Jamaica Kincaids Lucy - 1762 Words

Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy Coming of age is a popular topic for many fiction novels. Jamaica Kincaid is an author that excels at her craft. She envelops you in the plot, making you feel as if you yourself are a part of the tale. Lucy portrays the life of a young woman beginning her quest for freedom. Kincaid usually focuses on the West Indian culture and Lucy is no different. As Lucy finds her way in new surroundings, she meets friends and copes with personal issues in her life. Her determination to succeed inspires us all with the â€Å"sellable ‘underdog’ fight†. Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy focuses on relationships with family, friends, and self. Jamaica Kincaid writes with a recurring theme of West Indian female development. (Hawthorne) Lucy is†¦show more content†¦(Mahlis) Kincaid relates the mothers of her works to â€Å"tough love†. Tough love turns into the daughter weakly trying to overcome this harsh, unfeeling â€Å"love† and failing. The daughters in mos t of Jamaica Kincaid’s works would become mentally unsure of herself until they find their identities, away from the mother. The feelings between daughter and mother transform too. During the years of youth, the mother is idolized and can do no wrong. As the daughter grows and matures, the mother is resented for the mental â€Å"bullying† and unnecessary castigation dealt out in childhood. (Simmons) In the novel, Lucy, the main character is truly weakened by the feelings she has for her mother and home. The same feelings apply to both subjects that are irrevocably seared into her soul as unconquerable hurdles. Ironically, Lucy frets over becoming her mother as she becomes her mother. â€Å"My past was my mother, I could hear her voice, and she spoke to me not in English or the French Patois that she sometimes spoke, or in any language that needed help from the tongue; she spoke to me in language anyone female could understand. And I was undeniably that ---- f emale. Oh, it was a laugh, for I had spent so much time saying I did not want to be like my mother that I missed the whole story; I was not like my mother- I was my mother.† (Mahlis) Paul Gauguin was a French postShow MoreRelatedAnalysis of Jamaica Kincaids Lucy and Edwidge Danticats The Farming of Bones1744 Words   |  7 Pagesthat those with darker skins become the slaves of those with light skin, a period which still affects the populations of the Caribbean to this day. Two important books which deal with immigration and integration of the othered minority are Jamaica Kincaids novel Lucy and Edwidge Dandicats book The Farming of Bones. The two stories explore similar themes: love, parental relationships, race identification and prejudice, as well as the conflict between those who survive and how they are haunted by theirRead Moreâ€Å"Not at Home in her Own Skin†: Self-Invention through the Resolution of Conflicts in Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy2344 Words   |  10 PagesSelf-Invention through the Resolution of Conflicts in Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy Jamaica Kincaid’s novel Lucy is a Bildungsroman centering on the self-invention of the title-character, who is a young immigrant woman from Antigua. As part of this process, Lucy, as a character, struggles against the various forces of her mother, her past and her even her femininity at a very personal level, thereby setting up a series of conflicts seen throughout the novel. Lucy as a text, however, adds another layer to theseRead MoreLucy by Jamaica Kincaid Essay1613 Words   |  7 PagesMy Journey into Discovering My True Self Jamaica Kincaid’s success as a writer was not easily attained as she endured struggles of having to often sleep on the floor of her apartment because she could not afford to buy a bed. She described herself as being a struggling writer, who did not know how to write, but sheer determination and a fortunate encounter with the editor of The New Yorker, William Shawn who set the epitome for her writing success. Ms. Kincaid was a West-Indian American writerRead MoreEssay on The Mother-Daughter Relationship in Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid1452 Words   |  6 PagesThe mother-daughter relationship is a common topic throughout many of Jamaica Kincaids novels. It is particularly prominent in Annie John, Lucy, and Autobiography of my Mother. This essay however will explore the mother-daughter relationship in Lucy. 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This portraysRead MoreLucy By Jamaica Lucy Analysis1282 Words   |  6 Pages In the novel Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid, many postcolonial concerns are present within its context. A prominent concern is foreignness and Lucy’s inability to create an identity through her alienated presence. Thr ough the use of stereotyping, Lucy is immediately disappointed in her new home. Lucy theorizes that the world of the colonized and the colonizer are conflicting. The protagonist is â€Å"unhappy,† with her displacement in the colonial stronghold of North America (7). In Lucy, a migrant teenageRead MoreEssay on The Strain of Mother-Daughter Relationships in Annie John1863 Words   |  8 PagesThe Strain of Mother-Daughter Relationships in Annie John Jamaica Kincaid accurately portrays how adolescence can strain mother- daughter relationships. The mother- daughter relationships are universal but it is not clear why we avoid the topic(Gerd). The father- daughter relationships and the mother- sons relationships are the issues mostly talked about. In Jamaica Kincaids novel, Annie John, she explains and gives insight into mother- daughter relationships. In AnnieRead MoreThe Reluctant Fundamentalist By Mohsin Hamid And Lucy By Jamaica Kincaid Essay1650 Words   |  7 Pagesof arrogance and/or ignorance. In the novels The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid and Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid, the authors address this idea. Both Hamid and Kincaid utilize interactions between wealthy Americans and immigrants to demonstrate how wealthy American’s arrogance or ignorance alienates non-Americans. Whereas Hamid uses Changez primarily focus on the effects of arrogance, Kincaid uses Lucy as a critical observer of the effects of ignorance. In Hamid’s novel, Changez, a hopeful, educatedRead More Subject of Family in Lessing’s Flight, Hughes’ Mother to Son, Kincaids Girl and Adrienne Richs Po1656 Words   |  7 PagesSubject of Family in Lessing’s Flight, Hughes’ Mother to Son, Kincaids Girl and Adrienne Richs Poem, Merced Family as defined by Webster’s College Dictionary can be one of many different people. Family can be your parents, spouse, children, brother, sister, grandmother, uncle, any blood relative, or even people who are not blood related that share that common bond (Webster 475). My definition of family is similar to Webster’s, but I feel that there is more to it than just being a blood relativeRead More Sin and Death in John Miltons Paradise Lost Essay2270 Words   |  10 Pagesrejecting God, but he knows that God is still in control of him and of his miseries even though he has brought them on himself. Essay begins below.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      In Jamaica Kincaids novel Lucy, the narrator remembers, as a teenager, discovering why her mother named her as she did:    I named you after Satan himself. Lucy, short for Lucifer. What a botheration from the moment you were conceived. . . . In the minute or so it took for all this to transpire, I went from feeling