Although this is a normal feeling to have on occasion growing up, Jamaica Kincaid’s novel Lucy reveals the intense situation of an over-bearing parent. This lesson is bitter, perhaps, but it is one that cannot be learned from a book, even one of the feminist texts that Mariah gives to Lucy. as she became a regular contributor to his pages. We see this negatively impact her life, and bring her to a full circle of emotions, leaving home to find happiness and freedom, but still feeling helpless and in despair. (Kincaid 11)However, instead of feeling stupid and worthless, Lucy responds to these insults by displaying pride in her heritage. British-ruled Caribbean island of Antigua. They also explore themes that figure into much of Kincaid’s work, Life is no better for Lucy Josephine Potter, the native Antiguan title character in Jamaica Kincaid’s novel, Lucy. Most teenagers go through a time when they believe that their parents are too overbearing and strict with them. She realizes that when they were poor they were simply “something to laugh at,” and now that they are no longer poor, they are no longer safe. However, this does not make Lucy feel worthless. She soon realizes that no matter how much distance she places between herself and the past, she cannot escape this oppression. While Antoinette’s family is a product of colonialism, they do not reap any of the benefits, such as money and power. homesickness and unresolved feelings about her mother, and she has never lived on Lucy’s two lovers, Hugh and Paul, both exist almost as stick figures in the novel. Learn all about how the characters in Lucy: A Novel such as Lucy and Mariah contribute to the story and how they fit into the plot. She has a beautiful family, which is comprised of herself, her handsome husband, and their beautiful and charming daughters. . Mariah’s happiness, however, is both fragile and ephemeral. Just to be clear, this question relates to Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The times that I did not love Mariah it was because she reminded me of my mother” (Kincaid 177). They are the ones who will grow up to become prestigious doctors. Lewis, Mariah’s husband, a wealthy lawyer. Mariah was the first, and for a while, the only, female figure with whom Lucy had contact and with whom she could connect after leaving her family and her homeland. Annette constantly asks her husband if the family can leave Coulibri, the town in which they live, on the grounds that “the people [there] hate [them]” (Rhys 32). Despite Lucy’s admiration of Mariah’s seemingly flawless life, she does not connect with Mariah immediately or intimately. Strongly influenced by British colonial in Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers,Willa Cather’s She is not ashamed of her origins, but rather takes pride in them. Yet there is another female in this novel’s cast of characters who is equally important to the development of the plot, and that person is Mariah, Lucy’s employer. Since she has internalized the victimization of her past, she is unable to find the strength to stand up to her oppressive husband.Lucy, on the other hand, “rejects the available identities offered” to her by “her mother… , the British Empire, her well-meaning employer Mariah,… and her employers’ African-American maid” (Simmons 121). Ultimately, however, Mariah becomes the anti-role model. Initially, though, what Lucy notices is that Mariah has a refrigerator that is so full that there is food leftover from the day before, and that the building in which she lives has an elevator-which Lucy has never seen or ridden in her life. Wide Sargasso Sea. Annette eventually goes mad over Pierre’s death, and abandons her daughter. Yet, Lucy refuses to allow her mother to be in charge of her own identity. Yellow and its different shades are used in the novel to set up a contrast between the West Indies, Lucy's homeland, and the United States where the girl is working as an au pair for Lewis and... What did Anne declare that she was not going back to school in Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid? She escaped her misery by immersing herself in the work of William Kincaid’s nonlinear, stream-of-consciousness New Yorker However, she refuses to accept this, along with Mariah’s ideas of beauty. At nineteen, Lucy is . Nonetheless, she believes in the importance of knowing one’s took a new turn in 1979, when she wed his son, Allen. That was the moment he got the idea he possessed me in a certain way, and that was the moment I grew tired of him” (Kincaid 169). Through reading this and other British works, the idea is planted in Lucy’s head that beauty consists of blue eyes and white skin. . They invent stories about [Mr. Mason] and lies about [Annette].” However, when Annette reveals this to her husband, he replies that the Jamaicans are simply curious and “too damn lazy to be dangerous” (Rhys 32). Lucy, however, has a different association with daffodils, one that Mariah simply cannot understand. Mariah and her husband are also wealthy, which is evidenced not only by the fact that they can hire Lucy as an au pair, but also by the fact that they travel and have been to the Caribbean. . Lucy comes to realize that Mariah is not a person to be emulated; in fact, the only way in which Lucy can become her own person is to forge her own path. Lucy. While she is faced with many racial stereotypes, she stays true to herself and her history. Special offer for LiteratureEssaySamples.com readers. While this is enough to make anyone feel neglected, it is when the Jamaicans burn down the Cosway’s house that we are able to see just how little Antoinette means to her mother. Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson on May 25, 1949, on the She replies, “Mariah, do you realize that at ten years of age I had to learn by heart a long poem about some flowers I would not see in real life until I was nineteen?” (Kincaid 30). The title character in Kincaid’s Lucy faces similar circumstances, yet she refuses to allow them to dictate her identity. Lucy grows close to Mariah, who becomes a mother figure to her. and her new surroundings. She is so sure that the world is how she sees it, that she continues to attempt to make Lucy see it the same way. However, Antoinette handles her oppressive circumstances differently. After everything that happened to her with her mother, it was hard for her to form a bond with Mariah, who happened to be a mother of four. Of course we can see through the novel that Lucy never hated her mother, in fact, deep down she really loved her. After the maid is finished blatantly criticizing Lucy, she suggests that they dance, even though “she is quite sure [Lucy does not] know how.” When she plays an album sung by three white singers, Lucy bursts out with an energetic calypso about “a girl who ran away to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and had a good time, with no regrets” (Kincaid 12). These are all exterior markers of Mariah’s achievement of living a particular kind of good life. an only child and felt rejected when her mother gave birth to the first of her three Through the novel, we follow the titular protagonist’s escape from this predicament, and from the miserable life that she is living. Lucy’s need for independence ultimately carries on to her nonromantic relationships causing saddening results. Since Lucy’s brothers are male, they are the ones who will be able to take care of and support their mother later on in life. repetition and surrealism. Lucy is so apprehensive that she is going to fall in to another unhealthy relationship with a motherly figure in her life. River (1983), and her debut novel, Annie John (1985). Lucy was all alone in the world. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. Each morning when I saw her face again, I trembled inside with joy.” (Kincaid 102). My Antonia,and Julia Alvaerez’s How history, as Lucy and her other books eloquently Though her writing often explores issues of race, gender, seventh birthday, but she discouraged Kincaid’s goal of attending college and Although it is apparent that Lucy knew her mother loved her, she saw this love as a burden. She gives up on going to nursing school at night, and rejects her conventional upbringing by becoming promiscuous. Kincaid’s mother, a book In response to a question, Rochester replies, “Certainly, I will, my dear Bertha.” Antoinette tells him “Not Bertha tonight,” but when he tells her “Of course, on this of all nights, you must be Bertha,” she gives in and obediently replies “As you wish” (Rhys 136). The book closes with Lucy writing in a diary that Mariah gave her. the connection between maternal and imperial rule stand out less clearly in She showed intelligence at an early age Works Cited. She could see her current self was taking the shape of her past (Kincaid 97). The Different Mother Figures in Lucy 20. Fed up with her life in the Caribbean, nineteen-year-old Lucy books a one-way plane ticket to the U.S. On the surface, her new life seems pretty sweet: she lives in a swanky apartment working for a rich family, hangs out … Mariah has always had a pampered, easy life, so she expects happiness. Still, Lucy has pangs of New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.Simmons, Diane.

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