"Girl"

Hi, this is Lucy Liang. 

The short story “Girl” is comprised of a list of instructions to a young girl, most likely from her mother (for the instructions are as detailed as “soak your little clothes right after you take them off” and how to get rid of a child before it even becomes one), on the daily chores which clearly reflects the role and social expectations of the female gender. It seems that to the mother, respect and power for a woman is earned only through domestic knowledge and a specific set of behaviors. The mother repeatedly warned the daughter against becoming a “slut”, and she speaks as if the girl is a slut. The story is made up of only one paragraph with sentences separated by only semi-colons, without a complete stop in between. The first letter of the list starts at the very beginning of the first line, and the last letter at the very end of the last line. This gives the feeling that the list of instructions is like a brick wall pressing on the girl, giving her no space to breath, and that any action that breaks outside that confined brick of instructions, she’ll become a slut.