In the story "Girl," the role of girls in the mid-1900's is defined. However, it is never clear to the reader who the narrator is. In this story I believe that the narrator is a young girl. This young girl is reviewing in her mind what society wants her to be, but some readers may see the girl reviewing what a mother would expect from her daughter. If a reader sees the mother as being the person with the expectations it could be problematic. The reason this could problematic is it would make the reader feel that the mother is being harsh in the language she uses and the demands that are being put upon her daughter are also harsh.
Many times in society the word slut is used. It is to categorize a type of female that gives her body to many men. For society to view some girls like this and to tell girls not to be this way is acceptable. Society is not the person raising the girl it is speaking about and generally doesn"t focus on one girl, but several. So, in the case of the story "Girl," the word slut must be coming from society. A mother in my eyes, would never tell her daughter that she is a slut or that she acts like a slut. Instead, she would go about telling her daughter the proper way to become a women. A mother may say to her daughter, "A women never gives herself to many men."This is a way to tell a daughter never to be a slut without using the word slut, which is a harsh word. This is how many people would expect a mother to go about telling her daughter the right and wrong ways of being around and with men for whom she has feelings for. Not to outright call her daughter a slut.
Another clue in the story that makes me think that the girl is thinking about how society wants her to be is how the girl goes through a huge list of things that she must do and must be. The list of things is a representation of how women have to be many things. Not only do they have to do the "normal" girl things, but girls are also expected to do things that men would normally have to do.
