Essay on The Mother-Daughter Relationship in Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid

From a young age, our interactions with our parents play an instrumental role in how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. The short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid exhibits the relationship between an Antiguan mother and her daughter in a patriarchal society where the list of rules and regulations for women is exhaustive and almost never-ending. By analyzing the unique and often tense dynamic between the mother and daughter, “Girl” showcases the direct influence mothers have on their children, and how traditional and patriarchal customs can influence that relationship. The main themes are represented by the subjects the mother spends the most time on as well as the overall tone of the piece and how it relates to the mother-daughter

In the short story “Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid is told from the perspective of two different people. There is a bonding relationship that is happening between the two people in this short story. The mother seems to be the main character in this essay uses a very strict tone to her daughter. The daughter is being told about how to do things in her life the correct way. The daughter barely speaks during this essay, she is doing more analyzing than arguing with her mother. When the mother gives the daughter advise she was trying to give her words of wisdom. But, at the same time, some of the ideas the mother gave to her child was offensive like “slut”. The mother has different perspectives throughout this essay with a lot of different

The mother also teaches her daughter to cook, clean, and wash which traditionally is up to the women in a household to do. Kincaid makes the reader think and figure out for him, or herself, what point of life the child is in and what gender they are in order to draw them into the story.

Have you ever wished that someone had given you a guide on how live the right way? Jamaica Kincaid does just that in her short story, Girl. The narrative is presented as a set of life instructions to a girl by her mother to live properly in Antigua in the 1980’s. While the setting of the story is not expressly stated by the author in the narrative, the reader is able to understand the culture for which Girl was written.

In Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl,” the narration of a mother lecturing her daughter with sharp, commanding diction and unusual syntax, both affect the evolution of a scornful tone, that her daughter’s behavior will eventually lead her to a life of promiscuity that will affect the way people perceive her and respect her within her social circle. As well as the fact that it emphasizes expectations for young women to conform to a certain feminine ideal of domesticity as a social norm during this time and the danger of female sexuality.

“Girl” is a short story in which the author, Jamaica Kincaid, unofficially presents the stereotypes of girls in the mid 1900s. Kincaid includes two major characters in the story “Girl”, they are the mother and the girl. Although the daughter only asks two questions in this story, she is the major character. The mother feels like her daughter is going in the wrong direction and not making the best decisions in her life. The whole story is basically the mother telling her daughter what affects her decisions will have in the future. The mother believes that because her daughter isn’t sitting, talking, cleaning, walking or singing correctly it will lead her to a path of destruction. “Girl” is a reflection of female sexuality, the power of family, and how family can help overcome future dangers.

In this coming of age novel Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid, a story is told of a young girl named Lucy as her life in America changes from what it was in the West Indies. Lucy struggles throughout the novel to find what exactly she desires. Drifting further and further from being similar to her mother. Lucy and her development throughout the novel are shown through her virginity, heterosexuality, and love as Kincaid forces questioning upon what is sexual normality. How one can feel trapped under sexual norms and feels lost.

In “Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid, the mother is warning her daughter about what to expect, and how to act, in society. The story represents a time when the daughter knew that her mother loved her enough to spend the time to give her the advice, but is also emotionally distant. I believe this to be representative of Kincaid’s life, and how after her brother’s were born she felt that her mother did not have enough time for her.

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.

The narrator of Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl, who is implied to be a mother, reveals much of her worldview through the story’s dialogue. In this dialogue, she both instructs and scolds her a girl who is implied to be her daughter. The instructions that the mother imparts to her daughter in Girl offer a deep insight into what the mother believes is good for her. In teaching these lessons, the mother is preparing her daughter for what she believes is her daughter’s future. Thus, these lessons are setting the expectations that she has for her daughter within her world.

Kincaid, Jamaica.“Girl”. In The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 541-542. Print.

Elaine Potter Richardson, more famously known as Jamaica Kincaid, is recognized for her writings that suggest depictions of relationships between families, mainly between a mother and daughter, and her birth place, Antigua, an island located in the West Indies. She is also familiarized with Afrocentrism and feminist point of views. Kincaid’s work is filled heavily with visual imagery that produces a mental picture in readers that helps them connect stronger to the reading. An example of this really shines through in her short story piece, “Girl.” This short story describes the life of a lower class woman living in the West Indies, and also incorporates thick detailing between the relationship between her and her mother. Jamaica Kincaid structures the story as if her mother is speaking to her. She writes broad, but straight to the point, allowing readers to imagine to picture her experience. Kincaid uses visual imagery and repetition consistently throughout “Girl” to reveal the theme and tone of the story; conflictual affair between a mother and daughter.

She was so enthralled by the powerful and defiance nature of the main character Lucifer in one of the books, that the title of her book ‘Lucy ’derived from the name Lucifer. Like Kincaid, the character Lucy Josephine Potter; Potter being Kincaid’s given name at birth was born on a small island May 25, 1949. Kincaid was raised in a home with an overly protected mother, a stepfather and three brothers. Although she was very intelligent, Kincaid received no encouragement at home and because of this, her relationship with her mother remains very stagnant throughout her childhood and into adolescence.

You guys maybe wondering if Lucy was an adult. Well many points show Lucy had wisdom teeth, which were very humanlike. You so might be thinking how did people know that Lucy was a girl. Well size of lucy shows she was a girl. Later people discovered males were a bit bigger than females. Lucys name is lucy because at some time during the evening the named a fossil AL 288-1”Lucy.” Studies show that she had a ape like head. The size of Lucy's gives it away that he is a girl. Although her hip and knee joints were less specialized for an upright posture than your own body. Lucy was capable of walking. Although running like a modern human was way to hard for her.The waist gave her would have hindered her flexibility. Lucy died 3 million years

The novel begins with the arrival of a teenage Lucy, from her native home in the West Indies to America, where she dreams to lead a good life and hopes for a fresh new beginning (Leaman). While she expects to live a life without the fuss she had to face in home, the situations that she would be facing while seeking and finding a job, leads to a lot a complexities and even seems to be melodramatic at some points. However, this is in fact a trademark of Kincaid, whose writing style is more about angry outbursts and fits of rage, rather than just expressions of love or gushing about emotions (Holmes). The novel, like many of Kincaid’s works, have some autobiographical aspect to it. Lucy shares the birthday with her creator, and just like Kincaid, Lucy also leaves her home in the Caribbean to come to America to be a house assistant.