Summary Of Lucy's Wife Chapter Summaries

This part of the book reveals more of Lucy’s inner sexual thoughts, inner complications and identity crisis. Through Peggy, a close friend, she is encouraged to explore her sexual side and actively seek men. When Peggy and Lucy are at the Park they look for men with big hands because to Peggy’s understanding, men with big hands have big peniuses. Peggy not only nurtures Lucy’s sexual side but she also makes sure that Lucy is safe. However, Lucy resents Peggy when she advises her not to sleep with Paul. This part of the story resonates with me because I particularly have many friends who warn me not to do something and although, at first I am not in agreeance with them, I realize they have my best interest at heart. I feel like this is a

Thomas and Paul. When Peggy warns that Paul is “creepy”, his appearance is much less disturbing than the resemblance that Lucy sees between Mr. Thomas and Paul. Mr. Thomas is a fisherman who molested one of Lucy’s friends in exchange for a sixpence or shilling. Lucy is jealous of her friend and wishes something like that would happen to her. This is concerning because it shows that Lucy has some kind of mental illness for her to feel envious of such a tragic event. This may be caused because of her inexistent relationship with her mother and father causing her to seek attention and sexual fulfillment. Lucy yearned for this to happen to her so that she could feel special which stems back to her insecurity of being “unwanted” throughout her life. In order to fill that empty void of being left by her father and being neglected by her mother, she has become promiscuous because her sexual activity is the one thing she feels she can

Lucy as a character has undergone many changes both mentally and physically. Not only has she reinvented the image of herself and strayed away from what was originally expected of her by her mother but she has also began to realize many things. First, by interaction with someone else who has visited her homeland, she realized that she has only seen half of her homeland. Through this she is able to realize the colonialism and imperialism in her life. Also, her host family has basically broken apart because of Lewis leaving Mariah for Dinah. Due to this, it is almost as if Lucy is chained by guilt to Mariah. From this, she realizes how much guilt has ruled her life especially with her mom when she told her she was named after Lucifer. However, she eventually moves for her own sake. The novel concludes, by Lucy pondering her name and the origins of each part of her name. In a collection of anecdotes, the reader begins to understand more of Lucy’s life and her upbringing. By including this part of the book, it represents her journey to find her identity. Although her last name was given to her by her relative’s slaveholders it holds a part of her history and identity. In a concluding quote, when Lucy says “I understood that I was inventing myself, and that I was doing this more in the way of a painter than of a scientist. I could not count on precision or calculation; I could