Candide's Desensitization

Candide leads the reader through very violent experiences. The novel is full of rape and murders. When I first read the novel I was upset in the way in which Voltaire was using and manipulating the bodies of many of his characters. After listening to the discussions in class and rereading parts of the novel I decided that Voltaire was creating a critique. When the reader reads this novel physical abuse these characters go through becomes almost normal. You get desensitized to the pure nature of this violence. Although, Voltaire wrote this novel in 1759, we can use what he is saying as a critique for modern day. Towards the end of the novel an old woman says, “I should like to know which is worse: to be raped a hundred times by negro pirates, and have a buttock cut off, and run the gauntler of the Bulgars, and be flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fe, and be dissected, and have to row in a galley –in short, to undergo all the miseries we have each of us suffered or simply to sit here and do nothing?” (91). She mentions all of these horrific events and asks the questions of going through them or being bored. It is astonishing. These violent actions have become a part of everyday life for these characters. I think the same can be said for today’s world. The amount of wars that are being faught, the video games that are out there, the violence on television, these things and more are desensitizing our culture in the same way Candide’s culture was desensitized. Is there are going to be a day when a woman may want to be “raped a hundred times” instead of being bored because that is what she is used to.

I know I am being a bit dramatic but it is an interesting thought.

Garden of Eden in Candide

“All I know,” said Candide, “is that we must cultivate our garden.” – “You are right,” said Pangloss, “for when man was placed in the Garden of Eden, he was put there ut operaretur eum, so that he might work: which proves that man was not born for rest.” – “Let us set to work and stop proving things,” said Martin, “for that is the only way to make life bearable” (93). This quote comes at the very end of Candide’s tale. What I would argue is that Candide was not looking for the Garden of Eden he was looking for a Garden of Eden after Eve and Adam had already eaten the fruit. On a blog site that I had found a blogger made a very good point. He had said that in the beginning of the novel Candide was in an Eden like garden and he left. Candide searched the world trying to find some type of utopia that would make him happy; put him at peace. If Candide would have been happy in the Garden of Eden he would have never left. The fact is that Candide, much like Adam and Eve wanted more than just the “restful life,” he wanted knowledge. After receiving the knowledge of the world he was able to settle down in a garden. It was a garden where he could work. In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve were offered a simpler life of rest where everything was taken care of for them. Candide wanted/strived for a place in which he, himself could cultivate and work the land. Candide did not want the perfect garden. He wanted one that was filled of knowledge and hard work.

The blog that I read was really interesting it takes the characters of Candide and compares them to the characters (people) in the Bible. If you want to check it out here in the link… http://writinghood.com/online-writing/symbolism-of-the-garden-of-eden-in-candide/

Remembering Adrienne Rich

Adrienne Rich 1929-2012

Adrienne Rich died in her home in Santa Cruz this past Tuesday at the age of 82. It seems we just finished spending quality time with her as we read her ghazals in homage to Ghalib. She changed the way we read and write poetry. She also changed the world with her poetry. Here is one of my favorite poems by her; feel free to share yours.

 

 

 

What Kind of Times Are These

By Adrienne Rich

Talk About Trees by Anannya Dasgupta

There's a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill

and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows

near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted

who disappeared into those shadows.

I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don't be fooled

this isn't a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here,

our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,

its own ways of making people disappear.

I won't tell you where the place is, the dark mesh of the woods

meeting the unmarked strip of light—

ghost-ridden crossroads, leafmold paradise:

I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear.

And I won't tell you where it is, so why do I tell you

anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these

to have you listen at all, it's necessary

to talk about trees.

Here is a video of Rich reading out this poem:

The Contrasting Perceptions of Nature

                There are clear and distinct parallels between the portrayal of nature in both “Through the Arc of the Rain Forest” and “Wide Sargasso Sea”.  In both, the tropical natural environment is almost treated as its own distinct character, with personalities and story arcs to rival that of the main characters.

                An even more distinct parallel, however, is how nature is viewed and interacted with by the characters within the stories.  On the one hand, those native to the land share an intense feeling of connection and admiration for the wonder of nature.  In Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette comments how “[Her] Garden was large and beautiful as the garden in the Bible-the tree of life grew there.” (10-11 WSS)  Meanwhile, in Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, Chico Paco shares a feeling of divine wonder for the Brazilian landscape, specifically “The Matacao, [which he] was sure, was a divine place.”  (24, TtAotRF)

                However, this all stands in stark contrast to the way that many people from outside Brazil or Jamaica view the natural landscape.  Antoinette’s unnamed husband is very explicit in his disdain for his wife’s homeland.  “…I understood why the porter had called it a wild place,” he reflects to himself, “Not only wild but menacing.  Those hills would close in on you.”  (41, WSS)

