In the novel Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid, many postcolonial concerns are present within its context. A prominent concern is foreignness and Lucy’s inability to create an identity through her alienated presence. Through the use of stereotyping, Lucy is immediately disappointed in her new home. Lucy theorizes that the world of the colonized and the colonizer are conflicting. The protagonist is “unhappy,” with her displacement in the colonial stronghold of North America (7). In Lucy, a migrant teenage girl, leaves her home in the West Indies and goes to America. Lucy does this in to discover her own identity and uniqueness. Her struggles for individual liberty and independence mean she must leave her whole family behind, especially her mother, …show more content…
Lucy expresses the turmoil inside of her, describing the drastic differences between them stating “But nothing could change the fact where she saw beautiful flowers I saw sorrow and bitterness” (28). When upon the train with Mariah and the children, the narrator says “The other people sitting down to eat dinner all looked like Mariah’s relatives; the people waiting on them all looked like mine” (30). In describing this scene, the narrator shows the line drawn between her and her employer that she constantly is seen as an outsider, simply a “visitor” in their eyes, and although they may be welcoming, she will always have a different place them then in this world. The author is using setting to help bring these notions and themes to life, the usage of the flowers, snow and train ride also help set the scene of segregation.
In “The Tongue” Lucy’s social class becomes prominent and her treatment as an “outsider” is showcased. When talking to Dinah, Lucy expresses how she never liked her because she always treated her as lesser than. In their first encounter Dinah asks Lucy if she was from the islands and Lucy always wants to tell her off but instead just thinks, “And I was going to say it in a voice that I hoped would make her feel like a piece of nothing, which was the way she made me feel in
Small Beauty by Jia Qing Wilson-Yang is about the experiences of Mei, a mixed-race trans woman, who moves from the city to rural modern-day Canada as she deals with past and present trauma. The text is an exploration of personal identity and how one connects with the place they live. Colonization still impacts how people shape their identity today; in Wilson-Yang’s Small Beauty the lasting impacts of colonialization shape how Mei views aspects of her identity through the novel including gender identity and race. First, this essay will set the definitions that set the foundation, second it will explore colonization in relation to Mei’s gender identity, third it will examine the impact of colonialization on Mei’s racial
St. Lucy’s home is a home for girls to go to when they have been raised by wolves. They go there to gain skills and manners that they weren’t taught growing up. During their visit, they go through five stages to become more human. Some girls change and improve, but others do not and they stay the same. Something happens with Mirabella and she did not improve during her visit.
When she enters the bedroom, her voice changes from present to past tense and she starts to reminisce and begins to talk about her mother and aunts. She seems happy to remember her mother’s room and introduces her aunts to the audiences. Mary delivers her dialogue saying that the dressing table and the small elephant statue figures are all same. When Mary gently touches her mother’s photo, she delivers a sad tone. Her performance conveys to the audiences that she misses her mother. The tone of her voice represents that she is a gentle, innocent and a loving child. Her verbal and non-verbal interactions conveyed the viewers with a message that she is an orphan.
With the intention for the boarding schools students to forget their old culture right from the start, many different things took place. Students at the boarding schools had limitations placed upon them and they were banned from behaving as they did in their original culture. Sarah Stone writes that the Indian students were required to “get rid of their tribal clothes and any memorabilia” (21); a task that caused the students to begin to forget their old way of life. In a similar manner, the wolf girls of St. Lucy’s were required to act as civilized humans and refrain from acting as wild creatures. Russell writes that the wolf girls felt as if the limitations made them “feel invisible” (240) and in a it did. As the process continued, the Indian
While culture does present a great importance in one's life, the environment one flourishes in also plays just as vital a role. The setting of the stories stay the same, but where the characters were raised do differ. In the case of Lucy, she had been living on a reserve for her whole life; consequently, she identifies with the struggles and tragedies that occur on the daily basis, but knows that there is a better life she could live. Within the story, Lucy apologizes to Hilda for her house not having running water. To this apology, her friend Flora states, “Oh that's okay, she's studying about Indians, anyway. Might as well get the true picture” (Warrior, 200). With this dialogue in mind, it is clear that Lucy is not happy with her current living conditions, but still proceeds to live in such a horrid place due to her identifying with the area.
In ‘Lucy’ the character Lucy, an immigrant girl, leaves her home in the West Indies to come to America in order to reinvent herself and to discover her own identity. Her struggles for personal freedom and independence would require her complete disconnection from her family especially her mother. To do so, Lucy not only had to let go of her former identity, but she also has to void herself of the self-destruction and loneliness. Lucy’s liberation from the past is the key element to her finding her new self. That too will require her to mentally recolonized her past and present in a way she feels comfortable. The novel places Lucy at a cross road of culture and identities Antiguan and American. Upon arrival to America to work as an au pair for an
Her Wild American Self by Evelina Galang is a collection of short stories that reflects on not only what it means to be A Filipina-American but a woman in society. Being both of those things subsequently leads to everyday struggles that involve interpersonal conflicts, societal pressures, and familial obligations. Women often sacrifice so much of their feelings and consequently themselves when trying to deal with such a harsh reality. This reality which relies heavily on society also forces women to become subservient in many aspects of their lives and does not allow them to speak out and defend themselves in times of need. Myself, like so many of the women in Galang’s stories, have gone through feelings of shame and guilt while trying to
Although some readers might think Margaret Laurence's short story “The Loons” is about the naivety of a young girl named Vanessa who spent her days fantasizing about native american culture, it is in fact about the adversity an individual faces when presented with a lack of belonging. Laurence employs this idea through the loss and mourning of her two main characters. Through Vanessa McLeod and Piquette Tonnerres she shows how one individual’s perpetual need of belonging influences the others ulterior reality. She does this to showcase the disastrous effects of a dominant society on the prior inhabitants of the land and how it relates to a feeling loss and mourning.
