Annie John Journal Questions

AP LitAnnie John

1. As you read, keep in mind the aspects of post-colonialism we discussed in class.  Make note of important details, questions, or literary devices that connect to those ideas.

2. How is the parent-child struggle between power and lack of power extended to other conflicts in the novel?  Make note of the different places you see struggle for power, the ways it is achieved, lost, etc.  Who has the power and who does not?

3. How does identity work in this novel?  When does Annie discover she has an identity separate from her mother?  How does she assert it?  What implications does Kincaid’s choice to use a bildungsroman have on the novel as a whole?

4. As Kincaid tells the story, she relates it as an expulsion from Paradise.  What was the original expulsion from Paradise?  Who was expelled and why?  What do the references to Lucifer and Paradise Lost indicate to you?

5. Make note of the many references to sexuality.  How do these details contribute to Kincaid’s point?

6. By the end of the book, Annie has rejected every aspect of her home and childhood:  “As I was lying there my heart could have burst open with joy at the thought of never having to see any of it again.”  Is this sort of rejection an inevitable part of growing up?  Is Annie’s hostility and rejection unusually extreme?  If so, why?


COME TO CLASS HAVING PUT THOUGHT INTO ALL OF THE QUESTIONS.  COME WITH SPECIFIC QUESTIONS OR PARTS OF YOUR JOURNAL TO DISCUSS.  KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO GET FROM CLASS DISCUSSION IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THIS NOVEL.