In this story, the mother is the narrator. She gives a run-on list of lessons and ways to behave for the "girl" or daughter. The mother's advice suggests a traditional role for the girl to play. In addition, the mother gives advice for the girl as she becomes an adult and this is also traditional. Her main recurring warning is not to become a "slut." The mother even gives advice on how to obtain an abortion if the daughter finds herself in that position:
this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child;
This is an extended monologue with the daughter responding only twice. (This is noted by the italics.) The mother's advice is perhaps born out of love, but it comes across in negative tones. Her repeating warning to avoid becoming a slut that her mother thinks she is "so bent on becoming" illustrates this negative connotation. The mother-daughter relationship represented here could be a loving one. It's just that we are only getting the tension and the mother's apprehensions about how her daughter will turn out.
In this way, it is typical of many mother-daughter relationships. The mother wants her daughter to be a good wife and mother. In order to train her daughter for this life, the mother feels the need to be domineering and she feels the need to impose a traditional kind of gender training where the wife has certain traditional roles: cooking, cleaning, etc. In this way, the mother limits the possibilities for her daughter. But this traditionalism could be the result of the mother's cultural background which seems to be a mix of Christian and Caribbean cultures.
One can draw different conclusions about the relationship. It is marked by tension and the mother's anxiety about her daughter's potential promiscuity. But it also shows the mother's determination (and therefore love) to make sure her daughter behaves and fits the role of a respectable woman.
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