Study Questions and Suggested Essay Topics
Study Questions
What issue is crucial in the breakdown of the relationship between Annie and her mother? What steps take place as it deteriorates?
Discuss Annie's relationship with Gwen. How does it begin and why does it change?
Describe Annie's school and the kind of education that she receives? What type of outlook on the world does her education provide her?
Suggested Essay Topics
Why is Annie so eager to leave Antigua at the end of the novel?
Detail Mrs. John's hopes and fears for Annie's future? Do they conflict with Annie's? Do you think that Mrs. John is a sympathetic character?
Annie's father is present throughout the novel, but plays a secondary role to Annie's mother. Discuss his importance.
Why does Annie become so attracted to the Red Girl? What is it in the Red Girl's life that Annie longs for and lacks?
Annie suffers a breakdown in Chapter Seven so that she is bed ridden for close to three months. Why does this happen? Discuss the events leading up to her breakdown and the way that she is changed after it.
Annie's mother fled Dominica at the age of sixteen to arrive in Antigua. Why did she do this? What the significance of her flight to a new island and of her family?
