Annie John Character Analysis Essay

Annie John has a fixed mindset because her self worth is a direct reflection of how she sees herself compared to others. Annie goes to an all-girls school and is one of the smartest students in her class. She is at school when she explains, “It was Ms. Edwards way to ask one of us a question the answer to which she was sure the girl would not know and then put the same question to another girl who she was sure would know the answer… Many times I heard my exact words repeated over and over again, and I liked it” (75). Annie is influenced by Ms. Edwards’ fixed mindset classroom. This is shown when she shares that she “I liked it”. For Annie, it is not enough to know that she has the correct answer, she needs others to be aware that she is right.

In one example of this, Annie describes, “As if to save myself, I turned to her and said, ‘Well like father like son, like mother like daughter’” (102). When Annie knows she is making the wrong decision, she justifies it by telling herself others are doing the same, which makes it acceptable for her standards. She only feels confident when she does equal or better than others. In this case, she is doing the same as others which is okay for her as long is she is not doing worse- she has no self worth without seeing how others are doing. Earlier in the book, Annie had just recently joined a new school and she has gone from feeling like an outsider to having many friends and feeling popular and loved. She is reflecting on her experience and describes, “If sometimes I stood away from myself and took a good look at who I had become [since switching schools], I couldn’t be more surprised about what I saw. But since who I had become earned me the love and devotion of Gwen and the other girls, I was only egged on to find new and better ways to entertain them” (49). Annie explains that she doesn’t feel like herself, but that is fine because her friends like who she