Critical research paper on the book Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid

Critical on the book Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid - Research Paper Example We notice this trend of having an autobiographical base in nearly all of Kincaid’s books, where stories have been taken from the writer’s own life. In the novel ‘Lucy’, we find the main protagonist is an immigrant who comes to United States form Antigua in West Indies, like Kincaid herself. When compared to Kincaid’s other works we find that the chief character Lucy at nineteen is a slightly older character representation than the main characters in her previous works. This gives a more mature outlook to the novel which is interlaced with a cynical note. This work by Kincaid though retaining the piqued nature of her previous work ‘A Small Place’(1988) does not have the surrealism and repetitive nature of the latter, making ‘Lucy’ a far simpler story to read. The novel is a journey where a young girl slowly transcends into a mature woman as she explores her feelings, her loneliness, her sexuality and her conflicts with her mo ther. This novel in a non-linear manner moves smoothly and effortlessly between the past and the present through various dreams, dialogues and flash backs and the whole book bears a testimony to the strength of Kincaid’s narrative prowess. Like other American literatures based on the tales of immigration, this book too talks about the experiences of an immigrant who is new to the American way of life and is slowly adjusting to it. Identity crisis which forms a basis of many a colonial immigrant literature is not presented vividly here. Instead, we find this problem to be represented quite intrinsically in her relationships with her own country, her white employers and her new surroundings. Jamaica Kincaid was born in 1949 in Antigua in West Indies which was then under British colonial rule and her childhood was not a very happy one. However, at a very young age, she developed a liking for books and literature and soon this became an escape route for the young Jamaica