Annie John | Annie John

At a glance:

Author: Elaine Potter Richardson
First Published: 1985
Type of Plot: Autobiographical
Time of Work: The 1950’s and the early 1960’s
Setting: Antigua, the West Indies
Principal Characters: Annie Victoria John, Annie John, Alexander John, Gwen, The Red Girl, Ma Chess
Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman, Domestic realism
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: Antigua, West Indies

Narrated exclusively by the fifteen-year-old, first-person protagonist, Annie John explores the inseparable bond between mother and daughter as it provides both the illusion of security and the movement toward psychological separation. Influenced greatly by autobiographical elements, the novel traces Annie’s coming of age, from her innocent adoration of her mother, who has the same name, through her rejection of her mother in the effort to establish her own individual identity, to her departure from home, the island of Antigua in the West Indies. Annie’s...

Annie John | Annie John

At a glance:

The Novel

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