Anita and Me

by

Meera Syal

Anita is a domineering, self-centered thirteen-year-old girl who enjoys manipulating the people around her. Although Anita initially seems to share certain personality traits with Meena, such as a desire to rebel and a love of the outdoors, she ultimately proves much more dishonest and cruel. Anita does not hesitate to humiliate others, including her own sister Tracey, to maintain her superiority over her group of friends. This disregard for other people’s feelings expresses itself through intolerance, racism, and a predilection for violence. Anita, for example, is proud to take part in the beating of an innocent Indian bank manager, whom Sam Lowbridge’s gang attacks for the simple fact of being a foreigner. Anita suffers from an abusive home environment, though it remains unclear if she suffers from the same sexual violence as Tracey. Anita’s future looks bleak, and her obsession with sex suggests that she is likely to follow a similar path as her mother Deirdre, who ultimately abandons her children to run off with another man. In the absence of strong personal ambitions and a supportive environment, it seems likely that Anita will marry and have children at an early age.

Anita Rutter Quotes in Anita and Me

The Anita and Me quotes below are all either spoken by Anita Rutter or refer to Anita Rutter. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Family Discipline and Guidance Theme Icon
).
Chapter 6 Quotes

When I said that we talked, what I mean is that Anita talked and I listened with the appropriate appreciative noises. But I never had to force my admiration, it flowed from every pore because Anita made me laugh like no one else; she gave voice to all the wicked things I had often thought but kept zipped up inside my good girl’s winter coat.

Related Characters: Meena Kumar (speaker), Anita Rutter
Page Number: 138
Explanation and Analysis:

I had seen how in an instant, those you called friends could suddenly become tormentors, sniffing out a weakness or a difference, turning their own fear of ostracism into a weapon with which they could beat the victim away, afraid that being an outsider, an individual even, was somehow infectious.

Related Characters: Meena Kumar (speaker), Anita Rutter, Tracey Rutter, Kevin and Karl
Page Number: 142
Explanation and Analysis:

I knew I was a freak of some kind, too mouthy, clumsy and scabby to be a real Indian girl, too Indian to be a real Tollington wench, but living in the grey area between all categories felt increasingly like home.

Related Characters: Meena Kumar (speaker), Anita Rutter
Related Symbols: Mama’s Necklace
Page Number: 149-150
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Sherrie did not even know that her parents were thinking of moving, Sherrie and Anita did not know what I suddenly realised now, that Deirdre had no intention, ever, of buying Anita a horse. Sorrow flooded me until it rose up to my eyes and made them sting. Anita, the same skinny harpy who had just narrowly missed gouging out another girl’s eyes, was now whispering lover’s endearments into a fat pony’s ears. She needed me maybe more than I needed her. There is a fine line between love and pity and I had just stepped over it.

Related Characters: Meena Kumar (speaker), Anita Rutter, Deirdre, Sherrie
Page Number: 242
Explanation and Analysis:
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Anita and Me PDF

Anita Rutter Quotes in Anita and Me

The Anita and Me quotes below are all either spoken by Anita Rutter or refer to Anita Rutter. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Family Discipline and Guidance Theme Icon
).
Chapter 6 Quotes

When I said that we talked, what I mean is that Anita talked and I listened with the appropriate appreciative noises. But I never had to force my admiration, it flowed from every pore because Anita made me laugh like no one else; she gave voice to all the wicked things I had often thought but kept zipped up inside my good girl’s winter coat.

Related Characters: Meena Kumar (speaker), Anita Rutter
Page Number: 138
Explanation and Analysis:

I had seen how in an instant, those you called friends could suddenly become tormentors, sniffing out a weakness or a difference, turning their own fear of ostracism into a weapon with which they could beat the victim away, afraid that being an outsider, an individual even, was somehow infectious.

Related Characters: Meena Kumar (speaker), Anita Rutter, Tracey Rutter, Kevin and Karl
Page Number: 142
Explanation and Analysis:

I knew I was a freak of some kind, too mouthy, clumsy and scabby to be a real Indian girl, too Indian to be a real Tollington wench, but living in the grey area between all categories felt increasingly like home.

Related Characters: Meena Kumar (speaker), Anita Rutter
Related Symbols: Mama’s Necklace
Page Number: 149-150
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Sherrie did not even know that her parents were thinking of moving, Sherrie and Anita did not know what I suddenly realised now, that Deirdre had no intention, ever, of buying Anita a horse. Sorrow flooded me until it rose up to my eyes and made them sting. Anita, the same skinny harpy who had just narrowly missed gouging out another girl’s eyes, was now whispering lover’s endearments into a fat pony’s ears. She needed me maybe more than I needed her. There is a fine line between love and pity and I had just stepped over it.

Related Characters: Meena Kumar (speaker), Anita Rutter, Deirdre, Sherrie
Page Number: 242
Explanation and Analysis: