Do you think that Anita and Me is a novel of friendship? Explain.(700-750 words each)
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Answer:
Nine-year-old Meena’s life changes radically when she develops a friendship with Anita Rutter, a local girl who is three years older than her. Although Meena initially benefits from spending time with Anita, she soon discovers that this older girl is more interested in dominating others than in establishing sincere, reciprocal relationships. It is only once Meena meets Robert, a young boy she falls in love with, that she realizes that genuinely meaningful relationships are based on mutual care and respect, not on self-interest and subordination. The novel thus shows that relationships fraught with competition and inequality can never be true friendships.
When Meena first gets to know Anita, she believes that the two of them have traits in common that predispose them to become friends. However, over time, Meena realizes that Anita will never treat her as an equal, and that her relationship with Anita will always involve bowing to the older girl’s desires. Meena initially describes her relationship with Anita as grounded in mutual recognition. Meena believes that Anita looks at her with “the recognition of a kindred spirit, another mad bad girl trapped inside a superficially obedient body.” Anita thus gives Meena the opportunity to express an aspect of her personality that she cannot develop in the occasionally stifling atmosphere of her own family. Together, they seem bound