Jamaica Kincaid: The Letter - The Moth

Summary

Summary of "The Moth" Podcast Episode: Jamaica Kincaid - The Letter

Introduction

In this captivating episode of The Moth, acclaimed author Jamaica Kincaid shares her poignant and deeply personal story titled "The Letter." Delivered live in Vermont in 2011, Kincaid's narrative explores complex family dynamics, cultural identity, and the longing for maternal connection. The theme of the night, "Building a Bridge," aptly reflects the emotional journey Kincaid undertakes to bridge the gaps between herself, her mother, and her aunt.

Early Family Dynamics and Mother-Sister Relationship

Kincaid begins her story by delving into her relationship with her mother and her mother's sister. She describes her mother as a graceful woman with long black hair, embodying the Caribbean side of her family, while her aunt, distinguished by her red hair and gray eyes, presents a stark contrast.

“Like most people in the world. I had a mother and she had a sister and they were very unlike each other. And so they quarreled all the time.”
[02:30]

Kincaid highlights the constant quarrels between her mother and aunt, primarily conducted through letters. These letters, written in proper English, masked their verbal disagreements conducted in French patois, a language Kincaid couldn't understand. This linguistic divide added a layer of mystery and tension to their relationship.

“The letters that they sent to each other were written in English, proper English. But the language they spoke, the spoken language, was French patois.”
[04:10]

Arrival in Dominica and Life with Her Aunt

At the age of nine, Kincaid is sent to live with her aunt in Dominica following an incident involving her younger brother. Her departure marks the beginning of her struggle to adapt to a new environment vastly different from her mother's Antigua.

“I was put on a boat with my little valise with my little things in it. I was put on a boat.”
[05:45]

Dominica, named after its discovery by Christopher Columbus on a Sunday, is portrayed as a bleak and perpetually rainy island, contrasting sharply with the sunny Antigua. Kincaid describes Dominica as “all the things my mother had described,” making her feel isolated and longing for her mother's presence.

“It rained all the time. The beaches had no sand. They had little black pebbles because the island is volcanic.”
[07:20]

Living with her aunt, Kincaid experiences a loss of the refined upbringing she enjoyed with her mother. Her aunt's coarse demeanor and lack of the bourgeois manners that characterized her mother's household deepen her sense of displacement.

“My aunt seemed incredibly coarse to me. She didn't have my mother's graceful ways.”
[08:35]

The Secret Letters and Miscommunication

Desperate to bridge the emotional distance from her mother, Kincaid begins writing letters that express false grievances against her aunt. These letters, which she never sends, are her way of communicating her true feelings of neglect and longing.

“I would write to my mother things that were not true. I would say that my aunt had mistreated me, had denied me food, had made me go without sleep.”
[09:50]

She secretively places these fabricated letters under a stone near her home, hoping to convey her distress. However, her aunt uncovers this act, leading to increased tension and eventual punishment.

“Apparently one day my aunt saw me do this without my knowing. She saw me secrete these pieces of paper under a stone and she let me go off to school, but she retrieved them.”
[11:15]

Return to Antigua and Reflections

Kincaid's persistent efforts to reconnect with her mother, despite the misunderstandings and conflicts, ultimately lead to her return to Antigua. However, reuniting with her mother is bittersweet, as she now has a younger brother, further complicating their relationship.

“I arrived in Antigua and waiting for me on the pier was my mother and I was very happy to see her. Except that yes, she had another child.”
[12:05]

Her story concludes with a reflection on the unbridgeable gaps that sometimes exist within families, despite the desire to connect and understand one another.

Conclusion

Jamaica Kincaid's "The Letter" is a moving exploration of familial bonds, cultural identity, and the complexities of communication. Through her evocative storytelling, Kincaid invites listeners to empathize with her experiences of longing, misunderstanding, and ultimately, the fragile attempts to bridge emotional divides.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

“Like most people in the world. I had a mother and she had a sister and they were very unlike each other. And so they quarreled all the time.”
[02:30]
“The letters that they sent to each other were written in English, proper English. But the language they spoke, the spoken language, was French patois.”
[04:10]
“I was put on a boat with my little valise with my little things in it. I was put on a boat.”
[05:45]
“It rained all the time. The beaches had no sand. They had little black pebbles because the island is volcanic.”
[07:20]
“My aunt seemed incredibly coarse to me. She didn't have my mother's graceful ways.”
[08:35]
“I would write to my mother things that were not true. I would say that my aunt had mistreated me, had denied me food, had made me go without sleep.”
[09:50]
“Apparently one day my aunt saw me do this without my knowing. She saw me secrete these pieces of paper under a stone and she let me go off to school, but she retrieved them.”
[11:15]
“I arrived in Antigua and waiting for me on the pier was my mother and I was very happy to see her. Except that yes, she had another child.”
[12:05]

About Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid is an award-winning writer born in Antigua. She resides in North Bennington, Vermont during summers and teaches at Claremont McKenna College in California during the academic year. Kincaid is known for her powerful storytelling and exploration of themes such as identity, family, and displacement.

Additional Information

The Moth's first book, a collection of 50 moth stories, is scheduled for release on September 3rd. Pre-orders are available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, and IndieBound.
The Moth Mainstage is returning to St. Paul on Friday, November 8th, presented by Minnesota Public Radio. For tickets and tour information, visit themoth.org.

