Reading and analyzing Jamaica Kincaid‘s My Brother
through the lens of Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection
theory, a psychoanalytical theory, this paper provides a
study which concentrates on the problematic relationship
of Kincaid and her mother as the result of a mutual
abjection between them. In this study Kincaid, the
protagonist and her mother abject each other. Kincaid’s
mother abjection comes as a result of getting pregnant for
the second time and her failure in aborting the baby and
Kincaid’s abjection initially stems from being abandoned
by her mother after she gives birth to the Kincaid’s first
step brother. This study presents a reading which attempts
to explain why the relationship between Kincaid and her
mother is problematic, what the effects of the abjection
in their lives are, and what the overall consequences of
this problematic relationship are. The paper concludes
that the problematic relationship between Kincaid and her
mother remains unresolved. They try but never succeed in
establishing a healthy set of relationships with each other.
Kincaid tries to cure herself from the symptoms of the
problematic relationships with her mother by immigrating
to USA and writing but she is not successful.