Lucy
The Life of a Promiscuous Girl The level of promiscuity described throughout the Jamaica Kincaid’s novel, Lucy, defines Lucy’s experience as an immigrant living in the United States. Full of anger and resentment towards her mother and various other people at home, Lucy uses her sexuality to explore outlets in which to express herself. Upon her arrival to the United States, Lucy befriends a woman named, Peggy, who is not of the best reputation in her host family eyes. From there, Peggy introduces Lucy to a world of promiscuity, drugs, and alcohol. Lucy finds various lovers; however, due to past experiences and personal knowledge at home, she never lets herself fall into love with them, including her closest lover, Paul. It is through her outlets that Lucy finds a way to deal with her anger, while still remaining in control. While first becoming accustomed to life in the city, Lucy meets a woman in the park one day. She quickly realizes that this woman, named Peggy, is nothing like the women with whom her host, Mariah is associated with. Peggy is far from snotty, uptight, extremely petty, and boring; naturally, Lucy quickly befriends her. Peggy does not want a job as an au pair, and is very open to exploring her sexuality while living in the moment. Peggy and Lucy schedule regular walks on Sundays where they look at men and discuss whether they are attractive and worthy to have sex with. Mariah tells Lucy what “a bad influence like Peggy could be” and how “Peggy was never to come to the house and should never be around the children,” which depicts the strong fear women had of the example Peggy was setting (Kincaid 62). By befriending Peggy, Lucy has opened the door to parties and outings in which she could find eligible men to have sex with. Despite the clear disapproval of Mariah, Lucy remains friends with Peggy throughout the story. Through the connections of the parties and such, Lucy meets Hugh, a man with enough intelligence to identify where the West
Cited: Kincaid, Jamaica. Lucy. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1990. Print.