Bernard Rodgers 'Criticism Of Jamaica Kincaid's Novel Annie John'

In Bernard Rodgers’ criticism of Jamaica Kincaid’s novel, Annie John, he points out the relationship Annie had with her mother growing up. He mentions how in the beginning, Annie loved being with her mother and doing things with her like taking baths, shopping, cooking, and just following her around and observing the things she did all day (Rodgers). Also, Rodgers reveals the change that took place in the relationship between Annie and her mother when she became an adolescent, around the age of twelve. His evaluation of this novel relates to the theme of mother-daughter relationships. Annie first noticed a change in the way she was treated by her mother when she turned twelve years old. While she and her mother were out buying fabric for a new dress, she wanted to get the same fabric as her mother, like always. However, this time, Annie’s mother suggested that they get different fabrics and told her, “You just cannot go
Annie found that she only wanted to do things opposite of what her mother would have liked. For example, she said that “Perhaps it had stuck in my mind that once my mother said to me, ‘I am so glad you are not one of those girls who likes to play marbles,’ and perhaps because I had to do exactly the opposite of whatever she desired of me, I now played and played at marbles in a way that I had never done anything” (61). Another relation between Rodgers’ criticism and this theme is the two faces Annie and her mother have. In the novel, Annie stated that “My mother and I each soon grew two faces: one for my father and the rest of the world, and one for us when we found ourselves alone with each other” (87). They could not stand being together anymore because they had grown so far apart over the past four years and no longer agree on most