SOURCE: Timothy, Helen Pyne. “Adolescent Rebellion and Gender Relations in At the Bottom of the River and Annie John.” In Caribbean Women Writers: Essays from the First International Conference, edited by Selwyn R. Cudjoe, pp. 233-42. Wellesley, MA: Calaloux Publications, 1990.

In the following essay, Timothy finds parallels in the mother-daughter relationship found in “At the Bottom of the River” and Kincaid's novel Annie John.

Perhaps the most puzzling moments in Jamaica Kincaid's “At the Bottom of the River” and Annie John are those involving the emotional break between the mother and daughter and the violence of the daughter's response to her mother after that break. In the early stages of the narrative, Kincaid, chronicling the intense emotional bond in which they are wrapped, is at pains to detail the warmly affectionate upbringing Annie received from her mother. To the child the relationship was so satisfying that the father...