Annis Lovell
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#1: Annis Lovell Author: Josie, Location: London PostPosted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:08 am

Please discuss Annis here...

 

#2:  Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:37 am

Lisa_T should really kick this one off...

 

#3:  Author: Catrin, Location: Wirral (holidays), Oxford (term) PostPosted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:11 pm

I assume Island is really badly cut in paperback because as far as I recall it we heard almost nothing about Annis until she ran away, which was totally out of the blue! Therefore I am somewhat mystified by her, and can't really have an opinion Sad

 

#4:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:52 pm

If I remember correctly, she ran away because she was unhappy, right? I wish they had given more reasons for why she ran away.

 

#5:  Author: joelle, Location: lancashire, england PostPosted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:22 pm

yea she had a bad home life-her mother died when she was young and her father who she had loved had disappeared (i think on a boat) and she was living with an aunt who was not very nice to her. she wasnt happy at cs and behaved badly to try and get sent away.
ive only read the paperback and that must be edited because you hardly see anything of her till she disappears. love the ending though its a big coincedence

 

#6:  Author: jennifer, Location: Sunny California PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 12:48 am

There's not much difference between the two editions.

She appears at the beginning - the first time we see her in any of the books - swearing she'll get herself expelled. Then she's rude, and is punished, and finally repents, and then her form discusses her extentsively, with back story. Then there's the letter/running away sequence, so she does get a good bit of the book.

I think her reasons for running away are better than most of the other girls who take off. She about 16 - so old enough to have a good idea what's going on. Her father is dead, she's been taken away from a family that cares for her, and been forbidden from seeing them, and her aunt and only guardian resents the imposition of taking care of Annis, and doesn't hesitate to let her know how unwanted she is.

Quote:

I have undertaken to provide your clothes and holidays until you are of age, and though this means that I have to sacrifice many little pleasures and luxuries I should like, I am very pleased to do so much for you. But once your training ends, you must stand on your own feet. You cannot expect me to support you any longer.




and later

Quote:


When you come home for your holidays, I hope to see you show your gratitude for all I am doing for you by being pleasant, obliging, and helpful. In that case, we may hope for a happy time together. I am not very well just now, and should be glad of help in many ways. Of course, if you behave as you have done during the past year, you cannot expect me to be pleased with you, nor to show pleasure in having you with me.

...

Then, perhaps, I may be able to forget the shocking ingratitude your letter shows.



For a sensitive, proud young woman, running off to earn her living on her own would seem like a good idea after treatment like that. And then, it turns out that she had been appropriating Annis's money for her own ends!

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#7:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:02 am

I wish I could tell the guardian exactly what I think of her.

 

#8:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:45 pm

I felt Annis was well introduced before she ran away - she comes across as a real character to me with her rebellion and moods, but also the ability to be distracted by something that attracts her attention - like Kester Bellever and Cherry Christie when she's on the ferry and to feel empathy for Cherry.

If she had been brought up in a loving home - perhaps with those friends she wanted to stay with instead of her aunt, I think she wouldn't have been a 'problem pupil' at all. I can completely understand why she ran away. And I'm so pleased for her when her father comes back.

I do like the way Tom sees there's more going on than the others in their form do.

She later becomes games prefect/deputy games prefect doesn't she?

Liz

 

#9:  Author: Changnoi, Location: New Mexico, USA PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 2:29 pm

I always felt that Annis was over-reacting. Yes, her aunt tells her in a somewhat self-sacrificing way that she is paying for Annis. OK. My mother told me millions of times over exactly how much she was paying for my braces, my education, my clothes, my cello lessons, my driving education...

No, it's not fun and perhaps it isn't nice. But it is often true that parents/guardians pay a lot for their children's welfare, and, in my house at any rate, I was reminded of it often to encourage me to feel appropriately grateful and humble. It also doesn't seem terribly different than what other CS characters do. Gay's Auntie, for example, works herself to death to provide for Gay, and says in a letter something to the extent of "We have always lived so quietly so that I could save money so that you can get an education". The difference to me is that Auntie is always presented as a sympathetic character whereas, from the beginning, we are supposed to hate Miss Bain.

The other "bad thing" that Miss Bain does is to disapprove of Annis' friends. Again...I don't really see the justification for why we should hate Miss Bain for this. We don't get any objective evidence of whether or not they're rude and unladylike; we just know that EBD thinks Miss Bain is talking through her hat.

I do have one related question: Annis states that her aunt wants her to have a "decent screw and holidays". I know that "decent screw" obviously has a different meaning than what it does now, but what, exactly, does it refer to? Decent salary? Decent work situation (room, board, etc.)? Generally a decent time?


Chang

 

#10:  Author: BethC, Location: Worcester, UK PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 8:46 pm

This one's come up in discussion elsewhere, and I think the consensus was that it meant a decent salary.

 

#11:  Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:52 pm

Changnoi wrote:
Gay's Auntie, for example, works herself to death to provide for Gay, and says in a letter something to the extent of "We have always lived so quietly so that I could save money so that you can get an education". The difference to me is that Auntie is always presented as a sympathetic character whereas, from the beginning, we are supposed to hate Miss Bain.

