Existentialism In Jamaica Kincaid's Girl

“Existentialism,” as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is an “analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad.” Often times when people undergo a transformation, be it physical or social, they may struggle to adopt an identity that satisfies both the society that they live in and themselves. A theme of existential crisis, or identity struggle, can be seen in Gregor Samsa of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and in the young woman of Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa awakens as a giant insect, which has an immense impact on his family.

This transformation leads to Gregor’s sufferings in his new identity and later on, his death from his family’s collective hatred and resentment towards him. In Girl, a prepubescent, Caribbean girl is given instructions on numerous subjects, such as behavior, cooking, and romance, as she is becoming of the reproductive age. Her mother is the one giving the instructions, and is very particular in her allegations of her daughter’s “inner slut” and how to control such primal desires. Though different in the reactions to the transformation and the transformation itself, both of these works are similar in that they have heavy familial involvement surrounding the change and how the characters question their new existence. By examining and discussing the similarities and differences between these two literary works, further analysis can be made into what it means to have an identity, whether that be self-prescribed or prescribed by outside forces.
Immediately in the beginning of Girl and The Metamorphosis, the respective central characters have gone through a transformation, with the Girl character’s transformation being more implicit in her transition into a woman; the transformation for Gregor, however, is more direct as it says, “he found himself changed into a monstrous cockroach in his bed.” These transformations lead to the characters to contemplate their newfound roles, thereby showing an existential crisis.
The mother’s “guidance” in Girl serve as a catalyst to the girl questioning her place in their society, as revealed by the lines “but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?” In response, her mother is incredulous, asking, “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?” The young woman’s questioning is likely due to the guidance appearing as societal norms for women rather than as helpful suggestions. Upon further examination, Carol Bailey, in her literary critique of Kincaid’s Girl, cites that the short story “shows clear emphasis on particular ways of being that depend on defined ways of acting, and calls attention to the entrenched nature of the performative acts that allows the young female to cement her place in the community of respectable women.” Bailey is thus interpreting Girl as saying that the mere existence and nature of women in this setting is all an act, no substance. Kincaid’s purpose in having the young woman question her mother’s peculiar advice is, by all means, Kincaid’s own way of condemning what Caribbean women are expected to adhere to in their society.
On the contrary, Gregor appears, for the most part, unperturbed by his transformation other than the fact that he will be late for work. Due to his job as a traveling salesman, Gregor has allowed his basic human needs—rest, friendship, sex— to deteriorate, thus resulting in Gregor’s apparent lack of humanity. Despite undergoing such a drastic transformation, Gregor is more so concerned about the changes in his outward appearance, in this case his reputation, rather than his inward conscious. This is shown when Gregor is desperately defending himself to his boss whilst still growing accustomed to his new self in the lines “all those complaints you bring against me, they’re all of them groundless: it’s the first I’ve heard of any of them.” His words are, however, incomprehensible because of his transformation.
Equally important to both of these stories are the reactions to the transformed individual that are not from the individual themselves, namely the reactions from the family of Gregor Samsa and the young woman.
The young woman mother’s response to the young woman’s transformation is what one may expect to come from the mother of a child who is beginning to mature— well-intended, meticulous, and helpful.

Such is evident in the advice that the mother lists off, especially in her mention of “how to bully a man” and “how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child.” There is, however, some parts of the mother’s speech that one may find disconcerting because of its phrasing and harsh tones. Phrasing like “on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming” and “this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming” are prime examples of how poor the mother is handling her daughter’s transition from childhood to

adulthood.
On the other hand, Gregor’s transformation has a massive impact on his family, as prior to his transformation, he was the only family member providing an income since his father’s business closed.

Hence, after his unexpected transformation, the family’s financial situation, as well as the parents and sister themselves, change drastically; what were once three people who used to depend on Gregor for every single penny now find themselves all working to sustain themselves. By the same token, it can be seen that Gregor, in a way, depends heavily on the family himself; this dependence can be seen in his need to be their caretaker, an identity he then loses in his transformation. In the time that follows Gregor’s identity loss, he deteriorates, and eventually dies, due to his inability to form an identity shaped to benefit his now self-sufficient family. It is thus by this sort of “identity dependence” aspect of Gregor that ultimately leads to his downfall as caretaker and his family’s ascension into self-sufficiency. This notion is better expressed in Inez Martinez’s article on unconsciousness and survival in The Metamorphosis, who says, “Gregor is a portrait of a human so invincibly unconscious that even if an unconscious identity is revealed to him through a literalized transformation, he continues to garner his sense of who he is from without rather than from within.” A safe assumption, then, may be that Gregor has been experiencing an existential crisis in the entirety of

The Metamorphosis, with his transformation serving as the manifestation of this crisis.
All things considered, there are clear, unmistakable differences between the young woman in Girl and Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis, such as the transformations they experience, the reactions their respective family has to said transformations, and the events that follow their transformation. A key similarity, however, between these two characters is their loss of identity in undergoing their respective transformations. Kincaid’s young woman questions her identity in her newfound role as a woman in a patriarchal society while Kafka’s Gregor questions his identity in his newfound role as a dependent in a detached family. The root cause of these identity struggles has been made clear, with the young woman’s being centered on her transition to maturity, while Gregor’s was as a result of his dependence on his family. In any event, such transformations and existential crises, no matter its adherence to reality, are important to understand, as they have been shown in the context of Caribbean and Czech writers.