Albina Imanbekova

Ms. Rosario, Ms. Sterner

Ap. Language & Composition

April 11, 2018

“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid

Rhetorical/ Text Analysis Essay

“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is a very short story written in a stream of consciousness

style. In the voice of a mother lecturing her daughter. In short, the mother is giving her

daughter a series of instructions on how to become a lady, not a slut. ​Jamaica Kincaid 

is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. Jamaica 

Kincaid in this short story explains that be a good girl, not a slut. She writes in a informal 

tone for girls and womens. Author purpose is to point out the things about slut so that 

the girls and women have to do housework.  

She shows that do not be a slut and supports her explanation by describing the logos in 

the text. The logos is an appeal to logic, and is a way of persuading an audience by 

reason. The evidence of the logos is “this is how you grow okra-far from the house , 

because okra tree harbors red ants”. This means that she is explaining about okra tree 

and explaining the fact about okra tree.  

She supports her explanation by using the pathos. The pathos is an appeal to emotion, 

and is a way of convincing an audience of an argument by creating an emotional 

response. The evidence of the pathos from the text is that “this is how to make a 

medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child” this is mean that give 

advice to the girls to become a good girl do not throw away the child before the 

medication becomes against her. She is explaining about the feeling about a child.  

Jamaica Khalid used a lot of repetition. The repetition is the action of repeating 

something that has already been said or written. The evidence of the repetition is that 

“this is how you smile to someone you like completely:this is how you set a table for tea: 

this is how you set a table for dinner”. She used the sentence “this is how” every time in 

the text, also she repeat the punctuation “ ; “ which is call semicolon.  

Jamaica Khalid wrote this short text in unaccustomed style. ​In this short text the mother

is giving her daughter a series of instructions on how to become a lady, not a slut.​ In our

time, a lot of these girls with easy behavior and I think this can not be stopped. The

main message of this article is ​do not be a slut, be a lady.