Girl

My first impression of this text, “Girl”, was that it was expectations of a girl or woman. This was easy to see. When I read into the text more a second time, I realized it was a mother telling her daughter what qualifies a woman or girl as “good”. The mother that speaks throughout the entire text, has a strong and stern tone. The writer created this strong and bold effect in her word choice. In line 10, the mother says to her daughter, “not like the slut you are so bent on becoming”. This proves she is stern and straight forward. What other words or quotes from the text proved the mother’s tone throughout the text?

According to the text, what qualifies a girl or woman as “good”? One thing the mother tells her daughter is housework: being able to cook and clean. In line 4 of the text, the mother says, “soak your little clothes right after you take them off”. This could be universal because most mothers teach their daughters how to cook, clean, and take care of the home. Another thing the mother says is to act classy around boys. In line 33, she says “don't squat down to play marbles”. The mother also tells her daughter how to not sleep around and how to walk away from a relationship. In lines 39 and 40, she says “this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a fish you don’t like”. If you can handle all of this, you are a “good” girl or woman in this mother’s eye. Do you agree with everything this mother tells her daughter?

Throughout this text, there are various kinds of imagery, metaphors.. In line 12, the mother says, “don’t eat fruits on the street - flies will follow you”. She refers to the flies as lower class men. In line 39 and 40, she says “this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a fish you don’t like.” In this line, the mother refers to the fish as men. She also means throw away as how to easily give your man away, if you do not want him.