The cover of Lucy foreshadows her character's personality. Througout the book, Lucy seems reserved and thoughtful, almost judgmental. She constantly asks Mariah, "How did you get to be this way". She also looks at the way the family interacts and judges them for that. She judges Mariah's friend as well as her own mother. Looking at the cover of the book, Lucy looks very introverted and disgusted with what's around her. Although she is topless, which displays how open she is sexually, the readers find that she on the whole isolates herself from others. Her hand placement makes the readers think that she is pushing away whomever gets too close. Even though she is new to the country, she judges her surroundings and overall seems unhappy with where she is and who she is surrounded by, yet she was just as unhappy with the same things back in her home country. By looking at the cover, Lucy looks thoughtful but unhappy, yet I think she feels like she is the lucky one because she finds so much unhappiness in others, that she doesn't quite realize it in herself.
Here's a good review of the book as a whole. http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Critique/review_fiction/lucy_by_jamaica_kincaid.html
I really like how you interpreted her hand placement as pushing away. After reading this story, it is sad to see how she pushes everyone away leaving her in total unhappiness.
ReplyDeleteSuzy also chose to focus on the cover of Lucy. I think it is interesting that the author of the novel pays so much attention to every little detail of her book!
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