During the time the British colonized the Caribbean, Kincaid wrote a semi-autobiography on the place of Antigua, where she was growing up. The character of Annie represents Kincaid's hatred because the pain she was subjected through, but only helping her learn its time to her to leave Antigua, to find independence on her own.
Growing up Kincaid faced the problem of losing her mother's attention after her baby brother's birth, leading to her having great hatred throughout her developing years. The book is based upon a young girls life, and losing her mother, in which she has affection for to her father. Though in the beginning their connection is very close, for example, taking bathes together, "My mother and I often took a bath together. Sometimes it was just a plain bath, which did not take very long. Other times it was a special bath in which the barks and flowers of many different, together with all sorts of oils, were boiled in the same large cauldron" (Kincaid