In the short novel “Lucy” by Jamaica Kincaid we see the life of a young lady who has just recently moved from the West Indies to North America to work as a nanny for Lewis and Mariah and their four children. We also get to see what Lucy‘s personality is and how it evolves now that she works in New York and is living her new life.
Since the story, Lucy is a coming-of-age story, we can say that her living in the West Indies and then moving to New York is a major difference. At the beginning of the story she mentions, “The sun was shining, but the air was cold. It was in the middle of January, after all. But I did not know that the sun could shine and the air remain cold; no one had ever told me”(Kincaid, 5). So even from the start of the novel, we see how she feels about the journey. It made her feel uncomfortable, and at one point she even thought that moving was a bad idea.
In terms of the relationship that Lucy has with others, I feel like she realizes some similarities and differences that she will have with people from back home to where she is now. Lucy would do this by carefully noticing people. For example, throughout the story, we find out that Lucy has a difficult relationship with her mother and refuses to read the letters that she sends to her. But with Mariah who she eventually sees as a semi-mother figure to her, she also kind of replicates that same relationship that she has with her mother, with Mariah. With another character from the story, Peggy, she realizes that even though they have a lot of similarities just like the Carefree attitude that both of them have, she still notices that they have many differences as well. One of them is that she realizes Peggy dislikes museums unlike her. So from the looks of it, I’ll say that she hyper-analyzes every person to recognize for herself how well they fit in her life or not.
Lucy learns about herself even though she deals with many different obstacles throughout her journey, for example, the differences in culture, the effects of colonialism, etc. However, she doesn’t let that deter her from doing what she wants to do. She’s very sure that she wants to create a new identity for herself and towards the end, she eventually does just that by finally cutting off all ties with her mother. Even though she isn’t fully happy like she thought she would be because she feels very lonely, at the same time she still tries to make the best out of it.
I completely agree!! Lucys drastic change in environment really boosted her growth as a persona and we really see that throughout the book. Even though she’s consistently reminded of home she refuses to let herself even consider going back. Lucy absolutely hyper analyzes people closest to her maybe as a defense mechanism, she’s so careful with who she allows into her inner circle, and honestly keeps them at arms length. I love your essay!
Hello Grace,
I enjoyed reading your post. Cultural struggles, adjustment, relationships, and self-identity are the struggles most individuals face in the Caribbeans, especially in that era. We see this in the writer of Caribbean literature and the similarities in their work. This emphasizes Lucy’s resilience in making the best of her life journey despite challenges, loneliness, and the efforts to create a new identity.