She hatefully turns down the white sari of widowhood and its associating paraphernalia and decides to stay single in the dangerous alien land America after her husband’s fatal demise for racial violence. She perceives in India “...widows in white saris are bowing their veiled heads, serving tea to in-laws. Doves with cut-off wings” (ibid, p. 33). She gathers her mettle, “straighten her shoulders and stand taller, take a deep breath” (ibid, p. 33) and is out for the work at the store where she rarely went before her husband’s death, instead of returning to India with her husband’s family.
Lucy Honeychurch is a dynamic protagonist in A Room with a View and her voyage to Italy drastically changes her perspective about conforming to society. Lucy is from the English middle class, and her family sends her to Italy with her cousin Charlotte for a cultured experience to become more sophisticated and educated. This vacation is irregular; Lucy develops a romantic relationship with George, and she challenges her past judgements of English society. This vacation signifies the beginning of Lucy’s growth as an individual. The title A Room with a View states the progression of Lucy Honeychurch’s accidental journey of introspection and her desire to find independence and escape from English social norms.
She “had been made to memorize it, verse after verse, and then had recited the whole poem to an auditorium full of parents, teachers, and [her] fellow pupils” (Page 18), even though she would not see such a flower until becoming almost twenty years old. Lucy sees the daffodils Mariah shows her as reminder of her colonial education. Upon close examination, one notices a parallel between the interactions between Lucy and her mother, and Lucy’s colonized country and its colonizer or “mother country,” England. The presence of her mother haunts Lucy’s mind while she is in America. She cannot seem to escape the traits she has inherited from her mother. Although Lucy’s mother seems to allow some kind of separation by allowing Lucy to travel to America, she has no intention of making it permanent and completely letting go of Lucy. She consistently writes her letters. Similarly the legacy of colonialism is almost impossible to escape from. It has woven itself with the ways of the country and the people of the country and it takes great effort to escape. Lucy struggles to reconcile what she has internalized from her mother with what she discovers about herself:
On the other hand, the narrator is the opposite of Lucy. The eighth paragraph of the story states that her grandma preferred her clean and neat and wearing a dress. However, the narrator rebels against that and chooses to be like Lucy, wild, playful, and silly. Although she is the one telling the story, we can know these two facts about her. However, because of her tone in the eighth paragraph, which shows subtle aggrieved and ambivalent, toward her grandma’s statement, we can assume that the narrator feels imprisoned and alone and wants to be free but her grandma objects
Progressing through the novel, Miss Lavish, an extravagant woman, guides Lucy to release control and embrace the unknown. Coming from an upper class, Lucy’s perspective on life has always been encompassed on social norms. The people she interacts with and rules she must follow all have a distinct relationship to her social class. Italy has given her the opportunity to go beyond the social standard that her upper-class stature puts forth. Miss Lavish tries to rotate Lucy’s close-minded view of the world because she believes that exploring will always lead to a wide variety of opportunities. When Mrs. Lavish says "One doesn't come to Italy for niceness," was the retort; "one comes for life. Buon Giorno! Buon Giorno!" (2.12) She is forcing Lucy to look up from the Baedeker which subtly begins to introduce the idea that this, in fact, represents Lucy slowly peering up from the metaphoric barrier the society has created for her. Lucy has always been a shy girl who was influenced by other people’s opinions on her, but coming to Italy gave her a new outlet to discover her own personality. It’s a new environment where she can explore not only the streets of Italy but the streets of her thought process as well. Mrs. Lavish unintentionally introduces to Lucy that in order to explore, you must be patient. Lucy finds that solutions to all issues are not just given. When she says, “As to the true Italy--he does not even dream of it. The true Italy is only to be found by patient observation." (2.12) It points Lucy in the direction of solving
Through the dialogues concepts that fit into the city ideologies of London and Florence are revealed: hypocrisy and truth respectively. Hypocrisy is shown through many examples and characters. In the first part of the story an early example is the hypocrisy Miss Bartlett and Lucy have with the Emersons upon meeting them. Lucy and Miss Bartlett’s refusal to Mr. Emerson’s offer of providing the two women with he and his son’s rooms because the women complained about their rooms lacking a view of Florence is pure example of hypocrisy. Lucy and Miss Bartlett are shown to represent London ideals while Mr. Emerson and his son George, despite also being tourists, represent Florence ideals.
The narrator’s position in society would have made her very accustomed to the institution of slavery. She is a middle class British woman: her late-father died at sea and was the lieutenant general (2341). She was a member of the middle- to upper class of society and a settler in the colony of Surinam. The narrator knew the importance and value of having slaves to work in the large plantations built by the colonist. In describing the relationship the colonist had with the natives of the land in Surinam, she gives an insight how she easily accepted slavery,