So it paper although not often talk about mom-child dating which can be found for the “Lucy” as well as how it impacts the fresh protagonist’s relationships to your some one up to their. Lucy” tells the story off a young girl just who escapes a-west Indian isle and you will reaches The united states working while the an au pair to own Mariah and you may Lewis, a wedded pair, as well as their five ladies. And this is obvious when you look at the spot away from “Lucy. ” Lucy have a keen ambivalent reference to their mom; the one that has moved from a highly sexual and you may loving you to definitely to just one full of deception and you will contempt.
Lucy will not including their mom, but she does like the girl. The reader can see proof of her combined attitude to your her mom when Lucy quickly walks from their mom once criticizing her mom’s old-fashioned Christmas Eve seeing off a bing Crosby motion picture. She states one to the girl “thirteen-year-dated heart didn’t bear to see this lady deal with . . . , but I just couldn’t help me” (Kincaid, 1991). Lucy’s mommy tries to demand the lady living on her girl, being baffled about how exactly individuals from within their would wish to differ regarding the woman (Barwick, 1990. Even after their bodily absence, although not, Lucy’s mom continuously takes up Lucy’s thoughts, inspiring emotions of fury, contempt, longing, and you will feel dissapointed about. This can be put side by side towards the certain aspects of Uk society enforced to the Lucy’s domestic isle. Because the a child, Lucy attended “King Victoria Girls’ University” (Kinkaid, 1991), a school that have an uk academic program where she is educated British record and have now United kingdom books.
Mother-Girl Relationship inside “Lucy” Dating was a favorite and you can repeated motif throughout the many of Jamaica Kincaid’s ple of can be seen inside “Annie John,” and that works together matchmaking the protagonist have throughout the woman childhood, such as for example, the relationship anywhere between mother and you can child
Lucy remembers being forced to memorize United kingdom poems, particularly that from the daffodils. She “was actually designed to learn it, verse immediately following verse, after which had recited the entire rhyme in order to an auditorium full regarding mothers, coaches, and you can [her] other youngsters” (Kinkaid, 1991), whether or not she’d maybe not in fact see the flower up until getting nearly 20 years old; Lucy observes brand new daffodils Mariah shows this lady because the a reminder of the woman colonial education. The person can be see a parallel involving the relationships between Lucy along with her mommy, and you will Lucy’s colonized country and its particular colonizer otherwise “mother country,” England.
I got reach believe my personal mom’s fascination with me personally was designed entirely and come up with myself to your an echo off the lady; and that i failed to see as to why but I believed 
that I’d alternatively getting lifeless than simply be just an echo of someone” (Kinkaid, 1991)
The existence of the girl mommy haunts Lucy’s head if you find yourself she’s in the usa; she usually do not frequently avoid the fresh characteristics she’s got passed on. Even if Lucy’s mom seems to enable it to be some sort of erica, she’s zero intention of so it’s permanently and you may does not want to totally let go of Lucy; she continuously writes the girl emails. Also the fresh new legacy out-of colonialism is close to impossible to escape from. It’s got included by itself to your ways of the world and you can the indigenous individuals therefore takes higher perform to even try so you can a bit disconnect from it.
Lucy cannot settle exactly what this lady has internalized off the woman mother as to what she learns on the herself, “I became after that in the top away from my a couple-facedness: that is external I seemed one way, in to the I found myself several other; additional incorrect, to the correct” (Kinkaid, 1991). The mother-dic regarding Lucy and her mother is seen as a ship whereby the device from patriarchy try enforced into the Lucy. The partnership begins to decline on the fresh delivery regarding Lucy’s three brothers, when Lucy understands more hopes one their father and mother provides due to their “around three men college students” compared to those he has got on her.