Annie John

Though Annie sees her mother as an antagonist, her mother is not actually the novel’s antagonist. Instead, that role is filled by the oppressive aspects of Annie’s society. However, because Annie’s mother has largely adopted the racist and sexist cultural values of the English who colonize Antigua, Annie finds herself growing increasingly bitter as her mother tries to train her to embrace these rules. Although Annie’s mother is superstitious and believes in folk medicine, she has otherwise been successfully indoctrinated into accepting English culture and attempting to approximate an English identity as closely as she can. Her only criticism of the English is that they do not wash themselves often enough, and so she makes Annie bathe every single day and stick to a strict grooming routine.

Although Annie’s mother was rebellious in her youth, leaving her home in Dominica after an argument with her father, that rebelliousness has been replaced by a desire to live a life of respectability and honor. She insists on Annie’s respectability so that Annie does not become ostracized and belittled for her unwillingness to live by social rules. Annie’s mother’s rebellion against her own parents and her desire for independence as a young woman both suggest that English values are not always aligned with her own and that she only felt compelled to accept them after arriving in Antigua and discovering that the only way to live comfortably is to adopt society’s values. Because this is what she knows, she tries to teach Annie how to prepare for a similar life, precipitating Annie’s rebellion and bitterness.

Despite Annie’s sense that her mother changes dramatically, Annie’s mother is a static character. She begins the text loving her daughter, and she is no less loving at the end of the novel. Although she is static, she is also a complex, round character who makes personal sacrifices to attain respectability and teach her daughter to do the same. She essentially damages their relationship by creating emotional distance between them, but she does this so that she can teach Annie how to have what she considers to be the best possible life for a Black woman on an island colonized by white English people. Although her behavior toward her daughter changes, the reasons behind her parenting choices never do.

Annie’s father is a flat, static character because this is Annie’s experience of him. He appears infrequently in the text and has far less dialogue than other secondary characters. His main contribution to the household is as the primary provider, and he also constructs most of their furniture. He and Annie have no real emotional connection, perhaps because she is a girl and because there is a significant age gap between them. He is 68 when she is 10, and by the time she leaves Antigua at 17, he is 75 and in need of a nurse. In their community, it is the mother’s duty to raise the children, not the father’s. Thus, Annie spends all day with her mother when she is young and only sees her father at meals.

However, as Annie’s relationship with her mother changes, she grows to resent her father for monopolizing her mother’s attention and affection at times. He never seems to have any solutions to the conflict between Annie and her mother, who tend to hide it from him anyway. He only betrays an opinion when Annie’s mother wants to see the obeah woman during Annie’s illness or when Ma Chess brings folk medicine to their home. The Anglican church bell is his alarm clock, he sees an English doctor, and he played cricket in his youth; all of these quirks are symbolic of his adoption of colonial values.

Gwen functions as an early replacement for the affection that Annie’s mother used to give her. She is the first friend Annie makes at her new school, after her mother begins to treat her like a “young lady” rather than a child. Annie and Gwen love one another and long to be together at all times. However, the onset of Annie’s menstrual cycle shatters their sense of togetherness, reminding them of the future obligations that will one day supplant their friendship. In addition, Gwen does not question their community’s values as Annie does, and when Annie begins to rebel in earnest, Gwen is no longer an attractive companion to her.

She therefore serves as Annie’s foil, behaving like the young lady that Annie is supposed to be. Annie’s growing disgust with Gwen’s attitudes and plans emphasizes how far apart the two girls grow, especially as Annie grows disillusioned by society. When Gwen suggests that Annie marry her brother, this alienates Annie even more, as she realizes that even Gwen does not understand her. Like a “proper” young lady, Gwen has begun to think of marriage with pleasure, while Annie is repelled by the very thought. Like Annie’s mother, Gwen loves Annie but does not share her rebelliousness, so Annie allows Gwen to disappear from her life. Gwen’s admission that she is engaged shows Annie how completely inculcated Gwen has become within the system of English values, while Annie wants nothing more than to leave them behind.