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Literary elements in girl jamaica kincaid
Literary elements in girl jamaica kincaid
Theory of the Mother-Daughter relationship
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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.
Unlike in her novel Annie John, however, Kincaid does not specify which West Indian Island Lucy hails from. It also seems to be set in the post colonial period and there is evidence that this island was a colony of England. Evidence of the topic of the mother-daughter relationship is interspersed within the plot of Lucy. Much like Annie John, Lucy has an ambivalent relationship with her mother; one that has moved from a very intimate and loving one to one full of deception and contempt as Lucy’s mother tries impose her way of life on her daughter, being “mystified as to how someone that came from inside her would want to be anyone different from her:”
I had come to feel that my mother’s love for me was designed solely to make me into an echo of her; and I didn’t know why but I felt that I would rather be dead than become just an echo of someone (Page 36).
Despite her physical absence, however, Lucy's mother continually occupies Lucy's thoughts, inspiring feelings of anger, contempt, longing, and regret.
This is juxtaposed with the various aspects of British culture imposed on Lucy’s home island. As a child, Lucy attended “Queen Victoria Girls’ School” (Page 18), a school...
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...my upbringing had been a failure and that , in fact, life as a slut was quite enjoyable, thank you very much. I would not come home now, I said. I would not come home ever (Page128-129).
Her final defiant against her mother is to burn all the unopened letters, a symbol of their separation. The last chapter, is also entitled Lucy. And it is this chapter that Lucy finally emerges as an independent persona.
In conclusion, Kincaid uses the mother-daughter relationship in Lucy to highlight and also expose the parallels between the systems of colonization and the patriarchy.
Bibliography
Barwick, Jessica. "A Stranger In Your Own Skin : A Review of Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy." 1990. VG: Voices from the Gaps: Women Artists and Writers of Color, An International Website. 3 November 2008 .
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As Mother’s Day approaches, writer Penny Rudge salutes “Matriarchs [who] come in different guises but are instantly recognizable: forceful women, some well-intentioned, others less so, but all exerting an unstoppable authority over their clan” (Penny Rudge), thereby revealing the immense presence of women in the American family unit. A powerful example of a mother’s influence is illustrated in Native American society whereby women are called upon to confront daily problems associated with reservation life. The instinct for survival occurs almost at birth resulting in the development of women who transcend a culture predicated on gender bias. In Love Medicine, a twentieth century novel about two families who reside on the Indian reservation, Louise Erdrich tells the story of Marie Lazarre and Lulu Lamartine, two female characters quite different in nature, who are connected by their love and lust for Nector Kashpaw, head of the Chippewa tribe. Marie is a member of a family shunned by the residents of the reservation, and copes with the problems that arise as a result of a “childhood, / the antithesis of a Norman Rockwell-style Anglo-American idyll”(Susan Castillo), prompting her to search for stability and adopt a life of piety. Marie marries Nector Kashpaw, a one-time love interest of Lulu Lamartine, who relies on her sexual prowess to persevere, resulting in many liaisons with tribal council members that lead to the birth of her sons. Although each female character possibly hates and resents the other, Erdrich avoids the inevitable storyline by focusing on the different attributes of these characters, who unite and form a force that evidences the significance of survival, and the power of the feminine bond in Native Americ...
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... own way. Ayckbourn shows Lucy's mother qualities by the satisfaction she takes in the end when she's resolved the situation and made sure everyone’s happy. Ayckbourn is showing in this section about men getting their own way against women and how things should be different. I agree with this view, men and women should be equal and treated the same. In conclusion this play is exploring the issues about women being stay at home mothers at the time. We see strengths of a mother, and on the other hand we do see the great personal cost that mothers have to pay. He shows that mothers lose their identity by being a mother; their entire life is devoted to the children and not themselves. In my opinion Ayckbourn's play is well written, I feel that he has shown the issues well and in a way that people would have started to comprehend his point when they watched the play.