Mariah - Cultural Perspectives

She connects this flower with an unhappy memory from Antigua and therefore cannot accept it as beautiful. She refuses to recognize it as something that belongs to her, since she has not been fully assimilated to American culture; she views it as a symbol of Mariah's culture rather than accepting it as an addition to her own.
             This episode also serves to relay the lack of understanding between the two women. Being from different cultures creates a barrier through which friendship is difficult to attain. Mariah hopes the daffodils" beauty is able to overcome the narrator's initial negativity; the narrator views her good intentions as a lack of understanding. Mariah tries to separate the narrator's past from the present, but the narrator is unable to do so since she has not come to terms with it. As a result of their cultural differences, the flower takes on a much deeper meaning for the narrator: "nothing could change the fact that where she [Mariah] saw beautiful flowers I [the narrator] saw sorrow and bitterness" (Kincaid 1222). The flower brings back a flood of memories for the narrator while Mariah's culture creates a view of simplistic recognition of beauty.
             Another instance where the difference between Mariah and the narrator makes itself evident is when the narrator accompanies Mariah and the children on the train. While they are dining, the narrator realizes that "the other people sitting down to eat dinner all looked like Mariah's relatives; the people waiting on them all looked like mine" (Kincaid 1222). Although this may seem as though it is obvious to those on board the train, as well as to the reader, it is a fact that goes unnoticed by Mariah and most likely by the other diners. This convention is normal to both Mariah and the other white passengers; the narrator only notices it since her culture differs from theirs.
             However, the narrator does not point this out to acknowledge the similarities between herself and the train servants.