Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid is a coming-of-age story that explores new freedoms for the main character as she moves away from her family and becomes a nanny for an American family in New York. She experiences weather changes, culture shocks, and a variety of differences in this new world. She builds new relationships with Mariah, her friend Peggy, and her sexual relationships with men. We notice that she often lacks vulnerability because of the way that she grew up. She also notes how much resentment and anger she has towards her mom, further pushing her to commit to this new life away from home.
In chapter 3, Hugh tells her, “Isn’t it the most blissful thing in the world to be away from everything you have ever known—to be so far away that you don’t even know yourself anymore and you’re not sure you ever want to come back to all the things you’re a part of?” (66). Lucy reacts positively to this because, as I mentioned before, she wants a clean slate and to start over because of the negative relationship she has with her family mainly her mother. She has a lot of trauma from her past that she doesn’t directly address, which leaves us to speculate, especially in her poem Girl, that she was taught how to not be a slut and to navigate being a woman with what not to do. With her brothers being born as well, she felt as though she was neglected and never really got the life she wanted in Antigua. Moving to America was a great shift for her, as she states on page 99 of the ebook version, “I got to my job, I said good morning to everyone, and I sat at my desk. I was now living a life I had always wanted to live. I was living apart from my family in a place where no one knew much about me; almost no one knew even my name, and I was free more or less to come and go as I pleased” (99). She felt free with this new person she was becoming, and it was emphasized more when she noted that she had not been touched that way by anyone emotionally, but it wasn’t out of love but because she felt far from home.
In my opinion, distancing yourself from all that you know can feel liberating if you’re looking for change and to experience new things, and it can get to the point where you like it better than what you are familiar with. Distancing herself from connections to trauma and
But at the end of the day, her past will continue to be with her and follow her no matter where she is; it’s up to her if she wants to confront these feelings or continue to push them away and turn into someone completely different.
Adding to the topic of colonization, she was used to Europeans coming into her native land, changing customs, and forcing her to conform to something she doesn’t feel comfortable with. We see this with her coming to America feeling the seasons change and changing her entire lifestyle. We also get a touch of her mental state due to colonization in the scene earlier in the book with the daffodils. Daffodils for Lucy represent colonization being buried and trapped by something, as she mentioned being completely covered by them in her dream. She also feels colonized by her classmates and trapped in the same bubble. All in all, colonization makes her get used to change and also brings to light an opportunity for her to achieve her freedom by her own rules, with this desire to move from Antigua and away from her mom to get this feeling of liberty.
WORKS CITED
Kincaid, Jamaica. Lucy. New York, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1990.
Hi Elizabeth, I like your analysis of why Lucy would want to completely start over somewhere new in order to escape the negative aspects of her past. Something you didn’t touch upon but that I wonder about, is if the opportunity to experience new things and a new way of life outweighs the hurt that must come from leaving behind the aspects of the past she did like. You mention the change of seasons specifically; Lucy isn’t used to the cold and misses the consistent warmth from the sun. I wonder where the line is drawn between regret of what is lost and acceptance for the benefit of what could be.