Selections from Annie John

The passage entitled â€Å"Selections from Annie John† was written by Jamaica Kincaid. In this extract it tells of the life of a young girl and her relationship with her mother. It begins with her stating clearly how being with her mother was an important part of her life. This was followed by narrating the things they did together. She would help her admirable mother to cook and clean. She then goes into detail of what and how things were done in regards to helping her mother with the cooking and cleaning. In the following paragraph she vividly describes her mother and briefly mentions her father. As the narrator is with her mother she tells of how they would spend time by her mother telling her stories of her past. During this past time is where the daughter showed her mother the most affection by leaning on her mother and sniffing her and gazing at her mothers’ beauty. She truly loved her mother for all that she was. As the excerpt progresses the narrator becomes a little older and goes through puberty. During this stage she begins to see new sides of her mother and herself; which, to the narrator were not good sides at all. She didn’t recognize the response she got from her mother as the same woman she grew up loving. Ultimately one day she was confronted by her mother one day coming home late from school. She tried to lie and her mother knew the truth and exposed it. Vicious words were exchanged and in the end this love she had for her mother as a youth has slowly been deteriorated. Her mother ends her rebellious thoughts with a comment that makes the narrator go deep into thought and realises that there is going to be a gap between her and her mother after this day. This extract is a very good example of difficult it is to maintain relationships with parents. I clearly agree with Kincaid’s idea. Her idea shows how easy it is to admire and have good relationship with your parents for years and how one moment can destroy all that was built. All forms of admiration you can have are presented in the passage. The description of the bond between the persona and the mother seems to be unbreakable. How Kincaid presents the theme is very effective. Who would have thought after all the praise of her mother and time with her it would end in that way. It was a shocker. It allowed me to feel bad for the young girl. This also shows how a young person’s disrespect to a parent can negatively impact the way the parent looks at the child. When the daughter said â€Å" well like father like son. Like mother like daughter. † If it wasn’t for that act of disrespect her mother would have probably scolded her and tell her how to do right. After that if I was a parent I wouldn’t even care about helping that child anymore. A lot of young people who are going through puberty think they have already â€Å"made it† and become very disrespectful at times. This can be seen in any teen. I can say this because I was the same way. For every negative comment towards me, was a response to justify or nullify what was said. It’s normal for teens to be rebellious during this maturity stage. This was another bonus for Kincaid to have me on her side. This situation more than likely happens every day. It’s real. On the other hand it also shows how each one of us will mature and we will be treated differently. Not only Kincaid’s passage shows the difficulty in maintaining relationships with parents but it is also an eye opener to young adults as to why we were treated like that at our age. We must learn that as we get older we change and we must act accordingly. This is another serious factor that Kincaid presents. The changes in youth during their adolescence age when these changes occur to the body are quite serious for young children. They don’t know what to do or how to treat these changes. I am fortunate enough to be a boy so my changes weren’t anything too drastic to get help with. However for young girls they have to worry about a lot and as Kincaid present this it is an issue I think is very important for girls to be taught to expect and treat with care. This may also be a reason as to why the subject of Kincaid passage acted in such a manner. Over all the issue kincaids passage presents are all relevant and informative if you read to take what is occurring into consideration.