Annunciation By Lauren Groff Summary

Maturity is a complicated and uncomfortable experience that one can only achieve with patience and determination. Whether it's puberty, early 20s, adulthood, or senior years, all of these stages will provide challenges that one must overcome. Among this discomfort, people find others to connect with, others find a connection within themselves. Reliability is risky: easy to achieve and impossible to maintain. Lauren Groff’s short story “Annunciation” suggests that relying on others is tricky and unreliable, unlike strengthening and learning to survive on your own: a much more reliable approach to navigating the uncomfortable, lifelong process of maturity, a suggestion that is seen through the characters’ abrupt departures and constant self-concealing,

Although it is assumed that it is not Anais’ intention, the narrator’s view of her changes dramatically throughout their time together; from dislike to curiosity, pity, and worry, forcing the narrator to never know who Anais truly is. It is assumed that the starving narrator initially dislikes Anais because of her tone as she describes her negative first impression of Anais “snagging the [bagels] [that she] was about to take” (9). In comparison to this dislike, as their time together progressed, the narrator grew angry with Anais’ living situation: “a flimsy aluminum door between the tiny girl and all the danger in the world” (17). The narrator switches her view on Anais multiple times, a tiresome act that shows how much the narrator doesn’t know about and what to think of Anais. Later, the narrator describes Anais as “wearing [a] thrift-store costume” (12), a description that highlights how Anais hides who she truly is, and how she would rather wear a “costume” than be

After Anais unexpectedly leaves her job, the narrator spends her nights “running through the cool dark streets looking for Anais’ Vanagon” (23), an action revealing that the situation still affects the narrator even after their unstable relationship has unexpectedly ended. While Griselda, the narrator’s landlord, developed into someone comfortable for her to lean on, their relationship was in fact tricky because of Griselda’s sudden passing and how difficult it was for the narrator to figure out who Griselda truly was, beyond all of her hard-to-believe stories. Griselda and the narrator’s relationship was overall interesting, pleasant, and secure because of all of Griselda’s stories and philosophical advice, but in reality, these deep conversations caused the narrator to dwell on who Griselda really is. It is important to recognize how delightful their relationship is and how it isn’t just unreliable. While the narrator is on a quick run, Griselda gives her a “water-buckled copy of ‘Life and Fate’” (23), an easy action revealing Griselda’s affection towards the