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Lucy (novel) by Jamaica Kincaid
Synopsis

Lucy, a teenage girl from the West Indies, comes to North America to work as an au pair for Lewis and Mariah and their four children. Lewis and Mariah are a thrice-blessed couple—handsome, rich, and seemingly happy. Yet, almost at once, Lucy begins to notice cracks in their beautiful façade. With mingled anger and compassion, she scrutinizes the assumptions and verities of her employers’ world and compares them with the vivid realities of her native place. She has no illusions about her past, and neither is she prepared to be deceived about where she presently is. At the same time that Lucy is coming to terms with Lewis’s and Mariah’s lives, she is also unraveling the mysteries of her sexuality. Gradually a new person unfolds; passionate, forthright, and disarmingly honest. In Lucy, Jamaica Kincaid has created a startling character possessed of adamantine clearsightedness and ferocious integrity—a captivating heroine for our time.

About the Author

Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John’s, Antigua. Her books include At the Bottom of the River; My Brther; My Garden (Book):; My Favorite plant, a collection of writing on gardens that she edited; Talk Stories, a collection of her New Yorker writings; and, most recently, Mr. Potter, all of which were published by FSG. In 2000 she was awarded the Prix Femina Etranger for My Brother. She lives with her family in Vermont.

Central Themes Lucy’s Past

Intelligence - Throughout the novel, Lucy relies on her ability to observe things other people don't see. Later it is shown that her intelligence plays a central role in how Lucy acts and perceives the world.

West Indies - Lucy is from the Caribbean Islands. This topic elicits a response from Lucy when it comes up in different places. The West Indies are important in shaping Lucy's identity.

Daffodils - Early on the reader learns that Lucy was forced to memorize a poem about daffodils. The flowers represent the upper-class people with blond hair. Her distaste for the flowers becomes associated with her distaste for the upperclass.

Clothing - Clothing is described in detail at several points in the novel. They have connotations of both something that is false and superficial and also something that closes you in, like a prison.

Rebellion

Works Cited

Kincaid, Jamaica. Lucy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1990.