Critical research paper on the book Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid

Critical on the record Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid - Research Paper ensampleWe notice this trend of having an autobiographical base in nearly all of Kincaids books, where stories have been taken from the writers own life. In the wise(a) 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 Kincaids 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 intertwine with a cynical note. This work by Kincaid though retaining the piqued character 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 conflict s with her mother. 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 Kincaids 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 chore 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 downstairs British colonial rule and her childhood was not a very happy one. However, at a very young age, she developed a proclivity for books and literature and soon this became an escape route for the young Ja maica