Lucy's Struggle with Displacement

Throughout the novel, it is evident that Lucy often feels out of place in her American home. However, it is also evident that she has no desire to return home to her family in the islands -- as we get the impression that Lucy did not feel as though she belonged there either. As Lucy struggles to find her true identity, we realize that it can really only be uncovered by discovering where she belongs in the world. Displacement is this innate feeling of being someplace uncomfortable or unfamiliar. This describes the way that Lucy feels in her home in the States. At one point, she sings herself to sleep, "Put yourself in my place, if only for a day; see if you can stand the awful emptiness inside" (8) It seems as though Lucy left her home in search of something more -- something that goes beyond the monotonous life with her family. However, Lucy has not yet found that place or feeling she has been searching for - that one place where she can feel at ease and comfortable with herself as a person.

Towards the beginning of the novel, Lucy tells us, "I was only an unhappy young woman living in a maid's room, and I was not even the maid. I was the young girl who watches over the children and goes to school at night" (7). Clearly, Lucy has a negative self image, as she struggles to find herself in the midst of so many people who treat her as if she does not belong. Lucy describes the many people that just do not relate to her, and also tells of the people that dislike her for simple, irrelevant things (such as the way she talks). These are the people that contribute to her negative sense of self and keep her from finding that place she can call her own.

In my own experience, the feeling of displacement can only be removed when others take the initiative to include you in the new environment. Throughout my life, I have lived in four different states. The feeling of displacement became common to me, but always faded as others began to include me in their everyday lives. Soon, the unfamiliar place was not so distant to me -- it became a place that I could call home. As I began to get comfortable in the new place, I began to learn things about myself and to develop positive aspects regarding my overall sense of self.

I feel that this is what Lucy is so desperately in need of. In order for her to overcome her feelings of displacement, she needs someone that will make her feel at home -- someone she can relate to, and someone that does not make her feel as though she does not belong. Lucy also needs someone that will contribute positively to her sense of self. Only then will she truly find a place she can call home.