Heterosexuality And Sexuality In Lucy, By Jamaica Kincaid

In this coming of age novel Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid, a story is told of a young girl named Lucy as her life in America changes from what it was in the West Indies. Lucy struggles throughout the novel to find what exactly she desires. Drifting further and further from being similar to her mother. Lucy and her development throughout the novel are shown through her virginity, heterosexuality, and love as Kincaid forces questioning upon what is sexual normality. How one can feel trapped under sexual norms and feels lost. One of the norms Kincaid questions is virginity, whether sex is actually meaningful, that it could be enjoyable without the feeling of love. As a nineteen-year-old girl, Lucy is new to what a sexual relationship could have†¦show more content†¦She left with him before even learning his name and spent the night as she says, â€Å"I left Roland’s bed only because I had promised Paul I would see him later that night.† This is another case where Lucy shows that sex does not mean much to her. That she has pleasure without attachment. This is not the first time that Lucy has gone from one man to the next. It is another sexual norm that Kincaid inputs on the story. Lucy wanted to separate herself from being similar to her mother, she did not want to be like her any longer because she had felt trapped by the way she was raised. At one point in the novel that ties both virginity and monogamy is where she introduces herself to Paul saying, â€Å"How are you?’ in a small, proper voice, the voice of the girl my mother hoped I would be: clean, virginal, beyond reproach. But I felt the opposite of that.† (97) This is Kincaid showing how Lucy has such a rebellious desire to not be like her mother. Making her want to lose her virginity more and be with more men. This does not stop here, as monogamy and the value of sex is a reoccurring theme throughout the novel and it is not only with men. Another norm, although it is not tou ched upon much throughout the novel, is heterosexuality. Lucy and her friend Peggy who are very close, experiment with each other. But after meeting a boy they did not think to fondly of Lucy says, â€Å"We were so disappointed that we