From page 14 of Wide Sargasso Sea:
"That's not what she hear, she said. She hear all we poor like beggar. We ate salt fish - no money for fresh fish. That old house so leaky, you run with calabash to catch water when it rain. Plenty white people in Jamaica. Real white people, they got gold money. They didn't look at us, nobody see them come near us. Old time white people nothing but white nigger now, and black nigger better than white nigger."
This quote contains a couple of things about Antoinette and the time period that is occurring in Wide Sargasso Sea at this point. First off, this quote speaks volume about Jean Rhys' "affinity" with coloured people because of the fact that here it is represented again. Jean Rhys' spoke about this on page 155-156 in the "Black Exercise Book." However, as what was stated in the aforementioned passage and what applies to Antoinette, she is rejected because she isn't black. Antoinette can not find solace with colored people because of her skin color. Because her mother was from Martinique, Antoinette would feel the rivalries between the English and the French. (Martinique being French and Jamaica being English) This sets up the double consciousnesses as well. Antoinette's family, before they met Mr. Mason, were poor. They didn't have money like white people should have because although they were white, they weren't hence the term "white nigger." They could not be white and they were rejected by the majority of people to which they did belong to. Thus, double consciousness. Antoinette, on page 29, even gets stalked and confronted by a white and black child. Jean Rhys is showing the extent of double consciousness here by including this story in her novel.
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(Just looked at the schedule... posting this anyway.)
This blog discusses and explains the double consciousness that Antoinette felt. You really show how Jean Rhys puts herself into this story, not belonging in her home town due to racial tensions, even though the story is about the fictional character of Antoinette.
ReplyDeleteThis quote exemplifies the difference in the skin color and that Antoinette is rejected by the others, while she can't seem to fit in with them. With the difference in nationality and background from both sides of her parents, you are right that is setting up for double consciousness, because she is torn between these two. The line about the "white nigger" is also interesting, that Antoinette's family was deemed this just because they were as poor as the blacks after having no money.
ReplyDeleteI think Antoinette is a prime example of someone lost in a state of double consciousness. She doesn't appear to belong anywhere. She is constantly faced with feelings of "otherness," even more than the rich white man might or the poorest of the black men might. She is the extreme for both double consciousness and otherness and is truly a square peg trying to fit in to a circular hole.
ReplyDeleteThis lack of belonging leads to her general resentment of all people; As she says, "Black ants or red ones, tall nests swarming with white ants, rain that soaked me to the skin – once I saw a snake. All better than people. Better. Better, better than people."