Lucy, the eponymous character of Jamaica Kincaid’s second novel, moves from Antigua to New York not in an arbitrary move, but in a calculated effort to explore her latent queer sexuality and gradually escape the gendered labor of her homeland. By working as an au pair for an upper class white woman named Mariah, Lucy trades birthing labor for domestic labor in a move that initially seems lateral, but serves as a potential gateway to freedom from caretaking that would have been inaccessible in Antigua. Unbridled from her mother, the American Lucy has opportunities to explore her sexuality without being deemed promiscuous, and has the ability to live with a woman she can have intimate relations with. Lucy has continuously disobeyed the performative …show more content…
During most of Lucy’s residence as an au pair to Mariah, the two women are foils: the unassimilated indigenous and the colonizer. Mariah, as dictated by western performativity, is constantly concerned with appearing, acting, and, most concerning to Lucy, smelling “pleasant” (page) . In one of her early interactions with Mariah, Lucy states she has a problem with Mariah because her smell is always “just pleasant,” and states that she instead wishes she “had a powerful odor and would not care if it gave offense” (Kincaid 27). Pleasantness, for Lucy, represents an invisibility that she face when she lived in Antigua, and she contests this prescriptive dictation of female performativity by making her actions loud and noticeable. Lucy does not enjoy the signifiers of femininity that Mariah tries to show her. She does not enjoy the fleeting beauty of youth represented by spring as exemplified in the scene where she tells Mariah she hates daffodils, and her disregard towards spring and beauty are similar. For example, Lucy dislikes Mariah’s friend, Dinah, because of her fixation on beauty because it, “should not matter to a woman, because it was one of those things that would go away-your beauty would go away, and there wouldn’t be anything you could do to bring it back” (Kincaid 57). Similarly, she does not understand how Mariah is somebody who is so easily impacted by the …show more content…
Lucy’s attraction to Peggy possibly stems from her inability to embody the caretaker role, as Peggy explicitly hates children and purposely does not perform self-care to feminine standards. Like Lucy, Peggy acts as a foil to Mariah, who detests her, but can kindly acknowledge the relationship between them, remarking “I guess you like Peggy a lot” when she spends the night (Kincaid 63). The couple shares kisses and a bed when their searches for suitable male partners fails, meaning Peggy cannot find anyone to sexually satiate her, and Peggy repeatedly rejects all possible male partners even though she persistently initiates contact with them. Her persistent rejection of male partners reveals her heterosexuality as a facade, one that she repeated maintains so that Lucy does not understand her attraction to her. Peggy’s proclaimed hypersexuality with males is an act of overcompensation, where she can dissuade homophobic ridicule by portraying herself as the modern, sexually liberated heterosexual. This, ironically, becomes the central aspect of Lucy’s attraction to Peggy; she admires her because she
“A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem” by Eric Garber discusses how the Great Migration to Harlem was not only significant for blacks but for gays and lesbians as well. Garber argues that Harlem’s gay subculture was at its peak in the 1920’s and declined to shell of its previous self after the Stock Market crash in 1929. He goes on to discuss how in black communities, specifically Harlem, there were troubles of segregation, racism, and economic despair, but that being gay in Harlem added new troubles.
Often times, a seemingly simple story can convey complex themes. In her short story “A White Heron,” Sarah Orne Jewett is able to dive into the sexuality of her main character Sylvia. Though seemingly innocent on the surface, the reader might interpret the hunt for the elusive white heron as Sylvia’s discovery of herself and her sexuality. Though sexuality may seem like a mature topic for such a young character, it is irresponsible to completely ignore it. Especially in a story with innuendos that rival a romance novel. Jewett uses sexual undertones in the search for a white heron to bring light to Sylvia’s questioning of her sexuality.
Women during this Jazz era were freer about their sexuality, but due to this freeness, an article called “Negro Womanhood’s Greatest Need” criticized the sexuality of Black women. In this article, the writers criticized Black women of the Jazz era; one part stated “.“speed and disgust” of the Jazz Age which created women “less discreet and less cautious than their sisters in the years gone by”. These “new” women, she continued, rebelling against the laws of God and man” (p.368). Women expressing their sexuality is not only an act against God, but also against men. In Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” Twyla’s mother Marry had no problem expressing her sexuality because she was a stripper, who danced all night, she wore a fur jack and green slacks to a chapel to meet her daughter Twyla.
perhaps Sylvia got a bad impression of Miss. Moore from all that was said about her by
Like Esther, Joan Gilling grew up in the same small town; she also won the writing competition and was sent to New York to work for the same magazine. Joan was also very conscious about how the world identified her as an individual. She didn’t want to conform to what society sa...
