You've got a mean mom who's really not into building her daughter's self-esteem, and you've got a daughter who's pretty silent. In fact, the prose poem "'Girl"' is all about how a Caribbean mother shuts her daughter up by telling her what to do and, more importantly, how to be a "'lady."' It's also a prose poem that shows the lack of freedom the Caribbean girl has to become a strong individual while living with the neo-colonial, patriarchal values of her mother. Yikes!
"'Girl"' is mostly a bunch of commands a mother gives to her daughter. How does the form of the command relate to the colonial legacy in the Caribbean?
The daughter does actually get two (itty-bitty) lines in the prose poem. What do the lines reveal about the daughter, and can they show a form of resistance to her mother's oppressive values?