of stories which won the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy and

Institute of Arts and Letters. "Girl" is a short piece that shows the dialogue

between an older woman and a younger girl, probably a mother and her adolescent

daughter. In the piece, the mother instructs her daughter on many subjects, from

cooking and cleaning to social skills and love. Despite its brevity, "Girl" is a

work which accurately and intimately portrays a mother-daughter relationship and

The title of the piece, "Girl", is an integral part of the work itself. The

title serves several purposes. First, the title represents the age of the

daughter. She is not a woman, not yet on her own, but a girl, still dependent on

perception of her daughter. She does not consider her a woman or a young lady,

to squeeze in a word, having only two brief sentences in the entire work. Very

of the daughter's adolescence. The mother doesn't consider her daughter to be

doing the cooking, cleaning, shopping, sewing, and laundry. The advice all deals

becoming") tempered with love and patience (". . . if they don't work, don't

mature, and tries to prepare her for adulthood and womanhood. The mother's

her mother offers sounds like endless droning, and the words become the backdrop

Some common words found in the essay are:
Kincaid Caribbean, Letters Girl, Bottom River, , title represents, mother offers, mother-daughter relationship, cooking cleaning,
Approximate Word count = 570
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)