This summary provides an overview of Jamaica Kincaid's story "The Letter" as presented on The Moth podcast. For the full experience, listening to the original podcast episode is highly recommended.

Transcript

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Dan Kennedy (1:09)

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Jamaica Kincaid (2:16)

Well, I was hoping I would have an accident and I wouldn't be able to come up here. But try as I might, nothing worked. The tea didn't spill. Here I am. Like most people in the world. I had a mother and she had a sister and they were very unlike each other. And so they quarreled all the time. My mother lived in Antigua and her sister where I was born and grew up. And her sister lived in Dominica, where she was born and where she grew up. They quarreled by letters they wrote to each other, letters that they would seal up in an envelope and post. And the letters would be taken on a boat that. That would make weekly stops on the island, the Leeward Islands, I think. Leeward and Windward Islands. And the letters that they sent to each other was written in English, proper English. But the language they spoke, the spoken language, was French patois. The letters. I never knew what the quarrel was about, because when they received the letter in English, they received each other's letters in English. They then would respond to the letters verbally in French patois. So I couldn't understand French patois. And I was never shown the letters. But only I knew, certainly from my mother's side, the reaction of the letters. This was incredibly interesting to me. Everything my mother did was interesting to me. I adored her. But mostly what I adored about her is that she adored me. So I liked to see her angry, or it was interesting to me to see her angry and speaking in this language, which I had no interest in learning at all. Because in any case, it wasn't a proper language. It was just broken language, or so we were told. Eventually. Well, as I say, I was very. I adored this person. Eventually, when I was around nine years of age, I should say, my mother became pregnant. I don't know how this happened. I did have a stepfather, her husband. But still, this pregnancy was a mystery to me, and I had nothing to do with it. I wanted nothing to do with it. I quite, in fact, ignored it. And so it was a surprise to me that she gave birth to a boy, a son, her other child. My parents tried very hard to, you know, make me like him and would tell me to hold him and so on. And I must have done a number of things that were not kind to him because one day when they asked me to hold him, he slipped out of my arms and fell on his head. They were very angry at that, I think, because they made me eat my supper all by myself outside. That was the first punishment. Then the second punishment was I was sent to live with my mother's sister, my aunt, because I didn't like my brother, they said. And I was put on a boat with my little valise with my little things in it. I was put on a boat. It so happened to be the very boat on which the angry letters went back and forth. And it's quite possible that I was a letter myself. I went I arrived in Dominica. Dominica, incidentally, is named because Christopher Columbus discovered it on a Sunday. So it's named Dominica. He had, by that time, run out of names he liked better. In any case, when I got to this island, it was very strange. My mother had told me about her growing up, you know, various things, but I thought that they only had. These things only happened to my mother. The carrying a snake unknowingly to her on her head for many miles. This sort of thing was. Would only happen to my mother. Or her description of fish that flew out of the water. This would only happen to her. But it turns out that Dominica was just as she described it, which is why she fled from it. It rained all the time. The beaches had no sand. They had little black pebbles because the island is volcanic, formed from an old volcano. And the skies were not gray. There was water everywhere. Whereas Antigua, as you well know, because you've been there on your holiday, it never rains. It has beautiful beaches, a blue sea and an especially blue sky. And so Dominica was the opposite of this place that I had just been banished from. And worse, my aunt wasn't there to meet me on the jetty. Somehow I was taken to her house and where my grandparents also lived, in Maho Dominica. And there I met my aunt, who was the complete opposite of my mother. For one thing, she had red hair and gray eyes. And that's when I first came to realize that my mother was something called a Richardson. They have that mark, red hair and gray eyes. And also my aunt seemed incredibly coarse to me. She didn't have my mother's graceful ways. My mother, incidentally, had long black hair. She took after the Caribbean side of her family. And she was very graceful and very. Even though we were very poor, she had very bourgeois ways. We ate with napkins and knife and fork and spoke properly and so on. My aunt was the opposite of that. And I naturally missed my mother very much and couldn't understand my banishment. I began to write to my mother things that were not true. I would say that my aunt had mistreated me, had denied me food, had made me go without sleep, all sorts of things that were not true. And then I would fold the letters up and take them with me out of the yard on my way to school, which was five miles away from my house in a village called Massac. Really massacre. But that has a whole other story which I'll save for another time. In any case, I would put the letters under a stone just outside the gate I never posted them, I had no way of posting them and they were all the same, you know. Dear Mamm, I miss you so much and I'm very badly treated. They give me no food, they treat me like a dog, all of it completely untrue. But then I would fold them up and put them under the stone and then walk off to school. Apparently one day my aunt saw me do this without my knowing. She saw me secrete these pieces of paper under a stone and she let me go off to school, but she retrieved them and when I returned that afternoon from school the letters were on a table and there was this red haired gray eyed woman in flames at me, angry at me, and I think I cried and said I was sorry and so on. But in any case it didn't matter. She packed up my things and the next time the boat arrived it was called the MV Ripon. The next time it arrived she put me on it and sent me back to my mother, which is just what I wanted. I wanted to go back to my mother. And so I arrived in Antigua and waiting for me on the pier was my mother and I was very happy to see her. Except that yes, she had another child. And so even though my letters had gotten me back to my mother's side in every way, I was further away from her than before. Thank you.