At one point in history, Imperial Britain spanned the globe- so much so that it was once wildly proclaimed that the "the Sun never sets on the British empire." However, that isn’t to say that discontent never brewed. Jamaica Kincaid’s, Annie John, follows the coming-of-age story of a girl, Annie in Antigua, a former British colony, who, over the course of the novel, takes steps to break away from her mother and the underlying British culture once she realizes that it is within her best interest to break free. Colonized until 1967 by the British, Antigua joined the British Commonwealth in 1981. With the story set in the 1950’s, Annie John is set within the colonial period. A point of contention within this novel, is the relationship between the Western and Island cultures- particularly, the way that the two cultures intermingle with one another. Often times, within the theory of colonialism, the identity of the ruling culture- the ones who colonized, was the identity of whomever was colonized. However, through the use of gender, the role of information in society, obdeah, and the British school system, we see that this projected image of a ‘ruling culture,’ is not necessarily true in Annie John- and there is an interesting blend of both western and island cultures. Annie's mother is a clever and beautiful woman whom we see that Annie deeply esteems and loves. Interestingly enough, her mother is also a key character in this bildungsroman. We see this, in that she is representative of the British culture, in the sense that we see her trying to instill within Annie, the standards and practices of it (Kincaid, 15). Annie’s mother accepts the information she passes on and does not ‘rock the boat.’ For instance, she does not inquire about the relationships her spouse has with other women, and we see that Annie’s mother is affected by the Island culture, in that she seeks help from the obeah practitioners, so that she may protect her and Annie from any curses that may be placed upon them by these women (Kincaid, 17). Obeah being a spiritual practice that involves sorcery and herbs that can be used to help or curse others. We see here that while her mother has been influenced by the Western culture, she also has a firm grip on Island culture, which serves to create a type of Antiguan dual identity. We see again that Annie’s mother is able to adapt to the duality of the Antiguan culture when Annie becomes ill, and her mother, in seeking treatment, confers with an obeah (Kincaid, 117) in addition to a Westernized physician, (Kincaid, 110) giving Annie the medicati