The mother-daughter relationship is a common topic throughout many of Jamaica Kincaid's 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 means to expose some of her underlying themes.
Her exposure to new literature, as opposed to a “literature of appropriate sentiments”, allows her to adapt to liberal ideas which excite her and allow her to begin to feel a sense of belonging (Alvarez 143). To belong she “took root in the language” to avoid being bullied for her accent and to be more like a true American (Alvarez 141). Despite all this effort, she would still find herself being unable to understand all aspects of American culture, which can be seen in her encounters with her first boyfriend, Rudy. She was exposed to liberal beliefs about sexuality which contradicted with her conservative Catholic roots to protect her body and innocence. It hurt her when she realized Rudy was unable to “understand her peculiar mix of Catholicism and agnosticism, Hispanic and American styles” (Alvarez 99).
She sheds a light of how early Black feminist scholars such as Collins have been criticized for relying too heavily on colonial ideology around the black female body. Subjectively neglecting the contemporary lived experience of Black women. Critiques such as these highlights the Black female agency in the representation of the body. viewing this as a human and sexual rights or health perspective has been lending to the contemporary Black feminist debates about the representation of Black female bodies and Black eroticism within the culture of
Ann is justified in her decision to "sleeps" with Steven, John’s friend. John has not been paying much attention to Ann and he leaves her alone in their house with Steven. Ann also has prior feelings for Steven from when they where in school together. Ann felt that she is unimportant to John because he frequently leaves her alone; she states, "It isn't right to leave me here alone. Surely I'm as important as your father." Ann just wants to feel loved by John but because he doesn't make her feel loved. She sees Steven as the only person who can give her the love and affection she needs.
Jamaica Kincaid develops the interesting and amiable character of Xuela Claudette Richardson in her 1996 novel The Autobiography of My Mother. In contrast to other members in her community, Xuela is unique and unpredictable in an instable setting. Other characters in the novel such as her father, her half-sister, and the men she engages in sexual behavior with follow a pattern in their lives, which others appreciate and expect. Xuela, however, does not follow any guidelines in the manner that she thinks and behaves; while she is not hurt by the lack of love that she feels, she definitely identifies and accepts it. This sense of acceptance of herself and the acknowledgement that no one else is like her is what makes Xuela the free, unparalleled, and slightly defiant individual that she is.
Even though her husband treats her with what seem at first as love, it becomes clear she is nothing more to him than a piece of property. Every time he talks to her, he asks her to get better for his sake and the children's, and only after mentions hers interests. He doesn't think that she has any normal human feelings or worries and attributes her behavior to minor nervous depression. He doesn't see her true suffering since he believes "there is no reason to suffer" (574). He could never understand that a woman can be unsatisfied with the role imposed on her by society. Even though the heroine recognizes that her condition is caused by something other than John's theory, she is too scared to voice her opinion.
She voyages across Europe only to come back to Jamaica: “I returned to this island to mend … to bury … my mother … I returned to this island because there was nowhere else… I could live no longer in borrowed countries, on borrowed time” (192-193). This tells the readers that she has finally accepted who she is and has found the notion of home and belonging. Her ability to embrace her mixed racial heritage, which triggered a sense of alienation and lack of identification with her native Jamaica, American society or England, results into the realization that she can only achieve self-identity and a sense of belonging by means of acknowledging her “black” Jamaican roots. The novel ends by illustrating the identity Clare establishes for herself. She calls herself Jamaican but at the same time having “African, English and Carib” in her (189).
In Jamaica Kincaid's novel Lucy, the narrator remembers, as a teenager, discovering why her mother named her as she did:
The problems Lucy faces in A Room With a View mirror those of E.M. Forster. Forster, being raised by the women in his life, saw the difficult choices they had to make. Lucy's biggest decision is whether to live a fulfilling, happy life or follow along with her families values. Forster watched the Victorian women in his life give up their freedom for societal acceptance. For example, Forster's maternal grandmother on whom he based the character of Mrs. Honey church (Gardner 398) Forster also recognized the parallels between the societal treatment of women and its treatment of homosexuals. Forster also enjoyed adding "muddle" ...
Clarissa interacts with women in both of these ways. Her relationship with Sally Seton, for example, is quite positive. Once upon a time, in their youth, Clarissa admired the individualistic woman and was charmed by her wayward manners; furthermore, the physical experience she enjoys with Sally is something she never equals with a man. On the other hand, Clarissa's contempt of Ellie Henderson reflects her snobbish outlook on social classes, while her feelings toward Lady Bruton represent her inferiority complex. Finally, Mrs. Dalloway's borderline hatred of Miss Kilman stems from her possessive feelings for her own daughter, Elizabeth. Looking carefully at these relationships brings Clarissa's own identity into clearer focus.