Submitted by: Submitted by brandonarboleda
Views: 25
Words: 547
Pages: 3
Category: English Composition
Date Submitted: 03/08/2015 06:58 PM
Brandon Arboleda
AP Language and Composition
Mrs. Amelkin Period 4
20 January 2015
Girl Questions and Thesis
Questions
1. The strict mother brings up the “wharf-rat boys” in a rather harsh connotation. The first time the mother warns the girl about being a slut precedes the warning of the “wharf-rat boys”, which already sets such a motherly harsh connotation for the next few clauses. The mother then mentions that the girl shouldn’t even give them directions, which, by showing that the mother doesn’t even want the girl to do such a basic task, that the boys are not to be meddled with. No exact reason is given as to why the girl isn’t allowed to talk to the boys, but the mother seems to think that they are not good influences.
2. If the baker were to refuse the girl of holding and squeezing the bread, then the mother believes that the girl has become the slut that she feared she may have become. Kincaid uses the action of buying the bread into a metaphor for sex, which is why a simple question like that generates such a strong response from the mother.
3. The mother wants her daughter to follow the gender roles that their society has set in place. The girl must grow up into a woman, a woman that follows the rules all other woman follow. The mother is trying to keep the girl off the path of sinful deeds, such as becoming a slut.
Questions on Writing Strategy
1. Kincaid wrote this as one long sentence to present the effect of a long lecture. Lectures given by parents are usually loaded with information, and presented in a snappy fashion where you are rarely even given a chance to speak. Some lectures seem like they can last forever, and this seems to be one of them.
2. The italics are the girl interrupting the mother to argue something the mother said previously, and to present a question. As I mentioned before, a child usually gets little to no chance to speak when being lectured, which is why we hear so little of the girl in this...