Trying to deconstruct Lucy's internal emotions and really, her identity, has really been an interesting experience. On one hand, I appreciate her honesty. She is quite cynical and that is a quality that is welcomed in some respects and I reject it in others. She is warranted in her feelings; cold, unhappy and lonely. She feels the the "other" to borrow a phrase from Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.
There is a bit of a race card played here as well. All the talk about yellow and light colors that Mariah wears are opposite of Lucy's dark skin. This ties into Othello when he notices that he is the only one of color and all the people around him are white. Both Othello and Lucy's race are a factor in their identity construction.
I am interested in seeing how Lucy copes with her feelings and if she is ever able to feel comfortable in the new world. It would be a bit disheartening for her to stay cynical, but as I said, her feelings this early in the story are fair and to be expected.
(Picture above is a photo of author Jamaica Kincaid)
I think your connection between Othello and Lucy is very interesting. There is such an obvious similarity between the topic of race, and I think Lucy is affected by it more. In Othello, it seems as though everyone else comments on the race while in Lucy I feel as though she dwells on it more. I guess that could be because it is written only in her voice and we don't see what the other characters are thinking, but I still think she allows it to form her character in this new place more than Othello allows it to be a factor.
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