"What an Extreme Green." -Antoinette's Most Astute Husband 

                In both Wide Sargasso Sea and Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, this disdain and distrust of nature seems to stem from the very fact of being a foreigner.  Both Antoinette’s Husband and JB Tweep, for example, seem out of place and lost in these new world.  “I hated the mountains and the hills,” the unnamed Englishman surmises as he prepares to leave for England, “I hated its beauty and magic and the secret I would never know.”  (103, WSS)  Meanwhile, “JB had never been to a foreign country and was initially alarmed at what he felt to be a sudden listlessness in his third arm…he actually thought his third arm might be atrophying in [the] hoe tropical weather…how could a third arm possibly survive in a place like this?”  (page 75, TtAotRF)

                In essence, both Wide Sargasso Sea and Through the Arc of the Rain Forest seem to be making a comment on the contrast of how nature is perceived by people.  Characters such as Antoinette and Chico Paco, who spent their whole lives enveloped by nature, open their hearts to it and treat it with reverence and respect.  Meanwhile, characters such as the Unnamed Englishman and JB Tweep, who are both foreign to their new environments and are only there to earn money, have only disdain and distrust for nature, and are thus much less receptive towards it.

Changes

 The relationship between blacks and whites on the island has been tense for years beginning during the days of slavery.  In order for there to be justification for the unfair balance of power between the slaves and masters, negative stereotypes are created. The slaves are believed to be lazy, dirty, unkempt and extremely passionate individuals. Yet even with the end of slavery and the grant of freedom to the blacks, the stereotype surrounding them continues to persist. The relationship between the whites and blacks were usually hostile and lacked any form of intimacy, pre and after slavery. Christophine challenges the stereotypes associated with people of color and shows loyalty to her former master. “She was much blacker-blue-black with a thin face and straight features. She wore a black dress, heavy gold earring and a yellow handkerchief-carefully tied with two high points in front. No negro woman wore black or tied her handkerchief Martinique style.”(60-8) She is not dirty or unkempt about rather has a unique sense of style. Even though, she is poor, Christophine takes pride in her appearance and presents herself with beauty. This is unlike her white former masters who have been deprived of their material possessions and therefore appear as plain and dirty. At same time, the stereotype about whites was that they were all handwriting and rich people without any want. “Real white people, they got gold money”(37-38). However, Antoinette’s family is not rich and they were lacking in even simple material possessions like food and clothing. In order to survive, they require the company of Christophine to make ends meet.

The author in her portrayal of the characters’ in positions opposite to those associated with their race, to bring to mind the impact of stereotypes on a community. The blacks in the community make fun of Antoinette’s family for not living up to their standards of being rich but rather poor and in want. The whites also separate themselves from the company of her family due to their financial ruin. The harsh treatment, she and her mother received from both ends only make their horrible situation even worse.  The negatives effects of stereotypes are therefore not limited to situation where certain people obtain privilege or unjust treatment over others. Even when, people unconsciously adhere to the stereotypes assigned to themselves or others and do not look beyond context. For example, Tia could not see white people in the context of poverty because she unconsciously believes only blacks are  to be poor. It blinded her from seeing the true nature of Antoinette’s life and show more understanding towards her. 

During last friday's class discussion, there was mention that the reason for hostility towards  Antoinette was because of the changes in the social structure. Given that blacks/slaves who were at the bottom are now slowly making their way up the social ladder whiles white Creoles are stuck in an awkward position. This is a video that illustrates the changes in society as the place of former power are displaced and those at the bottom are making their way up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5jJSjpztmA

The Creole in Wide Sargasso Sea: A Caribbean Person’s Perspective

As a person of Caribbean descent, reading this novel particularly helped me understand the difficulties of growing up as a Creole in the West Indies.  In Caribbean society, lighter-skinned individuals who were direct descendants of the European slave owners, or those who were of mixed race were often treated with privilege and were highly favored over other people who were darker or direct descendants of Black Africans.  This is particularly demonstrated in Daniel's description of his life as being biracial as well as the story of his brother Alexander.  According to Daniel, his brother Alexander benefited more from being of mixed race than he did. He states, "Then there is my half-brother Alexander, coloured like me but not unlucky like me...He was the old man favorite right from the start... Because he prosper he is two-faced and won't speak against white people." (124) Reading this passage reminded me of when my parents told me stories of their childhood of adults having a preference for their children who had a lighter-skinned complexion than their siblings.  Obviously this preference remained for many generations afterwards and continued into my parents time.  Knowing that this kind of attitude persists until today, it was actually enlightening for me to learn of the difficulties that Creole people had growing up in this society. In the novel, Antoinette cannot completely fit in with the black children because of her family history and the connotation her complexion has become associated with.  Early in the novel Antoinette describes her experiences with other children when she says, “I never look at any strange negro.  They hated us.  They called us white cockroaches.  One day a little girl followed me singing, ‘Go away white cockroach, go away, go away.’ ” (23) Obviously, Antoinette had a difficult time getting along with other black children, and even when she manages to befriend Tia, Tia is not able to look past Antoinette’s background; which is seen when she tricks Antoinette into giving her the pennies and throwing the rock at Antoinette when her family was trying to escape.  Not only is Antoinette ostracized from the former slaves, she is alienated from those of European descent.  Her husband the unnamed Englishman scrutinizes over her race when he says “I watched her critically...She never blinks at all it seems to me.  Long, sad, dark alien eyes.  Creole of pure English descent she may be, but they are not English or European either.” (67)  In the eyes of a European person, Antoinette does not fully fit in with them because she was not born in Europe, and as stated earlier, she cannot fit in with the black people due to her complexion and family’s history in the system of slavery.  She does not have a clear sense of identity and belonging because she is stuck in the middle. Due to my own knowledge of bias towards lighter skinned individuals in Caribbean society, until reading this novel, I had not considered the issue of dual identity that West Indian Creoles or their descendants had to deal with between Caribbean and European society.  Since I am only halfway through the novel, I am interested in seeing how race relations will play out when Antoinette moves to England, and if this will play a role in her going insane. 

