She confesses to telling other children stories about being a princess, calling these ‘harmless fabrications’, but also to telling ‘whoppers’ to avoid punishment. The main narrative starts with a more childish lie – Meena’s claim that she did not steal a shilling. Syal connects all three to the friendship with Anita.Įven in the preface Syal highlights truth and fiction as a theme, when she uses viewpoint to play with the author’s role by presenting a false personal history for Meena. However, she also develops in three other ways: her attitude towards truth and fiction, her attitude to racism, and her attitude to herself as the daughter of immigrants. Anita and Me is a ‘Bildungsroman’, a novel about a character growing up, whose title announces its main subject – Meena’s friendship with the older, white working-class Anita, which is central to Meena’s development.
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