Abstract
This paper examines the protagonist in Jamaica Kincaid's "Lucy", especially the way her anger affects her relationships with the people who love her. The author points out that these relationships are hindered both by Lucy's uncertainty of what she wants and by the anger that constantly seems to be bubbling under the surface. The paper discusses the relationships between Lucy and her mother, Lucy and Mariah, and Lucy and Peggy.

From the Paper
"When Lucy comes to the United States, her life takes a dramatic turn. All of the things that she once understood and had taken for granted have changed. On the morning of her first day in the United States, that point is illustrated quite clearly for her. The simple assumption that the shining sun equals warmth no longer has any validity. She is forced to acknowledge that she no longer lives in a tropical zone. This realization comes upon her: like a flow of water dividing formerly dry and solid ground, creating two banks, one of which was my past--as familiar and predictable that even my unhappiness then made me happy now just to think of it--the other my future, a gray black and overcast seascape on which rain was falling and no boats were in sight."

Tags:jamaica, kincaid, lucy

Abstract
The paper examines the relationship between the mother and daughter in the short one-sentence story "Girl", by Jamaica Kincaid. The paper looks at the the destructiveness of the relationship between them, and the negative attitude of the mother and the elements of the relationship that are evidenced in the short story.

From the Paper
"There are several important themes to the short story "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid, the most significant being the relationship between the mother and the daughter. It is not immediately clear who is narrating this story, which is actually a single-sentence list. The rhythm and cadence form a large part of the story's power, which has been said to induce a sort of "hypnosis," both on the part of the reader, and the daughter (Simmons 467). This rhythm, according to Simmons, reflects the lulling nature of the mother in the early part of the story. At first the words of wisdom that the mother gives to her daughter, whether told in the mother's voice or in the form of the daughter's repetition of what her mother has said, is practical, "simple, benevolent, and appropriately maternal" involving such mundane things as laundry, sewing, cooking (Simmons 467)."

Tags:kincaid, relationship, mother

Abstract
This paper analyzes Jamaica Kincaid's poem "Girl" from a feminist perspective. Kincaid's use of language, especially that of negation, is described throughout the paper. The poem's sexual overtones are also discussed. The paper concludes by stressing the subversive text in the poem which suggests that not being a lady can be empowering.

From the Paper
"This emphasis on negation is also a powerful but implied deterrent in the story. Focusing the girl's attention on what behavior is acceptable the speaker in the story logically though silently points to the dangers in transgressing these rules and code. In other words, by telling the girl how she should act in order to be valued in what is clearly a patriarchal culture ("on Sundays try to walk like a lady") gives silent but powerful warnings about what might happen of she acts differently than the standard in place (to walk any other way means that you are not a lady)."

Tags:womanhood, sexuality, feminism, literary criticism

Abstract
This paper examines how the two young women who are the subjects of the coming of age novels "Lucy", by Jamaica Kincaid, and "Small Island", by Andrea Levy are complicated characters. The paper compares the main protagonists in the stories and explains that Jamaica Kincaid's novel is told from the perspective of Lucy, the main character in the novel, and focuses only on Lucy's, as seen from her own perspective. The paper then looks at how in "Small Island", the character of Hortense is contextualized more fully, with the perspective and history of her husband, her landlady and her landlady's husband also being represented--and giving more perspective to her own, by surrounding it. The paper then points out that the background of race and post-colonial features strongly in these insights about difference, but the impact of these two novels is even further-reaching -- it is an impact which has everything to do with what it means to be human.

From the Paper
"Both Hortense and Lucy are highly unpleasant people. Spoiled, selfish, self-absorbed, with a sense of entitlement that confounds belief, they are supremely uninterested in anyone other than themselves, and unable to see the suffering of others with any empathy. Hortense is convinced that she is special because of her golden skin and her well-known father. She has completely absorbed the colonial indoctrination of her education and believes herself to be truly English, and therefore above her home country and its people. In fact, upon arriving in England it becomes clear that she considers herself more English than the English."

Tags:colonial, race, charaterization, home, counrty

Abstract
This paper examines the book, "Annie John", by Jamaica Kincaid, the story of a girl growing up on the island of Antigua. In particular, it looks at the ways that Annie John's need to leave the island is related to her rejection of the traditional gender expectations placed on her by both family and friends. It also discusses how the mother-daughter relationship described in "Annie John" can be seen as a paradigm of the relationship between the powerful and the powerless.

