's "" has been alternately categorized as a dramatic , a short story, and
even as a poem. It consists of advice from a mother to her daughtera girl on the verge of
womanhoodabout how to conduct herself, mainly on sexual matters, with which she seems to be
obsessed (and in which, she suggests, the girl has transgressed already). Kincaid has said that
she heard her mother's voice in her head continually when writing the story. She had a difficult
relationship with her mother and moved to the United States in part to escape from
her.
The overbearing mother of the story sees herself as passing on the
wisdom of generations of Caribbean women, initiating her daughter into womanhood, as she was
initiated by her mother. The advice she gives, however, is obviously rooted so firmly in her
culture and her generation that, although there is no response in the text, any reader of
Kincaid can readily imagine how acerbic the girl's reply would be.
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