叙事者(Annie John)回忆自己十七岁要离开安地卡到英国念书的当日,文中提及当日起床时她对自己房间所拥有的种种回忆,并表达因看到父母两人年纪的婚姻悬疏而不想结婚的观感,以及对母亲一些虚伪行为的排斥.透过和父母亲一同步行到防波堤坐船到巴贝多转机的路程,叙事者回忆和各店家及一些熟人的所发生过的往事,诸如小时候帮母亲到商店买东西被母亲称赞、在裁缝店当学员时被挑剔,以及母亲因为眼科医师说喝胡萝卜汁对她视力有帮助而每天榨汁给她喝等诸多回忆.最后提到自己到达防波堤和双亲离别时的空虚感与对未来的向往,随著船行渐远,眼望著母亲与自己过往的一切也跟著远去.
Analysis
In the final chapter,Annie's attitude toward her self and her parents differ from her feelings throughout much of the book.Annie has accepted the idea that she is a separate person.In fact,her separateness now seems profoundly important and she looks forward to being far from her parents and her history so that she can develop it.When she wakes on the final morning,she sees that her house leaves no space for her identity because it is full with her parents' identities.Everything in the house defines them and not her.Annie needs to find a new place of her own in order to be free to articulate her self.For this reason,she feels nostalgic in her house,but also matter-of-fact about her need to leave it.
Annie's desire for separateness combined with her nostalgia lends her a dual consciousness throughout this chapter.At the breakfast table,her parents laugh with sadness at Annie's departure,while neighbors stop by to wish her luck on her adventure.Annie sees her parents' festive mood as evidence that they too believe that it is time for her to move on.Annie acts friendly on the surface,but feels a sense of disgust in her heart.When saying good-bye to Gwen,Annie thinks that Gwen has devolved into totally silliness,like a monkey.The fact that Gwen will soon be getting married while Annie fully shuns the notion of marriage,as she said to her parents,further underscores the difference between the two girls.
Annie walk through town with her parents again reinforces her ambiguous feelings about her departure.In every sight,she sees her past.But Annie wants to be free from a place where everyone assumes that they know her history.In leaving her familial ground,she will be able to carve out new possibilities.Annie's desire to redefine her history according to her own terms is an emotion shared by many colonial people whose history and identities were frequently defined by those who colonized them.Annie has been trained with a sound colonial education,but she leaves the island with clothing and jewelry blessed by a local obeah woman.Upon reaching England,she will be able to redefine herself as she sees fit without the dictates of others around her.
The sea again takes on a symbolic role in this chapter.When Annie first reaches the jetty,she fears falling through it into the blue-green water where the blue-green eels dwell.After a near panic at the concept of separation,she stills herself as she heads out to the boat and sees the clear crystalline ocean around her.With this view,the water appears to once again be a purifying liquid that will transform Annie as it carries her on her way to England.The final phrases of the novel use imagery that suggest the boat as another means of childbirth.Just as she left the salty amniotic fluid of her mother's womb,so too will the salt water of the ocean take her in a symbolic second birth to a new life separate from her mother's body.Annie's final moments with her mother are genuinely poignant,but as Annie departs it seems entirely correct that she should be going.She is a separate person and has finally accepted it.Through her symbolic voyage across the ocean,she will be born again and will come to begin anew in the new country of England.