Race, Gender, and Identity in Kincaid's "Girl" and Staples's "Just Walk on By"

Introduction: Two Voices on Race and Identity

Brent Staples and Jamaica Kincaid have written seminal short works contained in anthologies of American and African American literature. Although Kincaid's "Girl" and Staples's "Just Walk on By" were published roughly twenty years apart, they share common themes related to racism and the experience of being Black in the United States. Both authors address the intersection of gender and race: Kincaid focuses on the role expectations placed on women in Black society, while Staples concentrates on the perception of Black males by the dominant white culture. Both writers imbue their work with emotional intensity, not shying away from anger but rather transforming powerful feelings of frustration into points of liberation.

In "Just Walk on By," the narrator describes his experience as a night walker—someone who enjoys taking long walks at night in the city. What would typically be considered a normal activity takes on tremendous political importance for Black men. Staples points out that people on the streets, particularly white pedestrians, would run across the street or cower in his presence. He comically calls these pedestrians his "victims," revealing a dark sense of humor and making light of the fact that being a Black man renders him apparently criminal in others' eyes. In "Girl," Kincaid writes a stream-of-consciousness litany of advice given from mother to daughter. The mother warns the daughter to behave in socially sanctioned ways, lest she be perceived as a "slut" or insubordinate.

Literary Style and Narrative Technique

The two stories employ dramatically different literary styles, techniques, and methods of storytelling to achieve their respective goals. "Girl" uses an unusual rhetorical methodology combining stream of consciousness with potent imagery. Kincaid writes what is essentially one extended run-on sentence serving as a monologue of proscriptions and admonishments from mother to daughter. The litany of orders highlights generational differences, but more broadly Kincaid shows how race shapes gender identity and roles in American society. As she writes: "This is how you smile to someone you like completely, this is how you set a table for tea" (Kincaid).

Whereas "Girl" uses second-person narration—highly unusual in prose—Staples uses first-person narration. In "Just Walk on By," the narrator describes his informal sociology experiments as a Black man who notices that his mere presence on the street makes whites, and especially white women, uneasy. Although he does not use a series of parental admonishments, Staples does comment on the social norms governing the behavior of people of color, making the two works comparable in their shared concern with prescribed behavior.

Social Constraints and Racial Norms

Both Kincaid and Staples elucidate commonly held beliefs about how people are "supposed" to act within the dominant culture. Rather than being free to assert their own identities through their own presence and behavior, the titular girl in "Girl" and the narrator of "Just Walk on By" find themselves constrained by societal expectations. Both characters discover that Black Americans are uniquely confined to a narrow social domain stripped of political power. The man in "Just Walk on By" cannot walk down the street without being perceived as a social menace, and the girl in "Girl" cannot even dress herself or smile on her own terms. The mother suggests that the girl's role is subordinate and subservient—a position of servitude to others and especially to men. She goes so far as to say, "This is how a man bullies you" (Kincaid 1). The narrator of "Just Walk on By" reaches a similar conclusion, noting "the rage I felt at so often being taken for a criminal… black men trade tales like this all the time" (Staples 4).

While the narrator of "Just Walk on By" does not address the social standards expected of Black women, he does express his distaste for the stigmas placed on Black men. He finds that simply walking down the street marks him as "dangerous," which is itself "a hazard" (Staples 1). Yet the narrator cleverly inverts his position in society, moving from one of social subordination to one of power. He discovers that by whistling music perceived as safe because it belongs to the province of upper-class whites—"melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi and the more popular classical composers"—he can evade suspicion and avoid confrontations with the police. As long as he performs whiteness and comports himself in ways acceptable to the white community, the narrator is safe from their scorn. At the same time, he recognizes the power latent in his presence and uses it to his advantage, knowing he has the ability to unsettle those around him.

Both the narrator of "Just Walk on By" and the girl in "Girl" must navigate the precarious position between self-empowerment and the expectations imposed by the dominant culture. The girl contends with a mother shaped by an older, more submissive generation. In recounting her mother's advice, the girl implicitly reveals that the only reason her mother issues such directives is because of racism and entrenched gender norms. "But what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?" she asks, to which the mother responds, "You mean to say that after all, you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let near the bread?" (Kincaid 1).

Works Cited

Kincaid, Jamaica. "Girl."

Simmons, Diane. "The Rhythm of Reality in the Works of Jamaica Kincaid." World Literature Today, vol. 68, no. 3.

Staples, Brent. "Just Walk on By."