Gender plays a role in almost everything in society. Gender impacts the workplace. Gender impacts science. But overall, gender impacts how we interact with each other. Girl is told entirely from a female’s perspective. The story takes the reader not only through the perspective of a female but also through the perspective of a Caribbean-born female. Not only would the advice look different if it were instead written from the perspective of a father to a son, but the overall message behind the story would change as well.

If Girl was written through the perspective of a father and son, the advice would quickly change to match with more masculine ones. The advice in Girl is meant to prepare this young girl for adulthood, how to be a respectable young lady, and how to be with a man. The first couple of sentences introduce the reader to how this mother believes her child should be as an adult when it says, “wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry” (Kincaid 1978). The mother Kincaid is portraying in this story believes this certain way to do laundry is one of the things a young girl should know as she is growing up to be a respectable young woman. But if this had been told from the perspective of a father to a son, this advice would differ.

Traditionally, men have a different role in the world and their household. They are expected to be masculine and act as the providers for the family. If Girl was written from the perspective of a father to a son—then the advice given, such as the previous one about how to do laundry—would have been changed to match these ideals. Instead of the boy being told how to do laundry, he would have been told something along the lines of making sure his wife does the laundry on time when needed. Because for a man, having a wife that serves and obeys him is important. 

Other types of advice would be given as well. In Girl, the mother also gave advice on how to be with a man as she says, “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” (Kincaid). But if this were written for a son from a father, the boy might not receive any advice for how to be with a woman. For some men, knowing how to be with a woman is instinct and ties into their masculine nature. So instead of getting advice on how to love a woman, the son might get advice on how to be the dominant one in the relationship and even “bully” the woman. 

This difference in perspective would change the overall theme in Girl. The lesson Girl portrays is that a woman’s identity as well as her respectability are tied into domestic responsibilities and societal pressures based on gender. If it were told from a father’s perspective, then the man’s identity would focus more on being masculine and rough than it would be on being obedient and pure. The male perspective would act as the other side of a coin, showing that boys are expected to grow to be macho, independent providers, whereas the girls are expected to grow to be soft, feminine, caregivers. 

Works Cited

Kincaid, Jamaica. “Girl.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 1978.