Annie

            Annie's Mother
            
             Normally, parents would always try to give their children an affectionate upbringing. But sometimes they find it difficult to guide their children through the complex process of growing up, and so, they may fail to help their offspring during adolescence, for instance. This seems to be the situation in the story 'Annie John' by Jamaica Kincaid. Annie's mother was a doting parent who cared fondly for her daughter. However, she made Annie's first steps into adolescence unnecessarily abrupt, painful and unsettling for she became suddenly detached, refused to spend time with her daughter and started to disapprove of Annie.
            
             Undoubtedly, Annie John's mother was a very devoted parent: she showed great love for her daughter and paid a lot of attention to Annie. Many times, both, mother and daughter took baths together. In doing so, Annie's mother bathed affectionately different parts of Annie's body. She also included Annie in everything: she did the shopping, prepared lunch and supper and made the washing in the company of her daughter. Both were so attached to each other that Mrs. John even made sure Annie's dresses were made out of the same cloth as hers. Moreover, she tenderly told stories about Annie while cleaning Annie's trunk, which was full of souvenirs of Annie's childhood. These stories pleased Annie so much that she always yearned to clean the trunk with her mother... it was in "such paradise" that Annie lived.
            
             However, in seeing that her daughter was on the verge of becoming a young lady, Annie's mother became suddenly detached. Probably she wanted Annie to be less dependent on her, but in doing so, she disconcerted her daughter: she unexpectedly asserted that Annie was too old to wear dresses made out of the same cloth as her. She said, "It's time you had your own clothes. You just cannot go around the rest of your life loo...

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Annie. (2000, January 01). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 14:25, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/83538.html