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Nikita Wilkins

17 November 2017

English

Critical Analysis of Girl

Introduction

Girl, a poem by Jamaican Kincaid, is the story of a young lady recalling the rules of

being a girl. Throughout the poem, the narrator gives a seemingly never ending list of rules that

one must follow to be considered a desirable girl. Through the author's use of tone and style, the

reader is able to feel the stress and strain that girls like the protagonist are put through by society.

One of the most memorable parts of the work is the passiveness of the protagonist. While all the

rules are given to her, she doesnt speak up for herself very much. She makes one statement

that she doesnt sing benna, but says very little about the other things. She seems to want to

make whoever is speaking to her proud, but seemingly is up against a large task to follow all the

rules Readers are able to empathize with the protagonist's conflict of being able to follow all the

rules. Jamaican Kincaide uses a Feminist perspective to highlight societys unfair treatment of

women, which is similar to the #MeToo twitter movement.

Analysis

Merriam Webster defines feminism as the theory of the political, economic, and social

equality of the sexes (Webster, 2017). Feminism has been made even more popular by

Beyonces ***FLAWLESS, in which Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said, We teach girls to

shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. By analyzing Girl against Adichies quote, it is

clear that Kinkade's work is from a feminist approach. While reading the poem, the narrators

rules definitely shrink the protagonist. She rarely speaks up for herself. The many rules, which
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are defined by society, control the women of that community.

Current Event

Recently, Hollywood has been taken by storm by the #metoo movement on Twitter. The

movement allowed women to redefine the stereotype of sexual assault and hold the offenders

accountable. In the past few weeks, several men of Hollywood have been exposed as sexual

offenders and rapists. Women have abandoned the rules and taken charge of their own stories.

The rules that Kincade highlighted are being abandoned and new feminist ideas are taking

over.
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Work Cited

Beyonc (Ft. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) ***Flawless. Genius, 13 Dec. 2013,

genius.com/Beyonce-flawless-lyrics.

Feminism. Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/feminism.