=Figure of Speech and definition
=The correct way to cite page numbers
=Recommendation
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| Ms. Killian | ||||||||||||||||||
| *Note that your final product will be double-spaced because it will not be published on a stubborn webpage that does not believe in double spacing...unlike SOME webpages we know... | ||||||||||||||||||
| English III | ||||||||||||||||||
| August 15, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Lucy | ||||||||||||||||||
| By Jamaica Kincaid | ||||||||||||||||||
| In Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy escapes the oppressive atmosphere of the West Indies to become a nanny in the United States. Her employers, Lewis and Mariah, seem to have the perfect marriage and the perfect family with four young daughters. Lucy cares for the girls and is accepted as a part of the family, yet she continues to feel like an outsider throughout the novel, among Lewis, Mariah, and their friends and family, and also an outsider with respect to her own country. Lucy has to come to terms with her past in the West Indies as well as her present in the United States. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Kincaid uses first person point of view to tell Lucy's story as only Lucy could understand it. First person point of view usually means a limited perspective, offering insight only into the narrator's heart and mind. However, as a foreigner, Lucy is able to observe the faults and foibles of her American hosts. She can understand Lewis and Mariah's relationship better even than they can, for example. Because she is from outside the culture and does not make the same assumptions about men and married life that Mariah does, Lucy can tell the marriage is crumbling before Mariah can. Lucy also brings a more cynical perspective from her upbringing in a world where men were privileged over women--even by Lucy's mother who taught her not to trust men too much. Lucy's unique perspective makes American readers re-examine some of their assumptions about their way of life. | ||||||||||||||||||
| After Lucy learns of a family tragedy back in the West Indies, she expresses her mixed emotions about her time in the United States in the form of a paradox, or a statement that seems to contradict itself, but is actually truer as a result of the contradiction. She says: "After that, the days went by too slowly and too quickly. "On the one hand, Lucy wants to move on with her life and break away from the one she has been living with Lewis and Mariah, and that desire makes "each moment feel like a ball of lead." On the other hand, she wants to take advantage of the freedom she can enjoy away from her native land, and so "each day felt like a minute" (140). Lucy's paradoxical spin on time occurs near the end of the book, and so it has the convenient effectof beginning to wrap up the book and resolve this chapter in the narrator's life. At the same time, the paradox that begins to resolve the book does not resolve Lucy's life in an artificial way that never happens in life. As time is slowing down and speeding up for the protagonist, the reader can feel that the winding down of one part of life is just the winding up for the next, an important theme both in literature and real life. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Kincaid's application of first person point of view and easy application of profound figures of speech add up to an important work of literature. Lucy is a profound novel that made me look at my own relationships with new eyes and that left me marveling at Jamaica Kincaid's ability to weave new meaning out of old truths. This book does deal with mature subject matter, which is the only reason I hesitate to recommend Lucy to absolutely everyone. I think if read with an open mind, Lucy will make even intelligent readers think harder. | ||||||||||||||||||
| =Narrative Strategy and definition =Figure of Speech and definition =The correct way to cite page numbers =Recommendation |
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| I would also like to point out that the only time "I" is used in this model...besides in this footnote...is in the final paragraph. *Hint, Hint* | ||||||||||||||||||