Character Analysis
Annika is the other little girl in this book. She's about the same age as Pippi, but pretty much Pippi's polar opposite. She's well groomed, mild mannered, a bit anxious, and reluctant to try new things, whereas Pippi is unkempt, boisterous, confident, and always up for an adventure. This dynamic—in which Annika serves as a foil for Pippi—is set up in the very first description of Annika. We are told that:
[…] she never fussed when she didn't get her own way, and she always looked pretty in her little well-ironed cotton dresses. (1.10)
Also, "she took the greatest care not to get [her dresses] dirty" (1.10)—at least, until she met Pippi.
Through her friendship with Pippi, Annika is drawn out of her shell a bit. Some might even use the word liberated. She climbs trees she otherwise wouldn't have and even overcomes her fears to venture down inside of one. At Pippi's side, she also tries horseback riding and thing-finding, dares to go into an attic where there might be ghosts, and accepts a gun as a gift.
By the end of the book we find that the girl who once went out of her way to keep her clothes clean isn't allowed to wear her best dress to Pippi's party because "she was seldom neat and clean when she came home from Pippi's" (11.5). To that we offer a big you go, girl… no matter how passé that phrase may be.