Annie not only experiences the effects of colonization in her school environment, but she is also faced with such issues in her social life as she continues to assimilate into British colonial culture, loosing sight of her individual sense of self. The ever present reminder of slavery is a real fear throughout the novel as Jamaica Kincaid alludes to the objectivization of the human body. During Annie’s extended illness late in the novel, Annie recalls how “[…]my father carr[ied] me on his back, my mother walk[ed] by his side with her head bent down. The doctor, a man from England […] now examined me from head to foot, poking me here and there […]” (110). The use of the word “poked” to describe how the doctor examined Annie’s body during the examination likens her as well as other …show more content…
The actions of the doctor serve to reiterate the fact that Annie and the people of Antigua appear as lesser beings in the eyes of their British colonizers. The Antiguan people remain slaves to their oppressive colonizers, continually aiming to please them just as Annie aims to please the Red Girl as she “hardly ask[s] [herself] what use the Red Girl could have for these gifts; [she] hardly cared that she only glanced at them for a moment and then placed them in a pocket of her dirty dress.” (64) Annie John is unable to evoke true emotion from the Red Girl with these gifts, therefore, Annie continues to give the Red Girl gifts, expecting a new emotional response with no avail. The Red Girl has no use for the gifts that Annie gives her, however, just as the colonized countries continued to give Britain goods, as soon as the gift giving stops, a new emotion of anger and resentment is taken up by both the Red Girl and the British