Ten-year-old Annie John, who grew up and lived in Antigua, embarks on an inner journey from a naive little girl to a woman overcoming various obstacles. She tries to be more comfortable with her mother and create a closer bond despite the big age difference between her and her mother. The story she wrote and presented in class about her mother swimming and drawing patterns on a rock far from shore. The story shows a common aspect of childhood; we rely a lot on parents. The day will come when the mother will have to leave with all her teaching and the child will have to confront reality. Annie's feeling changes as she grows up and becomes an independent woman. The novel reflects this change through symbolism representing Annie's development from a child to an independent woman. It was the first day of a new term at Annie's school and her class was assigned what Miss Nelson calls an autobiographical essay. Listening to her classmates' story, Annie realizes that her essay was different from the others, as she mentions: "I started to wonder what I was wettest because it was the opposite playful and it was the opposite of imaginative” (page 41). .Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid). His story is sincere until the last part. In Annie's autobiographical essay, Annie and her mother go to Rat Island on Sunday after the churn to bathe in the sea. The Sea is a recommended remedy for strengthening her weak lunges. They bathed without swimming clothes because it was medicine rather than pleasure. She was a superior swimming mother, but Annie was intimidated by the water and thought she was drowning when the water only rose to her knees. The only way she got into the water was on her mother's back....... middle of paper...... what we now call America while trying to find India. The first two beads Annie received came from some oats her mother found. These two marbles and the rest of the marbles that Annie collects from the children at school represent the new world she is creating but a world that her mother does not like. Annie's world changes as she spends time with the Red Girl who led her to play marbles. The marbles give a different opinion on the world and see the world beyond the contours of his mother and his teacher. Playing marbles opened the door to another world, a world her mother doesn't want her to have. Jamaica Kincaid uses a lot of symbolism that shows how Annie evolves from a little girl who is very dependent on her mother to an independent woman who makes decisions about herself. own. Throughout the book, she learns to accept the changes she was afraid of At the beginning of the book.