Girl

First off, I'm really struggling with this stuff. I'm actually a writer myself, but I find it difficult to read these stories and appreciate them because it just doesn't feel like good writing to me. I feel like "Cold-Hearted" and "Fiesta" seemed more like personal essays or journal entries than well-written stories that involved the reader with some sense of plot and tension. I mean there's certainly tension between the characters but the reader is left out of that tension. I understand a lot of people enjoy these stories and I can respect that. I guess it's just not my thing...

Anyways, that was my inital response. My analysis is on Kincaid's Girl, which is an interesting piece of writing. It seems like it should have been written as a poem, because it doesn't really read like a story. Regardless, it appears to be a mother's conversation with her daughter. The mother is attempting to impart in her daughter a sense of classiness and respect for herself. She tells her how to wash clothes, how to wear them, how to cook, how to eat, how to walk, etc; all the qualities she feels like a "lady" should possess. She tells her how to do several other household things, how to treat people, even how to make homemade birthcontrol, which I thought was interesting. The whole issue with the "slut you are so bent on becoming" phrase is up for interpretation. I not exactly sure if she really expects her to become a "slut" but more so the "type of woman the baker won't let near the bread;" A woman who has little respect for herself, little respect for others, little respect for nature ("don't throw stones at blackbirds, pick other people's flowers), etc. I think it's about respect and "the slut you are so bent on becoming" is the mother worrying that her daughter will not heed her warnings for respect and will grow up without it...