Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Annie John
I think the most dynamic relationship within this book is that between Annie and her mother. When Annie was younger she adored her mother. Her mother included her in everything and she wanted to be just like her mother. This is seen when Annie says "I spent the day following my mother around and observing the way she did everything." "How important I felt to be with my mother." (15) As she began to get older I think Annie still wanted to be trapped in that time period but her mother knew that she could no longer baby her. I think Annie mistook her growing up as disapproval form her mother and it really dampened their relationship. "What a new thing this was fro me : my mother's back turned on me in disgust." (28) this rift in the relationship between Annie and her mother played a role in how Annie related to the girls she was "in love with" I think that Annie might have really adored Gwen and The Red Girl but a lot of thier time spent together was because she knew it was what her mother did not want her to be doing. "I had to do exactly the oppposite of whatever she desired of me" (61). Although Annie disliked her mother she still wanted to be in her good graces and she made sure that she did things that were pleasing to her mother. " Whenever I felt I was falling out of my mother's good graces I would let hersee me absorbed in these books;" Annie resented her mother for her perfection and her wanting Annie to be the same, and this was the ultimate reason for her leaving to England
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I like how you point out that Annie wanted to be stuck in that certain point of time because I feel that she did as well. When Annie became sick she went into a childlike state which in a way represented to me the time in Annie's life that she wished she was still living in. She was so happy with her life and the relationship that she had with her mother that in her sickness she wanted to go back to that time period. Her love for her mother was growing further apart and in a way this was her last chance to change the way she and her mothers relationship was. She loved her mother when she was constantly with her and never wanted to be parted from her. Looking at the reference to the autobiograpy that she wrote and the story of her mother teaching Annie how to swim, she really did have a close relation with her mother to a point were when she could not swim to meet her mother she became upset. The relationship between a young child and a mother versus a young lady and her mother is very different and is was executed perfectly in this book to show how relationships may fall apart.
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