By refusing to read her mother’s letters, Lucy attempts to serve her correspondence and therefore her relationship with her mother. It is clear that Lucy cannot separate from her mother because she keeps all the letters instead of destroying them. Lucy carries the letters from her family inside her brassiere and describes them as “scorching her breasts” (20). The word “scorning” indicates that those letters that her mother writes to her has become attached to her body and that her mother is part of her. The letters can be seen as a metaphor for her mother and also her homeland that Lucy wished to detach herself from, but at the same time cannot bear to do so. It is significant that Lucy chooses to keep these letters close to her heart and they
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The relationship between Lucy and Mariah can be seen as a continuation of colonial relations which Lucy must reject. Mariah represents the new mother country in the United States to Lucy. As the new mother figure, Mariah depends on Mariah for accommodation. There is an incoherence between Lucy being encouraged to view herself as part of the employer’s family but at the same time being detached from that family by her race. She sleeps in “the maid’s room” (7) which is compared to “a box in which cargo travelling a long way should be shipped” (7). Thus, Lucy sees that her new identity as “the young girl who watches over the children” (7) causes her to become a commodity. Significantly, when Lucy displeases Mariah towards at the end of her time working for her, Mariah insists that Lucy is “the servant and she the master” (143), emphasizing that their relationship is based on a class hierarchy. Lucy tries to escape the discourse of her biological mother; however, she finds that her second position in the United States is based on colonial relations of society from the time of black slavery. As a result, Lucy must reject Mariah as a mother figure and employer, in order to dissociate herself from the position of
The relationship between Lucy and Mariah can be seen as a continuation of colonial relations which Lucy must reject. Mariah represents the new mother country in the United States to Lucy. As the new mother figure, Mariah depends on Mariah for accommodation. There is an incoherence between Lucy being encouraged to view herself as part of the employer’s family but at the same time being detached from that family by her race. She sleeps in “the maid’s room” (7) which is compared to “a box in which cargo travelling a long way should be shipped” (7). Thus, Lucy sees that her new identity as “the young girl who watches over the children” (7) causes her to become a commodity. Significantly, when Lucy displeases Mariah towards at the end of her time working for her, Mariah insists that Lucy is “the servant and she the master” (143), emphasizing that their relationship is based on a class hierarchy. Lucy tries to escape the discourse of her biological mother; however, she finds that her second position in the United States is based on colonial relations of society from the time of black slavery. As a result, Lucy must reject Mariah as a mother figure and employer, in order to dissociate herself from the position of