Previous
Motifs
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
“Girl” is set in the Caribbean. Although a location is never given by name, the story is rife with references to the culture and geography of the islands. Salt fish, doukona, and pepper pot are all popular dishes; pumpkin, dasheen, and okra are common crops. The story also gives the sense of an island community more generally. In a place with a small population sequestered by the sea on all sides, everyone knows everyone, and a person's reputation precedes them. This is evident in Mother’s warnings and instructions, which coalesce neatly at the end of the story—don’t be the kind of woman the baker won’t let near the bread.
The references to benna (a form of calypso music unique to Antigua and Barbuda) and Kincaid’s own childhood in St. John’s make it likely that the specific Caribbean island is Antigua. Colonized by Great Britain in the early 17th century, Antigua, along with the rest of the West Indies, became a key point in the transatlantic slave trade. The British used Antigua to grow cash crops like sugar and tobacco. Following the abolition of slavery in 1933, the already-small settler population dwindled. Antigua is largely made up of descendants of enslaved people kidnapped from Africa. However, Britain retained cultural and political hegemony. Even after Antigua and Barbuda declared formal independence from the United Kingdom in 1981, three years after “Girl” was first published in The New Yorker, it remains a part of the British Commonwealth.
Related Themes:
