American ethnic women writers, Jamaica Kincaid, post-colonialism, clash of cultures, Caribbean, Western ideology, experience

Lucy, a novel by the contemporary Caribbean-American writer Jamaica Kincaid, tells a semi-autobiographical story about a teenage girl from Antigua. In my paper I focus on the protagonist?s early encounters with Western ideology on her native island of Antigua and later, during her stay in the U.S.A. The aim of the paper is to interpret the contrasts between the mentality of the Western world and to describe the dissimilarities in their perceptions of reality and Lucy?s endeavor to preserve her identity in a foreign country. The paper demonstrates the protagonist?s attitudes towards Western culture and her position within it as well as her strong desire to preserve her own identity.