I do have one related question: Annis states that her aunt wants her to have a "decent screw and holidays".
Chang


Screw was slang for salary so in this case it meant a decent wage.

It was actually Jacynth's aunt in Gay from China.

Yes, Chang, some of what you say is correct but there are different ways of saying things, especially to a bereaved child. Your family obviously wanted to encourage you to do well and so did Jacynth's aunt but Miss Bain (who wasn't actually Annis's aunt, if I remember but some relation of her father) was very discouraging. She had also taken Annis from the people her father had left her with when he went to sea which made Annis dislike her even more as she felt that Aunt Margaret was upsetting her father's arrangements without good reason. Also Aunt Margaret was a whinger, pretending to be ill for sympathy. She had Annis running after like an unpaid slave, and she didn't give her a settled home in the holidays but wandered from one guest house to another. She also made Annis feel unwanted and unloved which Jacynth's Aunt never did.

Of course we also dislike Miss Bain even more when we discover she has been stealing the money Annis's father left her.

I wish we had seen the book Annis joined the school in, but we are given a good portrayal of her as a teenager, moody, bereaved unloved and unwanted by the person left in parental care for her. I am not surprised she ran away - I'd have done the same myself at that age if my guardian had treated me the way Annis was treated. There was a lot of good in Annis, the way she was with Cherry and her plan was very immature but you can see how she thought of it. It is a good thing her dad came back when he did or she could have grown up a very warped character.

 

#12:  Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 2:13 am

LizB wrote:
She later becomes games prefect/deputy games prefect doesn't she?


Tom or Annis? Tom becomes Hobbies Prefect in Shocks. Annis is Games Prefect in Barbara and Does It Again.

 

#13:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 7:57 am

It was Annis I meant - thanks KB

Liz

 

#14:  Author: Karry,  PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 11:42 am

Changnoi said
Quote:
her aunt tells her in a somewhat self-sacrificing way that she is paying for Annis. OK. My mother told me millions of times over exactly how much she was paying for my braces, my education, my clothes, my cello lessons, my driving education...


I think the point is that it actually Annis's own money, left for her upbringing and future, rather than the Aunt's. The money was to be safeguarded, not spent on the Aunt!

 

#15:  Author: Changnoi, Location: New Mexico, USA PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 2:25 pm

Karry wrote:
Changnoi said
Quote:
her aunt tells her in a somewhat self-sacrificing way that she is paying for Annis. OK. My mother told me millions of times over exactly how much she was paying for my braces, my education, my clothes, my cello lessons, my driving education...


I think the point is that it actually Annis's own money, left for her upbringing and future, rather than the Aunt's. The money was to be safeguarded, not spent on the Aunt!


I know this, and I know that the Aunt (or whatever) is a generally bad person. But I'm not sure that Annis ever knows until perhaps the end that the Aunt is misappropriating funds. Annis only knows that the Aunt pays money for her and doesn't like her friends. My point was that this seemed to be a fairly insubstantial reason to run away.

I do agree with the earlier post suggesting that Aunt is not at all sensitive to Annis's bereavement. But Annis, until Joey (or someone) asks her what she would like most, doesn't really acknowledge how much she misses her father except perhaps--I don't have the book in front of me--to compare him with Aunt regarding her friends. The motivations for Annis running away that EBD has written seem primarily to be the money (Aunt sounding self-sacrificing about it) and the friends. There definitely could be more going on behind the scenes, but, to my memory, this was what was portrayed in the text.

Chang

 

#16:  Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 11:02 pm

Changnoi wrote:
But Annis, until Joey (or someone) asks her what she would like most, doesn't really acknowledge how much she misses her father


I think Annis must at least occasionally mention her feelings about her father, because even Tom makes this remark to the Prefects:

“Jolly sure they don’t.” Tom was definite about this. She came to a sudden stop, and glanced round the group. “You know, what I think is that inside her Annis feels that the way her blinking aunt has behaved—taking her away from the Maples, and saying all she has said about them to Annis and outsiders, too—makes the kid feel that Mrs. Bain is sort of criticising her father. Annis is a complete ass, but she thinks a lot of her father, and that sort of thing makes her see red. I don’t blame her, either. I’d see red myself if anyone did that to me.”

And this later:

What hurt her most was the implied slur on her father’s memory. Annis had known comparatively little ofhim, but they had loved each other dearly, and she had suffered badly when she was told by motherly Mrs. Maples that it was feared he and his ship had gone down in the bitter waters off Cape Horn. She had said little, and she never mentioned him if she could help it; but she brooded on the change his loss had made in her life, and this had helped to warp a character always difficult.

And Annis' reason for running away is much more substantial than that of many other girls in the series. I mean, really - running away to see waterfalls?

 

#17:  Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 2:22 pm

Thanks KB that was the part I was refering to but couldn't remember it off hand.

Bad enough that the aunt gave Annis her opinion of her friends but even worse that she gave it to outsiders.

 

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