Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid Essay - 1613 Words

My 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 writer who was the first writer and the first individual from her island of Antigua to achieve this goal. Her genre of work includes novelists, essayist, and a gardener. Her writing style has been described as having dreamlike repetition, emotional truth†¦show more content†¦She was so enthralled by the powerful and defiance nature of the main character Lucifer in one of the books, that the title of her book ‘Lucy ’derived from the name Lucifer. Like Kincaid, the character Lucy Josephine Potter; Potter being Kin caid’s given name at birth was born on a small island May 25, 1949. Kincaid was raised in a home with an overly protected mother, a stepfather and three brothers. Although she was very intelligent, Kincaid received no encouragement at home and because of this, her relationship with her mother remains very stagnant throughout her childhood and into adolescence. In ‘Lucy’ the character Lucy, an immigrant girl, leaves her home in the West Indies to come to America in order to reinvent herself and to discover her own identity. Her struggles for personal freedom and independence would require her complete disconnection from her family especially her mother. To do so, Lucy not only had to let go of her former identity, but she also has to void herself of the self-destruction and loneliness. Lucy’s liberation from the past is the key element to her finding her new self. That too will require her to mentally recolonized her past and present in a way she feels comfortable. The novel places Lucy at a cross road of culture and identities Antiguan and American. Upon arrival to America to work as an au pair for anShow MoreRelatedHeterosexuality And Sexuality In Lucy, By Jamaica Kincaid1734 Words   |  7 PagesIn this coming of age novel Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid, a story is told of a young girl named Lucy as her life in America ch anges from what it was in the West Indies. Lucy struggles throughout the novel to find what exactly she desires. Drifting further and further from being similar to her mother. Lucy and her development throughout the novel are shown through her virginity, heterosexuality, and love as Kincaid forces questioning upon what is sexual normality. How one can feel trapped under sexualRead MoreThe Bell Jar, by Sylvia Path and Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid1837 Words   |  8 Pagescertain way, some young women went against the cult of the true woman hood not only to be different, but to escape he physical, emotional, and psychological abuse that they will or have encountered. In novels, The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Path and Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid both young women have the similarity to rebel against the cult of true women hood but do it in many different ways. In the novel, The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath the protagonist is named Esther Greenwood. Through the book Esther wonders ifRead MoreEssay on The Mother-Daughter Relationship in Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid1452 Words   |  6 Pagesrelationship 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. Lucy tells the story of a young woman who escapes a West Indian island to North America to work as an au pair for Mariah and Lewis, a young couple, and their four girls. As in her other books—especially Annie John—Kincaid uses the mother-daughter relationship as a meansRead 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 thi s 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 MoreAn Essay About The Immigrants Struggle Of A New World1472 Words   |  6 Pagesis quite possible that your former countryman have settled in the same state or region that you have also settled in. It is the country of borders. This is increasingly evident in the in the stories of Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid and â€Å"Las Vegas Charley† by Hisaye Yamamoto. Our protagonists in Lucy and â€Å"Las Vegas Charley† ultimately change in their beliefs and their lifestyles through influences and actions of the individuals around them. In the case of Charley and his son Noriyuki, Noriyuki actuallyRead MoreJamaica Kincaids Lucy1762 Words   |  8 PagesJamaica 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 determinationRead MoreAnalysis of Jamaica Kincaids Lucy and Edwidge Danticats The Farming of Bones1744 Words   |  7 PagesDanticat and Kincaid Every single culture is a unique social creation wherein the population of a given location has worked together for years to develop attitudes, perceptions, artistic and aesthetic interests, and ideologies which will be individual to the culture. It will also develop important attitudes about which groups within the cultural community will comprise the majority and which the minority. Those in the majority culture will have the power and those in the minority will have to abideRead 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. Through 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 th e colonial stronghold of North America (7). In Lucy, a migrant teenageRead MoreBaldwin s Views On Personal Liberation1731 Words   |  7 Pagesresponsibility of the artist to guide the others, the non-artists, toward the path that will lead them to liberation. Like Baldwin does in his stories, Jamaica Kincaid also makes her beliefs known in her novel, Lucy. Through most of the story, Kincaid seems to believe that personal liberation is a difficult thing to achieve. While the titular character Lucy is shown to be very independent and opinionated, she also has an undeniably strong connection to her past, a connection that she spends much of theRead MoreIndividual Subjectivity And The Question Of Selfhood Essay2046 Words   |  9 Pagesstruggled to find its own identity. This search for selfhood is most evident in the work Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid. In this text, Lucy, a young woman from the Caribbean, moves to America to work as an au pair for a rich couple, Lewis and Mariah. However, she has not moved here for the money alone. Instead, Lucy is trying to escape her Caribbean roots and find a new identity in North America. To what extent, then, is Lucy able to change her selfhood? How malleable is a person’s individual subjectivity?