Jamaica Kincaid Annie John

The first novel that was written by Kincaid was “Annie John”, this was published in 1985. It was widely appreciated by critics and readers and sealed her place as a literary success in the international ranks. This book could be classified as an autobiography of a maturing young protagonist.

This novel tells a detail story of a young colored girl who grew up in the island of Antigua; which can be found in the Caribbean. Many issues were covered in this novel which literally touched on every influential issue.

Some of the topics depicted lesbianism, mother and daughter relationship, racism, education, clinical depression and struggles with medicine. The use of medicine was looked on both in the scientific and superstitious beliefs of her native island.

There were strong influences of how life was like living in a British colony, in this story Annie’s natural mother was also from the native island. The mother portrays the language and cultural values of Britain, which in her mind was a representation of a false homeland.

Annie’s character was the prototype of a native young girl in the British colony who was struggling to rid herself of three strong influences which was preventing her from finding her identity. These influences were her homeland, biological mother and the mother tongue.

This young girl was caught between two worlds, her public school life with teachers from Britain and her private life with the struggling relationship with her mother. She desperately wanted to escape this environment which was suffocating her and she achieved this with active and inventive imaginations.

If asked to summarize this plot it would be an easy task as the style of writing was not so complicated. When the book starts you see how Annie John as a young bright girl worshiped her mother.

It was shocking to her when she was told that she was going to be living at a separate house from her mom; she was distraught and hurt as she practically followed her mother everywhere that she went. She was sent away to a different school as her mother tried to instill values in her to become a true lady; here she had to make friends and prove her intelligence.

Annie John tried to cope with the loss of best friend and mother and very soon she was friends with girls who were very close emotionally. Later as she got more comfortable she was drawn to this wild girl named “Red Girl” who loves to climb trees and do things like a boy.

However, while making these close friends and sticking to her new friend Red Girl, she slowly starts to alienate herself from her mother. This distance also went further as she withdraws from adults, later it was literally clear that she was not well mentally as she stopped associating with her friends and family.

When the book ends Annie John is at a nursing school that was located in England where she was now physically distant from everyone and everything that she knew.

Jamaica Kincaid Annie John has left many readers with the impression that the main character was gay. This was never highlighted directly but could be picked up from the many ideas that were portrayed. This book combined the stories of colonization, family, sex and identity brilliantly and each chapter had a strong plot.