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pants so that they don’t have a crease; this is because it might not be a blackbird at all; this is
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how you grow okra — far from the house, how to make a bread pudding; this is how to
CLOSE READING because okra tree harbors red ants; when you make doukona; this is how to make pepper pot;
2
are growing dasheen, make sure it gets plenty of this is how to make a good medicine for a cold;
Ask students to consider the complexity or water or else it makes your throat itch when you this is how to make a good medicine to throw
tension that might be found in this phrase: Analyzing Short Fiction are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this away a child before it even becomes a child; this
“[T]his is how to behave in the presence is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a
of men who don’t know you very well, and sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone fish you don’t like, and that way something bad
this way they won’t recognize immedi- you don’t like too much; this is how you smile to won’t fall on you; this is how to bully a man; this
ately the slut I have warned you against someone you don’t like at all; this is how you is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a
becoming. . .” Encourage students to ask smile to someone you like completely; this is man, and if this doesn’t work there are other
questions, such as “What does it mean how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a ways, and if they don’t work don’t feel too bad
© Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.
to behave?” “Why does the mother only table for dinner; this is how you set a table for about giving up; this is how to spit up in the air if
focus on men?” “What does ‘this’ actually dinner with an important guest; this is how you you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so
mean?” “Where might tension lie between set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table that it doesn’t fall on you; this is how to make
not knowing someone very well while for breakfast; this is how to behave in the ends meet; always squeeze bread to make sure
immediately recognizing misbehavior?” presence of men who don’t know you very well, it’s fresh; but what if the baker won’t let me feel
Finally, ask students to consider why the and this way they won’t recognize immediately the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are
mother repeats the “slut” phrase multiple
times. What possible motivation might the the slut I have warned you against becoming; be really going to be the kind of woman who the
mother have? sure to wash every day, even if it is with your baker won’t let near the bread?
own spit; don’t squat down to play 1978
marbles — you are not a boy, you know; don’t
pick people’s flowers—you might catch 2
DIFFERENTIATION something; don’t throw stones at blackbirds, An Antiguan dish, doukona is a starchy pudding wrapped in a
banana or plantain leaf and boiled like a dumpling. — Eds.
Inquiry
Given the list of directives, it may seem
strange that the mother’s final concern Preparing to Write: Annotating Short Fiction
deals with bread and the baker. Ask Most of the time, you’ll be given a prompt or a writing assignment that will focus your
students in small groups to research the interpretation. For instance, in this case, your teacher might assign the following
symbolic significance of bread in cultures prompt:
and religions around the world. Ask them to
and religions around the world. Ask them to
share their findings with the class. What is The following question refers to Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl,” published in 1978.
universal about the experience of preparing
and consuming bread? What is different In this story, a mother addresses her daughter by imparting expectations for
from culture to culture? Ask students to proper behavior. Read the story carefully. Then, in a well-written essay,
post their findings to large Post-its or a analyze how Kincaid uses literary elements and techniques to convey how
Google Jamboard. Ask students to review social values and traditions shape the complex relationship between the
responses. Then, in their small groups, ask mother and her daughter.
students to provide an interpretive position
about the mother’s attitude based on their Before starting to analyze at a deeper level and beginning your written response, it’s
findings. You may wish to have them share helpful to put into a sentence or two just what is going on in this story. We might sum up
their interpretation with the entire class.

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CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING
You may wish to deconstruct the prompt
with students. Ask them to explain what a
“well-written essay” looks like using the lan-
guage of the rubric. Prompt them to include
things like “defensible claim,” “line of reason-
ing,” “use of multiple literary elements and
techniques,” etc. Ask them to clarify what
it means to analyze and what complexity
means. Then, you may ask them to review
various social norms and customs.

38 chapter 1 / Analyzing Short Fiction

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