Annie John

The novel Annie John is a novel about a girl who craves the attention of everyone around her. She feels the need to always be the best student for the teachers, the most popular girl in her school but most importantly to Annie she craves the attention and acceptance of her mother.
Through out the beginning of the novel Kincaid stressed the fact that Annie John was inseparable with her mother and that anything that her mother was doing, Annie John was also doing. Annie John even says in one passage when talking about her mother cleaning her trunk that “If I was at home when she happened to do this, I was at her side, as usual.” (21)
When Annie John hit puberty the relationship with her mother began to change. When her mother told her that she was too old to wear matching dresses with her anymore Annie thought that “To say that I felt the earth swept away from under me would not be going too far.” (26)
I believe that the major breaking point for Annie John and the way she viewed her mother and her relationship was when Annie rushed home from school to show her mother a certificate for best student in bible study class when she saw her Mother in bed with her Father. Annie went from being excited for “a chance for her to smile again” (30) to finding her mothers hand repulsive. I believe that that this became the turning point in the relationship because Annie saw her mother giving someone else affection. I believe that it was especially hard for Annie because she was coming home to make her mother proud but instead it was almost as if she saw her mother cheating on her. Although Annie and her mother’s relationship seem to be over by the end of the book, I believe that sense it was still hard for Annie to say good bye to her mom and because Annie is only 17 years old, she will return to her family someday.