The term bisexual and lesbian are confusing words to be used when describing a young adult. For a teenager, this is a time when a person tries to find their true identity and try new things out. This is no exception for some people trying to find their sexuality. Lucy is thought to be a bisexual by some people, lesbian by others, and some just think she is going through a phase. In my opinion I take a completely different approach to this topic. I feel that Lucy is heterosexual but due to circumstances beyond her control she is confused and exploring new ideas. There are some key points that will back the theory that Lucy was sexually abused as a child by her father, which clearly show some emotional problems she is facing in the later years of her life.

Lucy is an 18 year old girl that shows some signs of rebelling from authority and a definite promiscuity that follows her. Lucy comes to America to live as an au pair for a family and makes new relationships and new signs of her disturbing past. Lucy has a tough time dealing with relationships. She first encounters sexual experiences at a young age and never fully understands the idea of a relationship. She sleeps with many men and uses them solely for sexual encounters. She shows a long line of dependence but will never come to admit that. She wants to be independent and say that she does not need anyone but she feels like she is close to someone when she is with them, no matter what they are doing. The next idea that points to this, is the way Lucy talks about her mother. She shows that she resents her mother quite frequently but never makes negative references to her father. She justifies his actions and blames her mother for most of the bad in her life. This is sign of sexual abuse because she blames her mom for not helping her when she needed her.

The relationship that Lucy has with Peggy is what makes most believe that she is lesbian. This relationship is the first that Lucy has with a female and she grows to become best friends with her. This is the closest thing that Lucy has to love currently in her life, which confuses her. She knows that she likes Peggy and wants to be around her, but that is only because she doesn’t know what it feels like to have a best friend. The night that Lucy and Peggy kiss is the same night that they tried to smoke marijuana for the first time. They were just young girls being young girls. She tried drugs once, that didn’t make her a drug addict, I don’t think that the one encounter she has with Peggy makes her a lesbian either. Lucy says at the end of the novel “I wish I could love someone so much that I could die from it”. This is a clear call for her lack of attention she was given and is doing anything she can to find love. She is forcing it, when she should sit back and let love find her. She is not ready to find love at this stage in her life until she can recover emotionally from her past.