Lucy By Jamaica Kincaid

Daniel Meloy

Professor Rana

ENGL 50

2 June 2023

Lucy

The novel Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid, follows the narrator, Lucy, as she develops into her adult life while working as an at-home nanny for the family of Mariah. The most important female relationship within the novel Lucy is that between Lucy and Mariah, the woman Lucy technically works for. This relationship is shaped by a difference in class, as Mariah is much more wealthy than Lucy.. This literary representation of a female “friendship” shapes our understanding of broader social divides through creating what appears to be, on the surface, a friendship between two women, when it is instead the same unbalanced power dynamic that Lucy faced with her own mother. This, in turn, displays the

Through this job, there becomes a tension between how Lucy views Mariah as a friend versus a boss. Based on the difference in their social classes alone, Lucy and Mariah do not always see eye to eye. Mariah’s overabundance of wealth in life makes her wish for less, and yet she is unable to understand Lucy’s want for more: “And isn’t what everyone in the world should have–more than was needed, one more room than you really need in your house? Not a question I would put to Mariah, for she felt just the opposite. She had too much of everything, and so she longed to have less; less, she was sure, would bring her happiness” (location 731). There is a concrete, understandable reason as to why Lucy would want more than she has, but there is not for Mariah other than the idea that she has too much. But how can these two things even be seen as comparable? The unrealistic view on the world that Mariah has is further exemplified when it is shown that Mariah is able to worry about trivial matters in such an intense way, such as unexpected changes in the weather: “How do you get to be a person who is made miserable because the weather changed its mind, because the weather doesn’t live up to your expectations? How do you get to be that way?” (Location 148). Lucy is unable to recognize

And yet, in the end, when Mariah’s husband divorces her, it becomes apparent that Mariah has an inability to recognize or prepare for more than trivial, existential, or the un-realistic: “Mariah did not know that Lewis was not in love with her anymore. It was not the sort of thing she could imagine. She could imagine the demise of the fowl of the air, the fish in the sea, mankind itself, but not that the only man she had ever loved would no longer love her” (location 691). By being placed in such an idealistic life, the ability to recognize and deal with the harshness of reality becomes apparent. This relates to the relationship she has with Lucy, as well; Mariah is unable to see the reality of the situation and friendship she has with Lucy until the end. When Lucy opens up about her trauma of being seen as the unfavorable child due to her gender, Mariah is not able to relate to her situation or see the reality of it; she instead tries to relate this personal trauma to overall societal values. However, this power dynamic is seen further in the conflict between how Lucy views Mariah as a friend versus a mother figure. Lucy’s initial views towards Mariah are that of almost pure love; she views Mariah in almost a saint-like way. Yet, even