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Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid

Introduction

Lucy was written in 1990. It is a novella or a short novel which was written by Jamaica Kincaid. The story revolves around a particular year that took place in Lucy Josephine Potter's life. The following paper analyses the various happenings in Lucy's life and describes how the narration of the story describes the relationship between Lucy and her mother.

Discussion

As described in the story, Lucy is basically an 'émigré' from the island of Caribbean, West Indies to the United States of America. At the age of 19, Lucy started to work for a very wealthy and rich family as an 'au pair' in a very busy and large city of America. She used to work for Mariah and Lewis who were a married and quite well to do a couple. They also had four young girls.

Lucy is basically the main character of the book. The main and central subject of this book is the events that took place in her life during the time which she spends in the United States of America as well as in her own country, West Indies. The book also focuses on her internal as well as external reactions regarding all these events. Lucy is portrayed as a very intelligent and bright young girl who also has a very deep perceptiveness and consideration regarding the nature and feelings of all other human beings round her. She is also gifted with this ability that she could very easily recognize and see all the way through the phone and fake behavior of the people. She also has the ability to notice and observe a number of important facts about other individuals even a long time before they are able to realize or identify it.

Some of the other main attributes of Lucy's personality is that she could easily get very angry, she is also a very jealous, jaded and cynical person. The tone maintained throughout the story is a critical tone. In this particular novel, the more traditional style of Kincaid's work is simplified by using less surrealism and repetition. This novel has a rather strong and noticeable autobiographical touch in it. In the novel, the protagonist being the main character of the novel, Lucy Josephine Potter, shares the same birthday as Kincaid and also has one of the given names of Kincaid. Just like Kincaid, Lucy is also made to leave the Caribbean and later on goes to live with a wealthy couple in some huge city in the United States of America. Therefore, it can easily be concluded that the plot of this small novel very closely reflects and describes the experiences of Kincaid.

The mother and daughter relationship

Stories and novels revolving around the relationship of a daughter and a mother are rather one of the most common topics through a number of works of Jamaica Kincaid. This relationship is discussed in much detail in Lucy, Annie John as well as in the Autobiography of my Mother. ...