“Not at Home in Your Own Skin”: Self-Invention Through... self-invention of the title character, who is a young immigrant woman from Antigua. As part of this process, Lucy, as a character, struggles against the various forces of her mother, her past, and even her femininity on a very personal level, thus giving rise to a series of conflicts seen throughout the novel. Lucy as a text, however, adds another layer to these conflicts. Basing these vastly different conflicts in Lucy's overall struggle to assert her own individuality by differentiating herself from the masses, the text sets up these conflicts as a struggle against the blurring of boundaries between Lucy and others, which then becomes the primary force Lucy must struggle against . reinvent yourself as an individual. One of the most obvious conflicts Lucy is engaged in is against her mother. Lucy's hatred for her mother emerges early on when she recalls her own cruelty in causing pain to her mother (Kincaid, 22), while episodes such as her mother telling Lucy that her name comes from that of Satan (152 ) indicate a certain degree of reciprocity. However, on a textual level, we see this conflict take the form of Lucy's “feeble attempts…to draw a line [between her and her mother]” (90) versus her mother's efforts to “turn [Lucy] into a echo of her” (36). The particular use of the word “echo”, with its weaker and deficient reflex connotation than the original, succinctly summarizes why Lucy needs to assert her independence from her mother, while striving to “be with the people who stand out" (98... middle of paper... in layers, with those seen at the level of Lucy's character, i.e. those involving Mariah, her mother, her past and her femininity mirrored in a general conflict present at the text level between a fierce independence and the blurring of boundaries between Lucy and the others Consequently, all of these conflicts require the demarcation of clear boundaries between the different factions for their resolution, which is the only way. which Lucy can do so. achieve an individual identity However, this simplified binary solution is considered not entirely effective, as well as implausible by Lucy herself, who, as part of the novel, is writing after a period of time after which she has acquired prospect. about life. The novel ends thus, on a note of inconclusiveness both as regards Lucy's self-invention and as regards the narrative in Lucy..

Topic > “Not at Home in Your Own Skin”: Self-Invention Through... self-invention of the title character, who is a young immigrant woman from Antigua. As part of this process, Lucy, as a character, struggles against the various forces of her mother, her past, and even her femininity on a very personal level, thus giving rise to a series of conflicts seen throughout the novel. Lucy as a text, however, adds another layer to these conflicts. Basing these vastly different conflicts in Lucy's overall struggle to assert her own individuality by differentiating herself from the masses, the text sets up these conflicts as a struggle against the blurring of boundaries between Lucy and others, which then becomes the primary force Lucy must struggle against . reinvent yourself as an individual. One of the most obvious conflicts Lucy is engaged in is against her mother. Lucy's hatred for her mother emerges early on when she recalls her own cruelty in causing pain to her mother (Kincaid, 22), while episodes such as her mother telling Lucy that her name comes from that of Satan (152 ) indicate a certain degree of reciprocity. However, on a textual level, we see this conflict take the form of Lucy's “feeble attempts…to draw a line [between her and her mother]” (90) versus her mother's efforts to “turn [Lucy] into a echo of her” (36). The particular use of the word “echo”, with its weaker and deficient reflex connotation than the original, succinctly summarizes why Lucy needs to assert her independence from her mother, while striving to “be with the people who stand out" (98... middle of paper... in layers, with those seen at the level of Lucy's character, i.e. those involving Mariah, her mother, her past and her femininity mirrored in a general conflict present at the text level between a fierce independence and the blurring of boundaries between Lucy and the others Consequently, all of these conflicts require the demarcation of clear boundaries between the different factions for their resolution, which is the only way. which Lucy can do so. achieve an individual identity However, this simplified binary solution is considered not entirely effective, as well as implausible by Lucy herself, who, as part of the novel, is writing after a period of time after which she has acquired prospect. about life. The novel ends thus, on a note of inconclusiveness both as regards Lucy's self-invention and as regards the narrative in Lucy..