Role of Father in Annie John and Drown - Book Report/Review Example

Role of father in Annie John and Drown Afro-Caribbean Literature is comparatively new. It was only in the '60s that the Caribbean writers saw the means to record their individual identity and the problems of the community. Their works are closely related to the political, social and physical environment of the islands. Many of the Caribbean writers have been educated abroad and continued to live there, returning once in a while to their homelands. All this has built up a sense of dislocation, a historical void, lack of a common indigenous culture that has no clarity of tradition. Consequently, all of them see alienation as a universal human condition and perceive it through varying levels of consciousness. Such themes are remarkably played out in the works of two most popular post-colonial writers, Jamaica Kincaid and Junot D'az. One can make an interesting discovery while analyzing Kincaid's Annie John and D'az's Drown against the historical backdrop of colonization and Civil Rights Movement - the marginalized role of the father figure. Kincaid's Annie John is a bildungsroman built around a woman protagonist whereas D'az's Drown is a collection of ten short stories focusing on the survival of young adolescent male protagonists. In Kincaid's work, we happen to see a father figure, even though he always exists on the periphery. On the other hand, Drown is marked by almost complete absence of fathers in the lives of their protagonists. Annie's father, Mr. Alexander John is portrayed as a civil and a rather harmless man. Although he exists on the fringes of the familial setup, he is not devoid of love and affection for his family. In fact when filtered through young Annie's consciousness, he comes across as a caring father, who built their house, the furniture within and also the spoon with which she eats. There are moments of tenderness and sympathy that little Annie experiences with her father. In the initial chapters of the novel, he is a part of Annie's prelapsarian paradise. Although he does not come to represent the ideal of manhood, his character is delineated sympathetically. Even when Annie mentions that her mother protects her in the streets, when many women with whom his father had slept were trying to harm them by setting bad spirits, she happens to mention her father only in relation to her mother. Her intention is to highlight her mother's extremely protective and concerned attitude towards her and not to assess or rebuke her father's sexual misconduct. This unconscious mention of her father's promiscuity however, brings to the reader's attention the unequal gender relations in a patriarchal society. This inequality is further magnified when juxtaposed against a later episode in the novel, when Annie's mother calls her a slut after she spots her standing with a group of boys. Unfortunately, Annie's mother is trying to indoctrinate her into the same patriarchal order by trying to feminize her. Even by the chance discovery of her parents in bed, Annie feels repugnance more towards her mother than her father. When Annie begins to view her mother resentfully, she also transfers the negativity to her father. This is indicated through these lines : "they were eating away as they talked, my father's false teeth making that clop-clop sound like a horse on a walk as he talked, my mother's mouth going up and down like a donkey's ' I was looking at them with a smile on my face but with a disgust in my heart". The father is now perceived as an outsider, trying to encroach upon her relationship with her mother. Annie shared a strong bonding with her mother, which could never be rivaled by what she felt for her father. He was never important to her emotionally. Towards the end, though she experiences conflicting emotions towards her parents, one can see that her father is supportive and takes care of her, while she gets delusional and bedridden. Finally, before her final moment of departure, she recollects the time spent with her father and feels nostalgic. Most families represented in Drown can be sharply contrasted with Annie John's family. Five out of ten stories fluctuate between abandonment and return of fathers. The rest are practically fatherless families. The number of single mothers through the collection is proof enough of the sexual irresponsibility of the men. The first sentence of Aguantando strikes the note of longing for an absent father - "I lived without a father for the first nine years of my life". The plight and the helplessness of the narrator is heightened when he says, "He had left for NuevaYork when I was four but since I couldn't remember a single moment with him I excused him from all nine years of my life" adding that "the only way I knew him was through the photographs my mom kept in a plastic sandwich bag under her bed". The young adolescents often delude themselves into waiting for their fathers to return but they seldom do. It is interesting to note that despite the absence of fathers, they continue to play instrumental roles in the lives of their children. In 'Fiesta 1980', though the father figure is surprisingly present, he represents the punishing patriarchy. He unabashedly "expected your undivided attention when you were getting your ass whupped", said Yunior. It is noted throughout the collection that father when present demands complete authority. The children are plagued by a perpetual fear of their violent temper. Papi enjoys the patriarchal privilege of being sexually involved outside marriage. This shameful example is meant to be emulated by other men of the family, even if it contradicts their compassionate temperament. In other words, the head of the family inculcates in them the nature of manhood. These inherently flawed notions of masculinity mislead the young boys into sexual debauchery and illicit drug peddling, eventually causing self-destruction. Despite the all-pervading gloom throughout the collection, the mature Yunior in Negocios tries to grapple with his present. In an attempt to bury his ghosts forever, he tries to trace his father's life and understand the reasons for his abandonment and betrayal. While indulging in self-introspection, he experiences a moment of clarity where he realizes his biggest mistake. He should have never mistaken his father's abuse for love. Very poignantly he reflects upon his innocent past - "I still wanted him to love me, something that never seemed strange or contradictory until years later, when he was out of our lives." A sojourn into the different worlds inhabited by protagonists of Annie John and Drown proves to be a genuine eye-opener. It can now be said that the father figure around which the familial structure is built, is measured in degrees of visibility or invisibility. Whereas in Annie John the father is always mentioned in relation to the mother, Drown draws its strength from absent fathers. Even though the father exists only on the periphery for Annie John, he is sensitively portrayed in the novel. The famous critic Chevannes says, "The men who stick to one partner, who acknowledge paternity and live up to their responsibility as fathers are the few exceptions'" Despite the differences in both the works, there exists a common patriarchal order in both, which makes the reader question the woman's place in it. Works Cited Cudjoe, Selwyn Reginald. Caribbean Women Writers: Essays from the First International Conference. Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1990 Kevane, Bridget A. Latino Literature in America. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003 Read More