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At a glance:
- Author: Jamaica Kincaid
- First Published: 1985
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: Mid-l950’s to mid-1960’s
- Setting: Antigua, West Indies
- Characters: Annie John, Annie’s mother, Annie’s father, Gweneth Joseph, Ma Chess, The Red Girl
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman, Domestic realism, Novel
- Subjects: 1950's, African Americans, Girls, Maturation or coming of age, 1960's, Child rearing or parenting, Children, Mothers, Parents and children, Caribbean, Adolescence, Blacks, Colonialism, Colonies or colonization, Teenagers
- Locales: Central America and West Indies, Antigua and Barbuda
The Novel
Jamaica Kincaid wrote Annie John shortly after the publication of At the Bottom of the River (1983), a volume of short stories. Though very different in tone and style from her first book, Annie John deals with much of the same material. Where the writing in At the Bottom of the River is ornately textured and impressionistic, however, Annie John adheres much more closely to the conventions of realism. The result is that the two books read as companion volumes. At the Bottom of the River is a highly subjective...
(The entire page is 3149 words.)
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Popular Questions
See all »- What is the use for quotes for the book Annie John?
- In "Annie John", if Annie loves Sonia, why does she feel compelled to make her suffer? Chapter 1
- Why does Annie think it is shameful for Sonia that her mother has died and left her alone in the world? Chapter 1 I don't see why...
- In Annie John, why does Annie begin to go to funerals? Why is she so eager to attend the funeral of the humpbacked girl?
- In Chapter 4 of 'Annie John', why does Annie steal things? Do you think she has any sense of guilt about her actions?
