Jamaica Kincaid is a great novel and short story writer. She writes about her personal life experiences, and she even builds on those experiences to make her works fictional. Her story “Lucy,” which we have all read in class, is a fictional tale. But I personally think that she wrote “Lucy” as an autobiography, just with more juicy details. Her background history matches extremely close to Lucy’s background in the novel. After researching Jamaica Kincaid’s experiences, I have come to the conclusion that Jamaica Kincaid made her novel “Lucy” a biography of her life, but didn’t want anyone to know it was really all about her. The first, and biggest, similarity is the two girl’s names. Jamaica Kincaid was born as Elaine Josephine Potter. Lucy’s full name in the novel was Lucy Josephine Potter. Lucy’s LAST name was the same as Kincaid’s old MIDDLE name. Kincaid changed her name, due to the fact that her family disapproved of her writing career. She took it upon herself to disembark away from her family, and in return she refused to let their opinions stop her from doing what she loved. Lucy in the novel wanted to change her name. She often asked her mother why she was named Lucy, why not something else. The symbolic reasoning behind Lucy’s want to change is Jamaica Kincaid’s way of putting her personal touch on the novel.

Some of the similarities in Kincaid’s and Lucy’s lives were correctly represented in her novel. Kincaid grew up living with her mother and step-father in the island of Antigua. Lucy grew up with her mother and promiscuous father on an unknown island (most possibly Antigua). Their lives are very similar in the parental aspects of their lives. Also, Kincaid later had three children, two boys and a girl. In Lucy’s personal life, her mother had three children: two boys and a girl. They both educated in the British education system, because the islands they lived on were British colonies. Kincaid could have written about Lucy growing up in this manner as a way of rebelling against the education system she went through. After all, how can citizens care about the history they learn in school when it doesn’t even apply to the homeland and even their lives. I know I would be upset, being forced to sit in a class room for eight hours a day for twelve years of my life learning about nothing that applies to me or my people.

Another similarity between Jamaica Kincaid and Lucy is the fact that they both moved to the United States, specifically New York City. Kincaid is known to have lived there, but Lucy never says what city she has moved to. The reader is just aware that she lives in a city similar to New York. They both moved here at young ages, Kincaid at the age of sixteen and Lucy at the age of eighteen or nineteen. They both worked as au pair’s to wealthy families living in the city. Then, after their experience of working with the wealthy families and their affairs, both girls moved on to figure out what to do with the rest of their lives. I think Jamaica Kincaid based her novel “Lucy” after her life. The similarities are so frequent and clear, it’s almost impossible to believe otherwise.