతుంది.
మూలికా ఔషధాలను ఎలా తయారు చేయడం మరియు చేపలను పట్టుకోవడం వంటి వాటి గురించి తెలుసుకోవలసిన ఇతర విషయాలను కూడా తల్లి అమ్మాయికి చెఱుతుంది. మహిళలు పేద, గ్రామీణ నేపధ్యంలో జీవిస్తున్నారని ఈ వివేకవంతమైన మాటలు సూచిస్తున్నాయి, ఇక్కడ రోజువారీ జీవనానికి అలాంది సలహాలను అందించడం చాలా అవసరం. అంతేకాకుండా, పదబంధాల పునరావృతం ఒక నిర్దిష్ట నిర్మాణ నమూనాను గమనిస్తుంది, ఇది భాగం నుండి మొత్తం వరకు కదులుతుంది. ఉదాహరణకు క్రింది పంక్తులను చూడండి:
ఈ విధంగా మీరు ఒక మాలను తుడుచుకుంటారు
మీరు ఇల్లు మొత్తం తుడుచుకునే విధానం ఇలా ఉంటుంది
మీరు యార్డ్ని ఇలా తుడుచుకుంటారు
పైన ఉదహరించిన ఆ పంక్తులు తల్లి ఆలోచనా విధానాన్ని కూడా చూపుతాయి మరియు తల్లి ఒత్తిడి, ఒప్పించే మరియు అణచివేసే బోధనా స్వరానికి ఎదురుగా కూతురు యొక్క తీవ్రత, ఒత్తిడి స్థానం. మరియు సమర్పణను వెల్లడిస్తాయి.
ఆచరణాత్మక సలహాతో పాటు, తల్లి తన కుమార్తెకు సంతృప్తికరమైన జీవితాన్ని ఎలా జీవించాలో కూడా నిర్రేశిస్తుంది. ఆమె తన కుమార్తె పురుషులతో కలిగి ఉండే సంబంధాల గురించి మాట్లాడేటప్పుడు మరియు పరుషులను ఎలా “వేధించాలి” మరియు ఒక వ్యక్తి తన కుమార్తెను ఎలా వేధించవచ్చు అనే దాని గురించి మాట్లాడేటప్చడు ఆమె సానుభూతిని అందిస్తంది.
ఆమె తన కుమార్తెను “వార్ఫ్-ఎలుక అబ్బాయిలతో మాట్లాడకూడదని” (లోఫర్లు) హెచ్చరించింది. అనేక రకాల సంబంధాలు ఉన్నాయని మరియు కొన్ని ఎన్నదికీ పని చేయలేదని కూడా ఆమె చెప్పింది. తల్లి తన కూతురికి సలహా ఇస్తుంది, ‘వారు (సంబంధాలు) పని చేయకపోతే, వదులుకోవడం గురించి చాలా బాధపడకండి. తల్లి తనకు నచ్చని వ్యక్తులతో ఎలా మాట్లాడాలో సహా వివిధ వరిస్థితులలో ఎలా ప్రవర్తించాలో కూడా అమ్మాయికి చెబుతుంది.
Girl – Jamaica Kincald
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 don’t walk bare-head in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little doths right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn’t have gum in it, because that way it won’t hold up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook
It 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, you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions; don’t eat fruits on the street – flies will follow you; but I don’t sing bernia on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button; this Is how to make a buttonhole for the button you have
Just sewed on; 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 you iron your father’s khaki shirt so that it doesn’t have a crease; this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants so that they don’t have a crease; this is how you grow okra – far from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants;
when you are growing dasheen, make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat itch when you are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely;
this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast, 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; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit; don’t squat down to play marbles – you are not a boy, you know; don’t pick people’s flowers – you might catch something; don’t throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all; this is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona; this is how to make pepper
Glossary:
