Annie John

Annie John, published in 1985, is the second book by the Antiguan American author Jamaica Kincaid (née Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson). Annie John is a coming-of-age novel that follows the life of a young girl from age 10 to 17, until she leaves her home in Antigua, bound for nursing school in England. In the novel, Annie describes her most important relationships, and the bond with her mother is chief among them. Life is heaven for Annie until she reaches puberty, at which point her mother requires her to stop acting like a child and adopt the duties and manners of a young lady. This abrupt change prompts Annie to rebel against the rules established by her mother and her community. During the time in which the novel is set, Antigua has been under English colonial rule since the 1600s, and Annie’s rebellion illuminates the effects of oppression even as it highlights how apt children are to misinterpret their parents’ love.

This guide refers to the 1985 edition, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Plot Summary

Annie John’s narration begins with her life at age 10. She believes that only people she does not know can die because no one she knows has ever died. She can see the cemetery from her front yard, and she frequently watches funerals from a distance. Annie becomes more closely acquainted with death when Nalda, a girl she knows, dies in the arms of Annie’s mother. When the mother of Annie’s schoolmate Sonia also dies, Annie abandons Sonia, believing that being alone in the world, without a mother, is a shameful condition. Annie begins to attend funerals in secret. One day, she goes to the funeral of a girl with whom she is acquainted, and this event is the first time that Annie can directly observe how someone’s appearance changes after death. When she gets home, her mother catches her lying about where she has been, and Annie is forced to eat alone under the breadfruit tree in the back yard.

Annie describes her idyllic youth, during which her mother’s attention is fixed on her. During this earlier time frame, the young Annie follows her mother everywhere. Annie’s mother also shields her from the anger of other women with whom her father has children. Annie has no significant relationship with her father, who is 35 years older than her mother, but she watches how he rises with the Anglican church bell each day and how her mother prepares his bath, meals, and clothes. (Annie’s mother left her home in Dominica at age 16 after quarreling with her own father.) Annie especially loves to watch her mother go through the trunk containing all the items that she has saved from Annie’s life, and Annie’s mother always tells a story about Annie to accompany each item. Annie feels that she lives in paradise, and she pities her father, whose parents left him with his grandmother and moved to South America when he was little.

When Annie turns 12, she reaches puberty, and her body begins to change. No one prepares her for these changes, and she thinks that her parents don’t notice. However, Annie’s mother tells her that she is becoming a “young lady” and can no longer behave like a child; they have no time to go through the trunk anymore. Annie is sent to etiquette school and piano lessons, but she is dismissed from both for being disruptive. Her mother seems to never smile at her now. When she mentions that Annie will have her own home someday, Annie is hurt and horrified.

One day, Annie rushes home from Sunday school and finds her parents in bed. Although Annie is certain that her mother sees her standing nearby, her mother continues to caress her father and speak only to him, ignoring Annie’s presence and further alienating her. Soon, she starts at a new school and meets Gwen, who immediately becomes her best friend. Annie is unimpressed by the English headmistress, but she likes her homeroom teacher, Miss Nelson, who praises her writing. For her first assignment, Annie writes about a recurring dream in which she and her mother go to the beach. When Annie loses sight of her mother, she falls into a black hole of despair. Annie develops a reputation for being very smart. She is also popular in addition to being a rule breaker.

Annie gets her period, and she is frightened by the unfamiliar pain. Her mother laughs off her concerns and sends her to school. However, when Annie faints, she is sent home to rest, and her mother then tells Annie about when she first got her period. Her mother’s attempt to connect makes Annie feel that she is untrustworthy. Annie feels that she no longer loves her mother.

Soon, Annie meets the “Red Girl.” The Red Girl’s mother rarely makes her wash, brush her teeth and hair, or change her clothes. Annie’s mother finds this reprehensible, but when the Red Girl climbs a tree to fetch a guava for Annie, Annie is awed. Only boys climb trees, and this girl climbs faster than any boy. Annie loves the Red Girl’s unwashed smell, and she envies the Red Girl’s life of relative freedom compared to her own structured routines. She meets the Red Girl in secret, even stealing money to buy her gifts. Gwen seems dull in comparison. The Red Girl plays marbles, prompting Annie to do so, though Annie must hide her winnings from her mother because playing marbles is “unladylike.” The Red Girl moves away, and Annie dreams of rescuing her and living on their own private island, sending confusing signals to passing cruise ships so that they crash on the rocks and all the people on board drown.

Annie now anticipates the day when she can become the mistress of her own home, though she equates marriage with giving up everything that gives her pleasure. One day, Annie’s mother catches her emerging from her hiding place and asks where she is hiding her marbles. Annie maintains the lie that she has no marbles, and she notes that she has developed her own “treacherous” voice to match her mother’s.

Annie progresses quickly at school, winning accolades and awards. She likes the minister’s daughter, a white, English girl called Ruth who blushes red when Annie sings bawdy songs. Annie is very aware of how her ancestors were enslaved by Ruth’s, and she believes that Ruth must feel ashamed by this. However, Annie is confused because she has been taught that racial inequities are things of the past. Going home for lunch, Annie hopes to receive her mother’s attention, but her mother is completely focused on her father’s work stories. Annie grows more bitter and resentful.

By age 15, Annie is so horribly unhappy that she can feel her misery like a heavy ball of metal inside her. She thinks that both she and her mother have two faces: one for the world and one for each other. Annie has become duplicitous in response to her mother’s apparent disloyalty. Annie both loves and hates her mother but cannot imagine life without her. In another dream, Annie thinks that her mother would kill her if she could, just as she would kill her mother if she had the courage. In addition, Annie has advanced quickly at school, and the older girls in her new class only offer competition, not friendship. She dreams of living alone in Belgium because she read about it in Jane Eyre and it is far from Antigua. Even Gwen disappoints her, in part by encouraging Annie to marry Gwen’s brother. Annie begins to avoid Gwen, and she sees herself as an outcast, someone who only wants to be loved by her creator, like Lucifer.

One day after school, Annie is downtown, and some boys notice her, so she goes over to introduce herself despite their apparently malicious intentions. When she gets home, her mother says that she saw Annie acting like “a slut,” though Annie had only been speaking to the boys. Indignant, Annie disrespects her mother, feeling a wide gulf open between them.

Following a year-long drought, Antigua experiences over three months of rain. Annie becomes ill, and she is treated by her mother’s obeah woman and her father’s English doctor, but she only improves when her grandmother comes to treat her. While Annie is ill, she remembers the Brownie meetings where she had to swear allegiance to England. One day, in a feverish delirium, Annie washes the family photographs in her room, hoping to rid them of their smell, ruining them. As suddenly as the rain and sickness came, they disappear, leaving Annie desirous to leave Antigua behind. She has grown several inches and now towers over her mother. She begins to dress in a frumpy way, adopting a strange walk and accent and taking pleasure in the discomfort she causes others.

The novel ends when Annie leaves home at age 17. She plans to go to nursing school in England, though she just wants a reason to leave Antigua. Her parents are unaware that she has no intention of marrying or returning home, and they lovingly prepare for her departure, clearly proud of her. Gwen comes over, revealing that she is engaged. Annie is disappointed in Gwen, who is now silly and girlish. When it is time to say farewell to her parents, Annie feels an unsettling combination of happiness and sadness. She is glad to be leaving but suddenly feels small and forlorn as well. After the goodbyes, Annie goes to her cabin alone and lies down, listening to the waves lap against the ship.