Question

The following excerpt is from Lucy: A Novel by Jamaica Kincaid (published in 1990). In this passage, Lucy, a young woman from the Caribbean, is talking to Mariah, an American woman. Lucy has recently come to the United States to work for Mariah as the family’s au pair (an arrangement in which she assists the family with childcare and other household duties in exchange for room and board). Read the passage carefully. Write a thesis statement that you would use for an essay that analyzes how Kincaid uses literary elements and techniques to explore the conflict that arises from the complex interaction of Lucy and Mariah’s different values. Write a paragraph in support of your thesis that uses at least one piece of evidence from the text.

Answer 1

Answer:

Thesis Statement: Jamaica Kincaid uses the theme: Love and Family Relationship to capture the conflict that Lucy feels about escaping from her biological mother only to find Mariah as her surrogate mother with whom she shares opposing views.  

Explanation:

In the novel Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid, a young woman that was born and raised in the Caribbean becomes enveloped in life in the United States. She becomes the employee of an idealistic white woman Mariah that epitomizes white america.

In this novel Lucy must define herself as an individual and accept herself at the same time she must come to terms with her country and upbringing that she had no control over and accept that her relationship with Mariah is that of an employer/employee and nothing more despite their differences in opinion.

It is apparent that Lucy is indeed ignorant of her new surroundings and knows nothing much outside of what she was raised in. At the same time she is eager to set herself free only to find that she is more like her mother than she wanted to be.

She was also unpleasantly aware that she had placed Mariah in the role of surrogate mother when she in fact is nothing but her boss. Lucy is in an internal conflict and in the end must resolve her internal issues before she is completely free.

Answer 2

The thesis statement here is that Kincaid uses the subject of family and love to catch Lucy's feelings about getting away from her birth mother.

After she gets away to a different place she discovers that her substitute mother and her are very much contradictory.

In this story she agrees that her relationship with her substitute mother Mariah was simply business.

She seemed to be unaware of her environmental factors and after rushing to set herself free, she discovers that she was more alike to her real mother.

Lucy ends up in an inward clash with herself. She discovers that she had put Mariah into the position of a substitute mother.

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