Examples Of Volatile Loyalties In Annie John

Throughout the novel Annie John, by Jamaica Kincaid the main protagonist constantly engages in volatile loyalties. Beginning in Antigua, Annie John grows up in this city, building a strong and powerful relationship based on trust with her mother during her childhood years. As time passes, Annie begins to feel the tensions between her mother and herself, noticing that the maternal love she used to receiving was slowly fading away. As Annie starts school, she turns to the creation of strong, yet interchangeable relationships with girls that are her age level so she could replace the relationship with her mother. Annie's loyalties to various girls in the novel in one common motif that is repeatedly present throughout the book. One could define volatile as liable to change rapidly and without anyone knowing about it, which describes the many friendships Annie John had with various girls, like Gwen and Red Girl. This becomes a key factor in her life because the many friendships Annie creates become replaced and substituted for the past relationships. The reason these loyalties are so volatile is because she cannot trust someone so easily and she has become independent throughout the novel, realizing that she doesn't need anyone in order to become her own self. In the beginning of the novel, the author's constant use of imaginary best described the closeness between Annie John and her mother. For example, the baths were described so vividly to show their relationship growing, as her mom was always there for her helping her out. Annie John's volatile loyalties to
various girls began when her mother started to take care of Annie less, sometimes ignoring her problem and focusing on it, and even isolating her because she doesn't receive the attention her father does in chapter 2. Once Annie starts school, she makes friends with a girl named Gwen. According to the novel on page 42 of chapter 3 Annie says, “Gwen and I were soon inseparable. If you saw one, you saw the other.” This shows how tight their bond is and how it's almost impossible to break it. After the constant lack of attention and the lie that her mother tells her about what is her food, Annie begins to loose trust. Gwen becomes an effort to mollify the pain she feels over being betrayed by her mother. Later in the novel, Annie befriends The Red Girl, who lives in a world differently structured than Annie's. The Red Girl offers Annie a sense of self that Annie is not able to learn about in school, cause her friends are following the or from her mother who keeps growing apart from her daughter. By spending time with her, Annie learns the possibilities that lie apart from her mother's dominion. After The Red Girl leaves town,, Annie tries to become close with Gwen again, but it is not the same because Gwen is not the rebellious girl because she is not herself; instead she follows society standards. Annie doesn't enjoy that. As seen in chapter 8, page 137, where she states that Gwen is all grown up now has,”...degenerated into complete silliness,” and when , “ we parted, I didn't look back.” Annie found it is silly that her friends was now about to settle down and get married, a topic which she I strongly dismissive off. This demonstrates the quick change in her friendship, realizing that she should stop relying on other other people to help her become an mature person. She is the one who needed to realize and learn that the shift from immature to mature is something she had to work on herself to become whoever she desires in the new world she is traveling to. To sum it up, throughout her childhood, the protagonist would always look for something that could fill up absences of the love of maternal, instead the constant change in friends made her realize that she could stay in Antigua to become like Gwen, and instead she could become the rebel like The Red Girl, who lived by her own.
These hits of losing the love from mother and friend drove her to where she is
now.