Failing to Gain Respect: The Mothers of Lucy, Soledad, and Sophie Essay

For Sophie, youth and the newness of North America are of greater significance. What is more, the girl had developed a better relationship with Tante Atie in Haiti as compared to her relationship with her mother in New York. In other words, Sophie has Tante Atie as a benchmark to compare her mother with. She realizes thus that her mother is not the kind of individual to be lived with for long.

Her mother has failed to earn her respect, despite the mother’s emotional problems that Sophie is instinctively expected to deal with. Soledad does not have much patience with respect to her mother either. She is happy with her new beginning in Manhattan at the time that she is disturbed by her mother’s mental illness.

Rather, her new experiences are more important to her. Additionally, it is obvious that Soledad would not respect her mother. She refers to her mother getting her “shit together” in ghetto language. To add to the disrespect that Soledad already feels for her mother, the novel reveals that Olivia was actually a prostitute, that Soledad was born out of wedlock, and that Olivia had killed the father of Soledad. Perhaps, therefore, Soledad may never be expected to truly respect her mother, even though her positive feelings for the mother are revealed through her visit to bring the mother back to health. Lucy feels as emotionally unattached to her mother as does Soledad.

Furthermore, Lucy sees a better motherly model in Mariah, who is similar to Sophie’s Tante Atie, seeing as Mariah replaces Lucy’s mother with respect to the kinds of feelings people are taught by nature or nurture to feel for their mothers. Jamaica Kincaid’s novel establishes a clear difference between Lucy’s mother and the character of Mariah. For example, Lucy’s mother was emotionally dependent on her daughter, to the point of becoming an emotional pain. Moreover, the mother was neglectful of the needs of her young daughter. Mariah, on the contrary, treats Lucy as a grownup. She exposes Lucy to the museums of America, and gives her presents. She also looks out for the well-being of the young Lucy during the time that she is adjusting to the new environment. Just like Soledad does not want to associate herself with Washington Heights and the Dominicans, Lucy feels far away from her roots in West Indies.

And, even though they are disgusted by the thought of their mothers, it may be assumed that they would return to visit their mothers occasionally once they have established themselves as independent, young women. To put it another way, the young girls are all feeling that their mothers are unbearable most probably because it is time for the young girls to be separated indefinitely from their mothers. Given the delicate emotional relations between most mothers and daughters, this separation could be painful. In order to avoid the pain, the girls would not only like to stay away from their mothers, but also do away with their memories of their mothers. Once Lucy, Soledad, and Sophie have reached an age of maturity, perhaps in their late twenties or early thirties, they might want to remember their mothers fondly. Furthermore, the young women might want to spend time with their mothers, but only after the women have established themselves independently.

The respect that the mothers have lost at this time is also expected to be regained at a later stage. Such is the process of human existence. In the case of mothers and daughters, distance is expected to make hearts grow fonder.Works CitedCruz, Angie. Soledad. New York: Simon ; Schuster, 2001.Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory.