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The girl’s mother is the main speaker in the story. Her authoritative voice, which offers the girl a list of guidelines on how to conduct herself, makes up the bulk of the story, with very few interruptions or protests coming from the girl. Mother tells the girl how to perform chores, how to cook and garden, what she ought to cook and garden, how to entertain, how to behave on Sundays, and how to love. Though readers are to understand that she is a Caribbean woman, her voice is not inflected by any particular dialect. Her tone is distant and impersonal, but grows more insistent when advising the girl against behaviors that could lead to her being viewed as a slut.
Mother Quotes in Girl
The Girl quotes below are all either spoken by Mother or refer to Mother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Girl Quotes
Don’t walk bare-head in the hot sun.
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Mother tells the girl this after instructing her on how to do laundry. Just as there is a proper way to perform household chores, Mother establishes that there is a proper way to appear in public. To walk with a “bare-head” is to go without a headwrap, a common accessory worn by Black Caribbean women. The custom of wearing a headwrap comes from their West African ancestors who were brought to the island as slaves. Though the headwrap is a symbol of modesty in West African cultures, Mother complicates an expression of pride in tradition by specifying that the girl Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo mi
Is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?
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Mother changes the subject from recipes and household tips to a question about conduct. In this sentence, the nouns benna and Sunday school stand in contrast to one another. Benna is a product of the unique culture of a Caribbean island (it originated in Antigua and Barbuda, though these islands are never mentioned), while colonial rule had imposed Sunday school on the islanders. Benna is an upbeat calypso music sung in dialect, while Sunday school is a place to sing solemn hymns in “proper” English. Moreover, the lyrics to benna are a way to share local gossip, which makes it Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. E
On Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming.
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This advice is part of Mother’s instructions on how to behave in Sunday school, but it is also interspersed with advice on how to eat (so as not to “turn someone’s else’s stomach”) and where to eat (not on the streets, due to flies). Natural acts, such as walking and eating, become complicated by mother’s insistence that there are proper ways to do them. This makes walking less of a natural movement and more of an act of performance. The simile “walk like a lady” suggests imitation, though Mother is never clear about what a “lady” is or how one Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem
You mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions.
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Mother forbids the girl to do this after telling her, explicitly, “don’t sing benna in Sunday school.” With the commands “don’t” and “mustn’t,” she strictly imposes restrictions on the girl’s voice. Just as calypso music and holy days do not mix, neither should a presumably middle-class girl and poor boys who hang around a wharf. Wharf-rat boys are suspected criminals, loafing around ports waiting for items to steal. Their association with rodents makes them sound loathsome, like creatures to be avoided if they cannot be exterminated. If the girl speaks to them, she would be acknowledging them as worthy of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut
But I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school.
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This is the first instance in the text in which the girl speaks. Her interjection occurs between Mother’s instruction not to “eat fruits on the street” and her demonstration of “how to sew on a button.” Mother never acknowledges the girl’s statement, but she never returns to the subject either. With her insistence, the girl employs the same negative language that Mother uses when telling the girl how not to walk, eat, and socialize. She has inherited Mother’s language of denial. However, the girl also asserts herself, insisting that she knows the rules. Yet, in certifying her knowledge and obedience Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolo
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.
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Mother includes this advice in the form of a barbed insult among instructions on how to sew. The tone is sly, starting off in the form of generally helpful tips on tailoring, then descending into personal contempt for the girl’s appearance. Mother instills the expectation that the girl will follow gender-specific behavior by wearing a dress—a clothing item that signifies femininity—but insists that the hem of the dress be maintained so that the girl does not look like a “slut,” though Mother finds this inevitable anyway. The hemline is symbolic of the line that separates proper expressions of femininity from Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit.
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.
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Mother’s advice on behavior follows her guidance on how to maintain a household and garden. Presentation is key, even if it means rejecting authenticity. Natural signs, such as smiling—a way to express happiness—become ways of masking one’s true emotional state. Furthermore, there are degrees of smiling, ways of portioning out politeness and presenting different modes of being for different people, just as one would set a table differently for different meals or teatimes. It is especially important not to offer too much of oneself to strange men. Mother insists that the girl must behave in a particular way around men Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum
This is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona; this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child.
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Mother’s demonstrations of recipes are included with her moral lessons in the form of proverbs, particularly one saying that the girl should not throw stones at blackbirds, “because it might not be a blackbird at all.” Kincaid’s choice to place this proverb, which signifies the place of uncertainty in life, contrasts with Mother’s definitive expressions of how to prepare recipes and medicines. People usually experiment and improvise in their preparations of food and home remedies, but this creativity is discouraged by Mother’s repetition of “this is how,” making it clear, yet again, that there is a particular way to perform Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in.
This is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man, and if this doesn’t work there are other ways, and if they don’t work don’t feel too bad about giving up.
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This advice follows Mother’s variation on a global proverb about how to throw back a fish “you don’t like” to avoid bad luck. In a similar vein, Mother teaches the girl how to deal with men, including what to do when she meets one she does not like. Bullying, in this context, does not have the negative meaning that it usually does. Instead, it is a common part of male-female relations. This is the sole instance in the story in which Mother expresses some leniency for “other ways” of doing things, but only in the specific context of loving a Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui
Always squeeze bread to make sure it’s fresh; but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?
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This is Mother’s final piece of advice and the second instance in which the girl speaks. Again, Mother insists that there is a proper way to do things—this time, buying bread—but, the girl questions, for the first time, whether Mother’s way of doing things is “always” reliable. The girl’s “what if” question raises the possibility of something that Mother might not have considered—that the baker might not want her to feel the bread. However, to Mother, the fault for this would lie with the girl. If he (given his right to judge, the baker is presumably a “he”) does not Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consecte
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Mother Character Timeline in Girl
The timeline below shows where the character Mother appears in Girl. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Girl
The speaker, a mother, tells a girl, her daughter, how to do the laundry, specifying that whites should be...
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Mother tells the girl not to walk bare-head in the hot sun.
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Mother gives the girl a list of tips, including how best to fry pumpkin fritters and...
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Mother tells the girl how to behave in Sunday school. Not only should she not sing...
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Mother tells the girl that she must not speak to wharf-rat boys for any reason at...
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The girl interrupts her Mother’s instruction not to eat fruit outside to assure her that she does not “sing benna...
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Mother tells the girl how to maintain clothes by sewing and ironing. Mother also encourages her...
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Mother tells the girl how to grow traditional crops, such as okra and dasheen, being sure...
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Mother gives the girl instructions on how to socialize, including how to give a particular smile...
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Mother tells the girl how to manage her body, including the importance of always looking after...
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Mother proceeds with advice, such as “don’t throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be...
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Mother instructs the girl on how to bully a man, then shows her how he will...
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Mother completes her instruction to the girl by showing her “how to make ends meet,” and...
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