. Instaread - Summary of My Name Is Lucy Barton: by Elizabeth Strout

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Elizabeth Strouts

My Name Is Lucy Barton

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Instaread

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Table of Contents

My Name Is Lucy Barton tells the story of the title character and her relationship with her family, particularly her mother and first husband. It considers the perception of poverty by those who live both inside and outside of it. Much of the story takes place in a hospital in New York City, where Lucy Barton goes to have her appendix removed. Instead of going straight home, Lucy becomes ill and remains in the hospital for nearly nine weeks.

Lucy was born into poverty, and grew up with her mother, father, older brother, and older sister in the garage of their uncles home. She didnt have loving relationships with her parents or her siblings. They lived in isolation, both physically, as they had no neighbors, and culturally, as they did not have a television, newspapers, or magazines in their home. As a result of her isolation, Lucy often felt socially awkward for not understanding cultural references or not always knowing how to act in certain social situations.

Besides isolation, Lucy understood she was different from others because she and her family were poor. Other children, and even adults, made fun of her, judged her, or treated her and her family differently from others because of their poverty. Her father, a farm machinery mechanic, was frequently fired, though just as frequently rehired. Her mother was a seamstress. When her uncle died, Lucys family moved out of the garage and into his home. They were so poor that they often ate only molasses on bread for their meals, and Lucys parents, especially her mother, often beat Lucy and her siblings, leaving them bruised and sullen. Lucy hints at many injustices and terrors she suffered at the hands of her parents. Her father was mentally unstable from his wartime experiences, and Lucy suggests, but never confirms, that this led to the physical and mental abuse he meted out on the rest of the family. She describes how at a young age she was sometimes left in a truck while her parents went to work and her siblings went to school. Once, a long snake was in the truck with Lucy, which gave her a tremendous fear of snakes.

Lucy loved to read and frequently stayed behind after school to do her homework and read in the warmth of the classrooms, as her home was never properly heated. One of Lucys teachers encouraged her to read, and gave her many books. The books helped Lucy feel less alone. Reading also made her want to become a writer. Lucy was inspired by her middle school social studies teacher, who taught her about civil rights and about how the US government treated the Native Americans. This taught Lucy to care about the injustices suffered by other people. One such injustice that Lucy witnessed had to do with her own brother. When he was starting high school and Lucy was in junior high school, she saw their father driving alongside her brother and yelling homophobic slurs at him because he was wearing womens clothing. Lucy remembers her father holding her brother as the two cried in each others arms later that night.

Lucy maintained perfect grades and was accepted to a college just outside Chicago, with a full scholarship. She remedied her social awkwardness by imitating people and trying not to let on that she didnt know much about popular culture, often by falling silent when those topics came up in conversation. She bought clothes from a thrift store and believed that no one noticed her frugal lifestyle choices. One person who did was an artist and professor she dated, who unfavorably compared her to other fashionably dressed faculty. He was the first person who pried Lucy with questions about her social class, asking to know what her familys house looked like and what they ate.

Lucy met her husband, William, at college. He was the son of a German prisoner of war who was disgusted with Germany after returning when the war was over, and moved back to the United States. Williams physical features recalled his fathers German heritage, which made him a target for Lucys parents. They didnt like William because when Lucys father fought against the Germans during World War II, two German men had startled him, and he shot them both in the back, a traumatic event that led to the mental instability Lucy hints at elsewhere in her story. Her parents did not attend or even acknowledge Lucys wedding to William, and Lucy called only to tell them that she and William had a child, Christina, or Chrissy. However, Lucys mother claimed to have already known about Chrissy from a dream, including her name. Lucy didnt see her family for many years afterward, and spoke to them only on special occasions.

Lucy, her husband, and two children, Chrissy and Becka, lived in a small apartment in the West Village of New York City. She befriended her neighbor Jeremy, who was of a French aristocratic background and who appeared judgmental about their poverty on occasion. He told Lucy she had to be ruthless if she wanted to be a writer. Lucy would not share her writing with Jeremy. She later recalled that Jeremy recognized that she was a lonely person, though she did not realize this about herself at the time. Lucy started writing professionally and began to have articles published in magazines.

One day, Lucy went to the hospital to have her appendix removed, but something went wrong, and she stayed in the hospital for almost nine weeks, which is where her present story begins. She becomes lonely and desperately misses her children and husband. Doctors conduct various tests as they try to determine what is wrong with her.

After a few weeks, Lucys mother appears at her bedside because William has asked her to come to keep his wife company. Though they hadnt seen each other in years and arent very close, Lucy is very happy to see her mother and loves listening to her voice, which is different, more breathy and less self-conscious, than she remembered. During much of this time with her mother, Lucy listens to her mother gossip about a variety of people they know, particularly when it comes to their financial situations or marriages. Lucys mother apologizes for bringing up her children in poverty. She also tells Lucy she is different from her siblings, having envisioned something better for her life and acted on her desires to achieve it. Lucy asks her mother to tell her she loves her, but Lucys mother does not say the words.

Lucy is fond of the doctor who visits her frequently and who seems to be very understanding about the situation with Lucys mother. He leaves a lifelong impression on her. When he tells Lucy she may need surgery, Lucys mother announces that she is leaving. Lucy must remain in the hospital for another five weeks, but her doctor never mentions her mother again, and Lucy doesnt either. Lucy ends up not needing the surgery. Her friend Molla comes to visit her. Lucy had befriended Molla when she once walked past Lucys house and started talking to her about very personal stories, some of which concerned Mollas troubled relationship with her own mother. The two women gossip about other mothers at the park where they take their children.