Lienation From The Mother In China And John Analysis

In contrast to Mr John, Mrs John at sixteen left her home on Dominica and came to Antigua, after quarreling with her father. It shows that the Caribbean women are stronger than their men. However, after marriage, women, generally, stayed at home and brought their children up. Likewise, Mrs John concentrates on her household, as well as on Annie’s upbringing and education. In addition, many critics comment that Annie’s difficult relationship with her mother represents the relationship between colonial Antigua and England. LeSeur argues:
[A]lienation from the mother becomes a metaphor for a young woman’s alienation from an island culture that has been completely dominated by the imperialistic power of England. [...] Kincaid focuses intensely
What a beautiful long neck, and long plaited hair, which she pinned up around the crown of her head” (Annie 18-19). Mrs John cherishes England and its people; she likes their culture and wants Annie to give their best manner. At the beginning of the novel, Annie is powerless in front of her mother. However, as Annie grows up, she acts in her own interests. She begins to fight against her mother and achieves more freedom. Likewise, Antigua became independence from Britain colonialism. Additionally, Kincaid almost always attaches to her works the themes of colonialism, imperialism, and colonial education. These themes appear mostly in her texts as “powerful mother and powerless daughter” (???). Like Kincaid, Annie criticizes and rebels against her
Sometimes at night, when I would feel that I was all locked up in the warm falling soot and could not find my way out, Ma Chess would come into my bed with me and stay until I was myself – whatever that had come to be by then – again. I would lie on my side, curled up like a little comma, and Ma Chess would lie next to me, curled up like a bigger comma, into which I fit (125-126).
Ma Chess does all things that Annie’s mother used to do: “Ma Chess fed me my food, coaxing me to take mouthful after mouthful. She bathed me and changed my clothes and sheets” (126). After recovering, Annie feels her as another person; it signifies a rebirth for her. She feels, “I don’t see them now the way I used to, and I don’t love them now the way I used to” (133). Her changes represent that she is ready to say goodbye to her