Many writers use symbols to help them to develop a character or plot, and to make the narrative plot more vivid. The use of symbolism in a story can help the writer to explain a situation and feeling without the use of many words. In the coming of age novel, "Annie John" by Jamaica Kincaid, the use of symbolism is clearly visible throughout the book, and water appears as a symbolic element in multiple ways; to symbolize union or connection, healing, and transformation. Water is known to have healing and nourishing properties; it connects people and objects when it touches them simultaneously, and transforms by washing away the old and unneeded, and nourishing new growth.
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Annie loves and admires her mother. As she reaches the age of eleven, the closeness of the relationship is demonstrated by the bathing ritual they enjoy together. Jamaica Kincaid uses water to illustrate femininity and union between mother and daughter. For example, the part that shows a strong connection that exists between a mother and her daughter: My mother and I often took a bath together. Sometimes it was just a plain bath, which didn't take very long. Other times, it was a special bath in which the barks and flowers of many different trees, together with all sorts of oils, were boiled in the same large cauldron. We would then sit in this bath in a darkened room with a strange-smelling candle burning away. As we sat in this bath, my mother would bathe different parts of my body; then she would do the same to herself. (p. 14).
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During pregnancy water play a very important role to unify mother and daughter and at the same time, water protects the fetus. In the time that they were taking a bath the water plays the same role of unifying Annie and her mother. In this scene, Annie is eleven years old and water symbolizes Annie's realization that she is her own person with her mother's support and nurturance but at same time she feels a strong love for her mother as a separate entity or person.