Part Short Story, Part Poem, All Clear: A Critical Look at Narrative and Imagery in 'At the Bottom of the River' Brittany Streahle College

At the Bottom of the River is a unified collection of stories that share similar themes by Jamaica Kincaid. Based on the stories, the characters throughout this collection are the same people. Most notably, the mother and daughter characters whose relationship is explored throughout these stories. In just about every story, the narrator refers to her mother, and their evolving relationship always ties into the events of each respective story. Besides the reappearance of certain characters, water also has a heavy influence in this collection. Much of Kincaid's descriptions poetically use water as a symbol to relay her character's feelings and relationships. Kincaid uses a pretty consistent style of writing that is uniquely abstract and poetic. Though her style differs from the typical short story, as it feels more like a long poem, her writing is still easy to comprehend and enjoyable for most readers.

At the Bottom of the River is made up of multiple first person short stories, they are uniform in style, and are distinctly Kincaid’s. Her style is continuously expressive and poetic with some abstract elements sprinkled in throughout each individual story. For example, on page 23 Kincaid says “ Not getting my own way causes me to...