From the Paper
"As Annie grows older, she begins to question the cultural beliefs of her island world. In school she at school she intuitively rebels against authority. What is most frightening for Annie however is that her mother begins to see Annie as a young lady, instead of the little girl she once was; an object of unconditional love and adoration. Her mother now seems to become her adversary. When she finishes her, Annie decides to leave Antigua and her family, but not without hint of sadness, especially for the mother she formerly knew and never stops mourning. "For I could not be sure," she surmises, "whether for the rest of my life I would be able to tell when it was really my mother and when it was really her shadow standing between me and the rest of the world" (p.107)."

Tags:culture, mother, daughter, school, island

Abstract
The paper offers a comparison and contrast of the theme of identity in Jamaica Kincaid's short story "Girl", Robert Frost's poem "Design" and August Wilson's play "The Piano Lesson."

From the Paper
"Though Robert Frost's "Design" is a poem, Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" is a short story and August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson" is a play, all three of these works are similar in trying to demonstrate the difficulties in finding meaning and individual identity in life. In "Design" Robert Frost's speaker observes nature."

Tags:heritage, nature, order, meaning, god, self, African American

From the Paper
"Racism is a universal problem. It occurs almost anywhere there is more than one racial group in a population, and the dominant group tends to take out its frustrations, its prejudices, and its fears on the more vulnerable and smaller subpopulation in its midst. Jamaica Kincaid's book A Small Place is set in Antigua in the British West Indies, while Emile Habiby's The Secret Life of Saeed takes place in Palestine and tells the story of a Palestinian Arab who remained in Palestine after Israel incorporated the region. Both books involve situations in which racism appears, directed at some minority population in each country. For the people who are experiencing this racism, it has become a daily part of their lives. It may be ignored by them (on the surface, at least), or it may be something they rail against openly. In either case, it festers..."

From the Paper
"The poem "Girl" by author Jamaica Kincaid shows love and family togetherness by creating microcosmic images of Western Caribbean familial practices and embedding them in a seemingly incomprehensible text. Upon closer examination, the reader sees that the text is a string of images that are the cultural practices and moral principles that a Caribbean woman is passing along to her young daughter. Jamaica Kincaid has taken common advice that daughters are constantly hearing from their mothers and tied them into a series of commands that a mother uses to prevent her daughter from turning into "the slut that she is so bent on becoming" (13). But they are more than commands; the phrases are a mother's way of insuring that her daughter has the tools that she needs to survive as an adult. The fact that the mother takes the time to train the daughter in the proper ways for a lady to act in their culture is indicative of their familial love; the fact that there are so many rules and moral principles that are being passed to the daughter indicates that mother and daughter spend a lot of time together. The reader gets the impression that the advice that the mother gives her daughter has been passed down from many generations of women. The advice of the sages has enabled their daughters to endure hardships and to avoid making the same mistakes that they had made, such as planting okra far from the house because it attracts red ants. The reader knows that there was some woman in the past who learned this lesson the hard way, and included it in the litany of advice for future generations."

Tags:love, adult, daughter, mother, advice

Abstract
The paper relates that in a radio interview with Don Swaim in 1991, Jamaica Kincaid commented on her own works, noting that she usually starts out speaking quietly, and then just gets louder and louder. The paper discusses how in "A Small Place", Kincaid does not start out weakly, however, she does start relatively quietly, and then throughout the book gathers power and force, until the initially quiet voice has become a veritable tirade against the evils of the history of Antigua, the evils that have so corrupted the "just human beings" who now inhabit the island (Kincaid 81). The paper asserts that the book remains a beautiful work, because of Kincaid's mastery of writing.

From the Paper
"In a radio interview with Don Swaim in 1991, Jamaica Kincaid commented on her own works, noting that she usually starts out speaking quietly, and then just gets louder and louder. She also concedes that she generally starts out weak, except in "A Small Place ("Audio Interview with Jamaica Kincaid"). In "A Small Place", Kincaid does not start out weakly. However, she does start relatively quietly, and then throughout the book gathers power and force, until the initially quiet voice has become a veritable tirade against the evils of the history of Antigua, the evils that have so corrupted the "just human beings" who now inhabit the island (Kincaid 81)."

Tags:kincaid, jamaica, antigua

Abstract
The paper reviews Jamaica Kincaid's novel "Annie John" in terms of the culture and history that helped produce it. The paper describes the "Coming of Age" theme. The paper also explains the family heritage, the mother/daughter relationship and the difficulty of resolving family problems.

From the Paper
"Mothers and Daughters in Kincaid's "Annie John." "Annie John" by Jamaica Kincaid is a novel that focuses on the process of growing up, of coming to terms with one's family and heritage and developing an autonomous identity. In a review of the book, Barbara Williamson stated that the stories contained in the novel are distinguished by their minute examination of Annie's relationship to her mother being in her mother's grace, being banished from her mother's protection, finally exiling herself."

Tags:Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid, culture