logo

59 pages 1 hour read

Jamaica Kincaid

Annie John

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1985

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 3 Summary: “Gwen”

Annie walks to her new school alone, and everyone seems to know everyone else except for her. She is unimpressed with Miss Moore, the English headmistress, who looks like a prune, smells like a fish, sounds like an owl, and peers around the room as if “hoping to see something wrong” (36). Annie recalls her mother’s only criticism of the English: that they do not wash frequently enough, hence their fishy smell. However, Annie admires her homeroom teacher, Miss Nelson, who instructs Annie’s class to compose autobiographical essays. Annie enjoys writing in her new notebook and is happy to have gotten rid of her old one, the cover of which had a picture of a woman wearing a crown and voluminous jewels, though Annie doesn’t know who the woman is. Listening to the other girls read their imaginative and playful compositions, Annie grows nervous about her own more serious one. She realizes that she is not the center of her world anymore.

When Annie reads her essay, Miss Nelson loves it. Annie includes the text of her narrative in this chapter. It describes a time when she and her mother went to the beach. Though her mother could swim like a fish, Annie only felt safe in the water when she clung to her mother’s neck. Watching from shore, Annie lost sight of her mother. Terrified, Annie fell into a big black space that yawned open in front of her. For a while, she could see nothing, but then some movement drew her attention. Her mother was far away, sitting upon a rock, oblivious to Annie’s terror. When her mother returned, she saw Annie’s tear-stained face and assured her that she would never leave her, but Annie could not forget the horrible feeling of loss. This past summer, Annie writes, she has often dreamed about her mother sitting on that rock and her father sometimes joining her there. In the dream, they would laugh together, apart from Annie, and her mother never returned to her. However, Annie has invented the ending of the essay, in which she tells her mother about the recurring dream and her mother tells her over and over that she would never leave her alone. In reality, however, when Annie told her mother of the dream, her mother simply turned her back and warned Annie about eating unripe fruit. Annies made up the happier ending because she doesn’t want her classmates to know how her mother treats her.

Outside on the playground, Gweneth Joseph introduces herself to Annie and presents her with a black volcanic rock that smells of lavender. Annie believes this to be the moment they fall in love. They detach themselves from the others and walk home together, soon becoming inseparable. They tell each other private, secret things and confess how much they love one another. At school, Annie is known for being quick and bright, and she becomes popular. She sometimes defends other girls, seeing herself in them, or else treats them cruelly for the same reason. She also becomes known for doing things that girls are not supposed to do. Sometimes, Annie kisses Gwen on the neck, the way her own mother used to do with her. She tells Gwen that she used to be afraid of her mother dying, but now that she has Gwen, it doesn’t matter as much.

When Annie gets her first period, she is confused and in pain, but her mother is unsympathetic, telling her only that she’ll get used to it. Annie is so upset that her mother relents and tells her about her own “coming of age,” as she calls it, but instead of being comforted, Annie thinks, “What a serpent!” (52). In class, Annie faints and is revived by Miss Nelson. At recess, Annie and the girls go to the cemetery, as is their custom, and she shows and tells them “everything” because none of them are menstruating yet. The nurse has sent a note home telling Annie’s mother to keep Annie in bed for the rest of the day. Though her mother is clearly concerned, Annie wonders how her mother can still look so beautiful even though Annie no longer loves her.

Chapter 3 Analysis

Annie’s feelings about most adults at her new school, besides Miss Nelson, begin to illustrate the tension between native Antiguans and the English colonizers. Annie’s mother’s assertions that English people don’t “wash often enough, or wash properly when they finally [do]” and so “smell as if they had been bottled up in a fish” indicates that her mother tries to exceed the standards of English cleanliness (36), perhaps as a way to ensure that a lack of cleanliness could never be held against herself or her family. However, because this is her only criticism of the English, the narrative implies that Annie’s mother has accepted English authority and rule in Antigua for the most part. On the other hand, Annie’s belief that most of the teachers “[will] be[come] thorns in [her] side” due to “some misunderstanding” illustrates her growing distrust of English authority and ability and highlights The Dangerous Effects of Oppression (37). The theme is also reflected in Annie’s joy to be rid of her old notebook, which featured a “wrinkled-up woman wearing a crown on her head and a neckful and armfuls of diamonds and pearls” (40). This image likely depicted the late Queen Victoria of England, whose picture was printed on notebooks to remind the schoolchildren of Antigua to whom they owe their loyalty. Likewise, the fact that Annie could not identify her as an English queen shows just how little Annie feels allied to England or its values.

Annie’s recurring dream, about which she writes, is symbolic of the changes that are taking place in her relationship with her mother and reflects the complex dynamics of Misinterpreted Parental Love. Instead of receiving her mother’s comforting reassurances, Annie watches her mother turn nearly all her loving attention to Annie’s father. Then, in her dream, she sees her mother far away, either alone or with her father, but never with Annie herself. The physical distance separating her mother from Annie in the dream suggests the emotional distance that her mother has allowed to grow between the two in real life. The fact that Annie’s father sometimes joins her mother while Annie never does further suggests the unpalatable cultural reality that Annie struggles to accept: that her mother’s love and affection are due, first and foremost, to Annie’s father and not to Annie.

The Normalcy of Youthful Rebellion thus finds expression in Annie’s inner thoughts and outward behavior. As much as Annie’s early childhood felt like a paradise, she now thinks of her mother as the serpent come to tempt and deceive her. Her mother’s apparent indifference to her daughter’s first period only adds to Annie’s growing animosity, and although Annie pretends that hearing about her mother’s first period brings the two closer, “as close as in the old days,” her underlying resentment still festers, and she now thinks of her mother as a “serpent” (51-52). Having studied the Bible and received a rigorous religious education, Annie utilizes this image from the story of the Garden of Eden to compare her mother to the biblical snake that deceives Eve and ultimately ruins paradise forever. With Annie’s comparison, Kincaid uses an allusion to illustrate just how profoundly Annie’s feelings for her mother have changed. She sees her mother as one who is trying to thwart and deceive her, casting her as a villain who has ruined the paradise of Annie’s carefree childhood life. In reality, Annie’s mother only treats Annie’s period as insignificant because she wishes for Annie to adopt this attitude as well; telling Annie a story about her own first period is her way of acknowledging that although the development seems frightening and unusual to Annie now, it will not always be this way. As a woman, Annie will be expected to fulfill her responsibilities as her periods come and go, so her mother models this behavior for her now. As she approaches full-blown adolescence, Annie often views aspects of her mother’s care as evidence of her duplicity, and these scenes illuminate the overarching theme of Misinterpreted Parental Love.

Within this context, it is significant that Gwen’s wide-eyed admiration and loving attention have replaced much of the affection and love that Annie formerly received from her own mother. However, the girls’ awareness of their future obligations and society’s expectations prevents their closeness from becoming as unshakeable as Annie’s relationship with her mother once felt. Though the girls vow to always love one another, the older version of Annie notes that “the words had a hollow ring” (53). This detail suggests that both Annie and Gwen unconsciously realize the impermanent nature of their friendship, as becoming “young ladies” will inevitably compel them to move on, and their friendship will ultimately be replaced by another, more culturally significant relationship: marriage.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text