Requiem for a Dream Elisabeth Ho

In the novel Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid, the title character faces the reality that she must grow up, detach from her parents, and establish an identity independent from that of her mother’s -- that the beautiful childhood she once had cannot and will not last forever. Especially in the chapter “The Long Rain,” Annie’s character undergoes an epiphany that lets her take the first real step toward adulthood. Flashbacks and first-person narrative are used to create a surrealist scenario, which creates a recurring motif on Annie’s difficulty in differentiating between dreams and reality. This is one of the main things that define Annie’s character and her constant drawing away from the prospect of having to grow up. The first-person narrative storytelling also maximizes the reader’s understanding of Annie’s character and how she is evaluating her childhood with a newfound bias. This warped view of her childhood was what eventually drove Annie to have an equally warped perspective on adulthood. The use of dramatic diction, personification, and symbolism also figuratively portrays Annie’s unconscious decision in finally accepting the fact that her childhood has ended and defining her own separate identity.

Kincaid uses...