The girl is the antagonist. The preadolescent girl listens to her mother’s direction. It is the mother who speaks most of the time, and the daughter only speaks twice to defend herself against the accusations of the mother. She plays very little part in the story rather than a listener, and it is the mother who speaks with authority and setting rules to the girl. The use of humor to show conflict is evident when the mother uses an authoritative language to warn the girl about certain behaviors as a woman. The use of humor is seen in multiple instructions and warnings to the girl, who on the other side, tries to defend herself from the mother’s blunt language. For example, the girl’s interjection, “but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?” is a rude yet humorous way to answer the mother. It shows a conflict yet in a humorous way.
The story consists of a series of instructions, both the implied and direct, which are aimed at helping the girl to become a respectable woman in the future. The mother, on many occasions, tells the girl how adult women should behave with a particular emphasis on sex due to her fear that her daughter could become an irresponsible woman in the future. In what appears to be a monologue, with the girl only talking a few times, the story entails repeated instructions of a mother to a daughter. The story is brief and seems to lack a clear plot even though the readers can imagine the context in which the story is created. The key voice is that of an unnamed mother addressing a girl, and even though the relationship is not stated, the reader can assume the girl is the daughter to the mother. Like Kincaid’s story, “Girl” entails a mother advising her daughter on how to become a good woman in the future, with the woman dominating the conversation and the girl only talking a few times to defend herself.
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