Freaky Friday

“Now ordinarily, I don’t bother to brush too often—it’s a big nuisance with all those wires—but […] if she was willing to do a terrific thing like turn her body over to me like that, the least I could do was take care of her teeth for her.”

Annabel’s admission that she is careless about keeping her own teeth clean because cleaning around her braces is too much trouble characterizes her as somewhat sloppy and lazy. The cheerful way she explains this, along with her eager embrace of her odd situation—the body swap is a “terrific thing,” not a “horrible” or “frightening” thing to Annabel—shows Annabel to also be an optimistic, open, and confident person. She also has a clear sense of duty toward others, especially those she loves, because she is willing to expend the effort to keep her mother’s teeth clean despite not caring much about her own.

“[L]ook who’s already gotten stuck with the brown eyes. Me. The sister of the only blue-eyed ape in captivity.”

Annabel’s preoccupation with her looks—having brown eyes in particular—is typical of her era, when women’s worth was generally judged more by their looks than their accomplishments. Blue eyes were prized in women, which reflects a cultural bias of the time. This comment of Annabel’s about her eye color versus Ben’s hints that her dislike of her little brother stems at least in part from jealousy. Her metaphorical claim that he is “the only blue-eyed ape in captivity” suggests that, from her perspective, he does not belong—he is a wild animal and does not have the same rights as a fully-human person.