Anita Rutter
Anita Rutter: The Girl Meena Wants to Be
Anita Rutter is the most important figure in Meena’s childhood world. She is everything Meena is not: blonde, confident, fearless and quintessentially English. When Meena first sees her, she is mesmerised: “She was the most glamorous girl I had ever seen.” Syal presents Anita through Meena’s adoring, uncritical gaze, allowing the reader to see both the attraction and the warning signs that Meena herself misses.
Anita represents freedom to Meena — freedom from parental expectations, from cultural obligations, from the pressure of being “good.” Anita swears, steals, defies adults and roams the village unsupervised. To a child constrained by two sets of cultural rules, this is intoxicating.
Yet Syal carefully reveals the reality behind Anita’s bravado. Anita’s mother Deirdre is neglectful and chaotic — she “always looked half-finished” and conducts affairs openly while her children run wild. Anita’s father Roberto works at a tyre factory and is barely present. Anita’s toughness is not freedom but a defence mechanism — the armour of a child who has learned she cannot rely on anyone.
The Power Dynamic
The friendship between Meena and Anita is defined by an unequal power dynamic. Anita is the leader; Meena is the follower. Anita sets the rules, decides the games and controls who is “in” or “out.” Meena accepts this because Anita’s approval feels like acceptance into Englishness itself. When Anita says “You’re my best friend, aren’t ya, Meena?” it is both an offer and a command.
By following Anita, Meena gains a sense of belonging in the white community — she is no longer the outsider looking in. But she pays a heavy price. She begins to lie more, steal, neglect her schoolwork and distance herself from her family. She participates in cruelty towards other children, particularly the vulnerable Tracey. Syal shows how the desire for acceptance can lead children to compromise their own values — a theme that resonates far beyond the specific context of racial identity.
Anita’s Troubled Home
Syal draws a deliberate contrast between the Kumar and Rutter households. Where Meena’s home is warm, structured and full of family, Anita’s home is chaotic and emotionally barren. Deirdre serves tinned food and ignores her children. There are no books, no routines, no stability. Anita’s younger sister Tracey is a silent, neglected shadow. This contrast is not simply about “good” vs “bad” parenting — Syal links Deirdre’s failures to the wider post-industrial decline that has hollowed out Tollington.
The Kumar household represents cultural richness, emotional warmth and stability. The Rutter household represents the emotional poverty and family breakdown caused by economic decline. Syal uses this contrast to challenge the assumption that the immigrant family is the “problem” — it is actually the strongest, most functional family in Tollington.
Anita’s Vulnerability
Beneath her tough exterior, Anita is deeply vulnerable. Her mother Deirdre runs off part-way through the novel, and her father Roberto is barely present. She uses cruelty and control to feel powerful in a world where she has no real power. Her treatment of Tracey — ignoring and belittling her — mirrors how she herself has been treated. Syal asks the reader to see Anita not just as a bully but as a product of her environment, making her a more complex and sympathetic character than she first appears.
Anita’s racism develops gradually through the novel. Early on, she treats Meena’s race as largely irrelevant — or at least, as less important than having a loyal follower. But as Sam Lowbridge’s influence grows and the political climate shifts, Anita begins to absorb the racist attitudes around her. By the end, she has aligned herself with Sam, making her friendship with Meena impossible. Syal shows how racism is not innate but learned — absorbed from family, community and political discourse.