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Tamia Kinney
Freshman Composition II
Mrs. Jacobs
November 21, 2017
Critical Approach Essay

The story that I chose to write about is the Girl. The Girl is a story written by Jamaica

Kincaid. The girl spoke once while her mom was telling her how to be a woman. As well as

how she should carry herself and treat people with kindness. The real-world event that I can

relate the Girl to is Teen Pregnancy. The critical approach I decided to use is Feminist. Will

the church ladies talk about a pregnant teen?

Feminist is a literary study that began by denouncing the misrepresentation of women

in literature and affirming the importance of womens writings. Although the mother is

trying to teach her daughter not to be a slut, their relationship isnt the best. Also, the

daughter might feel as if the mother is being hard on her, and out of rebellious she may look

for that loving feeling somewhere else. However, the mother didnt have the talk with her

daughter about sex, and its a sensitive topic to discuss with the teen. The mother introduced

the topic in an insensitive way by mentioning, On Sundays try to walk like a lady and not

like the slut you so bent on becoming (Kincaid 128). That is the way the mother exposed the

misrepresentation of a woman to her daughter.

Most parents dont know how to have THE TALK to their children, so they tend to

avoid the topic or be straightforward about the situation. When parents are straightforward

with their kids about sexual relations, the kids may also want to experiment. For instance, if
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the mother is already name calling without knowing if it is going to happen shows that she

has a prediction that it will happen. If the mother is already having thought of her daughter

being a slut shows that she doesnt have a good relationship with her daughter and that can

lead to teen pregnancy. The article Rural Parents Communication with Teenagers about

Sexual Issues stated in paragraph 5 that However, the growing body of literature regarding

effects of parent-teen communication about sexuality yields disappointing results. In the

story, the daughter that the mother is speaking to only speaks once by saying but I dont

sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school.

Benna is a genre of Antiguan and Barbuda music. Before daughter could defended

herself the mother had already told the daughter not to sing Benna in church. That type of

music is not allowed in church. If the daughter was to get pregnant at a young age because of

lack of communication with mother. The church ladies will talk about her on Sunday and

shame her for being a pregnant teen.

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Work cited

Jordan, Timothy R., James H. Price, and Shawn Fitzgerald. "Rural Parents' Communication with their

Teen-Agers about Sexual Issues." The Journal of School Health, vol. 70, no. 8, 2000, pp. 338-44, ProQuest

Central; ProQuest Environmental Science Collection, http://nclive.org/cgi-

bin/nclsm?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/215684146?accountid=12120.