Analysis of Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid and Soledad by Angie Cruz

This article is devoted to the issue, which has been raised in a novel ‘Soledad’. The article briefly analyses the novel written by Angie Cruz. It presents similarities and differences of social norms and economical status in the society described by the author. Moreover, the article gives a deep look inside the book, stressing the description and presentation of mother-children relationship and gender roles in the novels.

This is a review of a novel ‘Lucy’ written by Jamaica Kincaid , which analyze gender roles, mother-children relationship. In the article special attention is paid to social norms and economical status in the society described by the author. The novel ‘Lucy’ written by Jamaica Kincaid is a story of an individual. This is a story of a young girl who has come to America from West Indian. The novel is the description of two cultures - West Indian culture and American culture represented by a family, in which the main character works and lives.

Lucy is divided between two countries and cultures. She is angry with her mother and does not want to read letters from her. She tries to wipe off all her memories of her mother. She says, ‘I had come to feel that my mother’s love for me was designed solely to make me into an echo of her; and I didn’t know why, but I felt that I would rather be dead than become just an echo of someone. (Kincaid, p. 36) In this novel the major character moves to America leaving her move in another country. This is a completely different situation if compared to the novel ‘Breath, Eyes, Memory’ where the heroine was abandoned by her own mother in a childhood and finds her much later when moving to America.

In ‘Lucy’ the heroine rejects her past and wants to change her future. She is greatly influenced by West Indian, her home. Moreover, Lucy is caught between two cultures, West Indian culture and American one. She rejects her heritage and wants to become an American. Besides, Lucy is in a conflict with her mother and her own family is so far from her. In this novel, as well as in ‘Breath, Eyes, Memory’, mother-daughter relationship should be described in a more detailed way. Summarizing, both novels depict great difficulties in family relationships influenced by cultural, economical and social climate.

The novel ‘Soledad’ written by Angie Cruzis her first novel, in which the author depicts mother-children relationship and emphasizes the importance to remember one’s roots and culture. Soledad is a major character of the novel who grew up in the Dominican community. She does not want to accept her roots and moves to Manhattan, America. However, her family needs her return as Soledad’s mother falls mentally ill. Soledad is ashamed of her motherland, family and especially of her mother. She wants to be far away from her home, however, she returns home to help her relatives.

The novel ‘Soledad’ is a mysterious novel, which mentions Soledad's spurious paternity. Besides, it shows the belief in supernatural, when Soledad’s relatives want her to come back as this may help her mother to recover. The novels describe the difficulties in mother-daughter relationship and the impossibility of a mother to give everything that her child needs. These books show almost no social opportunities for the development and ‘a better life’, the absence of a father in the daughter upbringing and all the following consequences – anger, shame and a wish to be far away from home.