Discuss the ways in which Jamaica Kincaid explores Annie's relationship with her mother in the first two chapters
Publié le 18/02/2014
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parents have trouble expressing their parental affection especially physically either because the parent is
imposing a kind of distance between him and the child, or simply because he is not comfortable being involved
in this type of contact.
From this part, love and affection are explicitly expressed in this: Annie's mother is very
lovable and tactile with her daughter.
During the early stages of childhood, children are very dependent of
affection and a mother's love is also a first step to love since, at this time it is the only love they are introduced
to.
What we can also observe is that her mother is very protective of Annie"(...) she would suddenly grab
me”, especially when they both face the numerous women with whom her father has a certain amount of
children with, making Annie an illegitimate child.
These women are angry at the fact that her father chose her
mother and not any of them so they attack them in a form at getting back at Annie's mother.
At the beginning of the novel, Annie and her mother live in perfect harmony which is such that she considers it
as “paradise”. "It was such a paradise I lived in", paradise symbolizes simplicity and a sense of
eternal peace and when speaking of it, we obviously think of the religious connotation concerning the Garden
of Eden.
In the Garden, Adam and Eve lived in harmony until they met the snake that tempted them with the
Forbidden Fruit.
Once they've eaten the Fruit, God is furious and chases them away from the Garden.
They then
realize that they are naked and are ashamed about this nudity.
This religious story completely relates to the
novel because as Annie's relationship with her mother deteriorates, she becomes much more concerned about
her body up to the point where she feels ashamed and hates it.
This image of paradise she has in mind is completely shattered from the moment her mother informs her that
once she becomes an adult she will live in her own home, get married and basically become a housewife.
In
other words, she's going to have to live her own life without her mother.
This information breaks Annie's
heart "That the day might actually come when we would live apart I had never believed.
My throat hurt from the
tears I held bottled up tight inside”.
The idea of her being separated from her mother didn't even occur to
her mind as she is used to always being with her.
However, right after this “revelation”, she feels
neutral and claims that it “didn't last very long”.
When she first began to be insolent with her mother, it is the stepping stone of a rocky relationship with her; the.
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