55 pages • 1 hour read
Anna QuindlenAfter Annie: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 5: “Winter”
Part 5, Chapter 1 Summary
Fall begins well for Ali as her classmates elect her to the position of class president, and Bill begins taking more of an active role in caring for the younger boys. They also have someone who comes twice weekly to help cook and clean, and Ali feels lighter without domestic responsibilities. Ali has a new group of friends but still thinks of Jenny often. Miss Cruz introduces Ali to Elizabeth, Jenny’s sister, which is confusing because Jenny is an only child. Elizabeth explains that her father abused her, and she moved away to stay with her aunt. Jenny wrote Elizabeth letters and spoke often of Ali, but most of these stories were lies because her father didn’t let her do anything with her friends. Elizabeth explained that she is now 18 and had planned to take Jenny out of the home, but the family has moved away to an unknown location. Although Ali thinks that she has failed her friend, Elizabeth thanks her for standing up for Jenny and promises that when she finds her, she will tell her how much Ali cares for her. Ali asks Miss Cruz why she and other adults couldn’t protect Jenny from her dad. Miss Cruz says, “There’s some things you can’t fix, no matter how hard you try” (266).
One year after Annie’s death, the entire family, plus Annemarie, gather at her grave. Each child leaves something to honor their mother. Benjy leaves Goodnight Moon, Jamie leaves a Lego man, Ant offers a sports medal, and Ali leaves a box of her baby teeth. Jamie wonders if Annie is still in the grave, and Ali says she is “everywhere.” She is wearing a dress that once belonged to Annie and earrings that Annemarie gave Annie for her birthday. Annemarie is due to have her baby any day and has bought a home in Philadelphia. As she looks at Annie’s grave, Annemarie silently apologizes for the ways she thought Annie had settled in life by marrying and having kids. Now that she is starting her own family, Annemarie understands how it changes a person. She will name her daughter Hope. At home, Ali notices that their house looks the same but feels empty, as if their mother’s spirit has left. She feels that this is fitting because the family is moving to a new home soon.
Part 5, Chapter 2 Summary
With Liz’s help, Bill purchases an old farmhouse with acreage and a pond. However, Bill realizes that he doesn’t love Liz and breaks off the relationship. He asks Miss Cruz out for dinner, and she tells him to call her “Mena.” When Dora protests, claiming that Bill can’t date a Puerto Rican “girl,” Ali stands up for her dad and Miss Cruz, telling her grandmother that Miss Cruz is Filipina and that it is unkind to speak of her that way. Bill still tries to maintain a civil relationship with his mother, but she is displeased about the move.
Annemarie brings two-week-old Hope over and helps Kathy, Bill, and Ali clean out Annie’s belongings. Each person chooses one item to keep. Annemarie takes a ring that she gave Annie for her 21st birthday, Kathy takes a suede jacket, and Ali keeps her mother’s wedding dress, which she’ll store in Annie’s hope chest. The kids continue to get counseling, and Ant gets glasses, which help him improve at school. On the last day in their home, Bill is alone to supervise the movers. Inside the hope chest, he sees the wedding gown and the lingerie that Annie wore on their wedding night. He doesn’t see it then, but underneath is a note that Annie wrote for him on their wedding day, declaring herself to be “the luckiest woman alive” (285).
Part 5 Analysis
Significantly, the novel’s conclusion comes full circle by convening the entire family one year after Annie’s death and leaving the rotation of the seasons on a hope-filled note as well. The unseasonably mild February surrounds the family at Annie’s gravesite, contrasting pointedly with the sharp winter chill that accompanied her unexpected death the previous year. Symbolizing the unpredictability of life, the erratic weather highlights the changes that have occurred in the year since Annie died, most notably in Ali’s physical maturation and Annemarie’s pregnancy. However, the calmer, kinder weather also implies that although the family has survived many hardships in the past months, their future is full of promise and brighter days. The graveside scene also depicts the new unity amongst the characters as they have emerged from the isolation of their individual grieving patterns and stand together to honor Annie on the anniversary of her death. In this moment, the family members are bound together by their common thread: Annie’s unconditional love for all of them.
Within the context of moving forward with life, Ali’s new friendships and her election to the post of class president reveal her healthy approach to Redefining Identity After Loss. Notably, just as she can never find closure after her mother’s death, she will never really get closure in her broken friendship with Jenny. However, through Miss Cruz’s guidance, Ali learns that there are never easy solutions for the big problems in life, and part of developing resilience is accepting that hard truth. In the bittersweet denouement, Elizabeth affirms that Ali is a good friend through her advocacy for Jenny, and Ali is left with hope that Jenny can still be rescued from her abusive father. When Ali leaves her baby teeth at her mother’s grave, this gesture symbolizes the fact that she is leaving her childhood behind. She also recognizes that a part of her died with her mother, and she will never be able to reclaim that version of herself. Despite these lingering sorrows, hope resonates through the last part of the story, and this positive shift is embodied in the birth of Annemarie’s daughter, in Bill’s developing relationship with Mena, and in Ant’s scholastic and behavioral improvement. When Ant gains new glasses and starts listening to Mena’s counsel, he gains a new perspective on life, both physically and metaphorically.
As a theme, The Double-Edged Sword of Memory coalesces in two specific moments that resolve the story’s emotional arc. Cleaning out Annie’s closet is cathartic for the family, for unlike Dora’s first forced attempt, this scene is characterized by tender nostalgia as each person takes one special item to memorialize Annie. However, the hope chest captures Annie’s memory, trapping it like a time capsule that will stay with the family forever. Filled with linens and baby clothes, hope chests represent a belief that marriage and children will happen in the future, and within the context of the novel, Annie’s hope chest becomes a promissory note that life will go on for her family. The undiscovered love note inside Annie’s hope chest, which is now Ali’s, promises that the family will always have Annie Brown alive inside them.
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By Anna Quindlen