Unconditional Positive Regard in Wide Sargasso Sea

What I found most interesting about the novel Wide Sargasso Sea was the question of what sanity is and who is qualified to judge it and how that judgement can affect people, Antoinette specifically. Rhys takes you through the plot in the first two parts of the novel in sequences of developments of the story. In the final part, Antoinette carries you through her dreams and reality in a first person stream of conciousness until the reader is able to forget the author's reality and Antoinette is able to forget her own, or atleast lives it in a dream-like state. This dream like state which Antoinette creates for her self I believe is born from her isolation. Antoinette feels isolated and has trouble defining herself in her isolation.
Antoinette is seen as an "outsider" or "crazy creole woman". Antoinette since early childhood has had little support. Perhaps Christophine, her Aunt Cora, and her cousin really made a significant impact but when she is sent to a convent school by her Aunt Cora I feel as if the security of her sanity comes into question. She has little freedom to explore her thought and I believe it is that moment that foreshadows her future troubles. She is isolated by her own dreams which she is unable to gain support to help her with. From that point on, the real fall occurs. On her movement to England, Antoinette paints England as a cold dark place. Unhappy with her surroundings and unhappy with her situation, anxiety sets in and she becomes more locked into her questioning and isolation and when her husband basically abandons her she is left even more alone. There is one quote I enjoyed that I feel really portrays Antoinette's pure isolation. She thinks to herself in part three, "There is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now. I remember watching myself brush my hair and how my eyes looked back at me. The girl I saw was myself yet not quite myself. Long ago when I was a child and very lonely I tried to kiss her. But the glass was between us—hard, cold and misted over with my breath. Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?" She is so isolated from the real world and her reality that she loses touch with herself. This was even hard to avoid by her husband even more so categorizing her insanity.
I found the development of this novel very interesting because of the psychology concept of Unconditional Positive Regard. It is a humanistic psychology theory coined by Psychologist Carl Rogers famous for his work in client centered therapy. Rogers asserts that what causes anxiety in people is people not really knowing who they truly are or having completely achieved individuation. He claims that people can not fully break through those anxiety, depression, or insecurity barriers without something called unconditional positive regard, a judgment-free support system, often times a therapist or a friend. Once the client feels completely unpressured to fulfill other's opinions and expectations of them and unjudged they are able to discover their true self. Antoinette doesn't really have that purely unjudgemental relationship present in her life and even worse her husband later categorizes herself as insane. I also found it interesting the impact attending her school could have possibly had on her sanity. I attended a very strict old fashioned catholic highschool so I am aware of the controversy that surrounds strict traditional catholic schooling and the effect on young people's particularly the adolescent's psyche. Many present day psychologists do not believe that it allows for teenagers to define themselves and achieve individuation in a time that psychologist Erik Erikson claims is when universally humans battle Identity vs. Role Confusion and must form their own identity. The theory behind Erikson's Stages of Development is that one cannot move onto the next stage until it has completed the previous. The next step in Erikson's stages happens to be Intimacy and solidarity vs. Isolation. In the novel, Antoinette is never given the opportunity to fully define herself, proven by her time spent infront of the mirror, and when her social structure falls apart she is left in social and self isolation, isolation being a feeling characteristic to anxiety and depression and even abnormal disorders. I believe that if Antoinette had experienced a support system and had not experienced her sequence of events the novel may have had a slightly different ending and her "insanity" was not as genetic as Rochester believed.
Carl Rogers On Becoming A Human: A Client Centered Guide to Therapy can be found here (Chapter 7 is most pertinent): http://books.google.com/books/about/On_becoming_a_person.html?id=0yHBXXhJbKQC

Ages of Jane Eyre

While reading Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea I immediately noticed all the footnotes on Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.  I read the children’s version of Jane Eyre during the summer before my eight grade year, so I was able to draw a few parallels from what little I remembered about it.  I also vaguely remembered “The Simpsons” as making some sort of parody of Jane Eyre (which frankly might only be because I know they poke fun at all sorts of widely acclaimed literature, such as The Raven by Poe or A Streetcar Named Desire by Williams).  It turns out I was correct, and in one episode where Marge joins a book club, and the book they are reading is “Jane Eyrehead.”  This revelation prompted me to further research just how prevalent Jane Eyre has stayed over the years since it was written.  Rhys obviously was impacted by it over a century late when she published Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966, and clearly the writers of “The Simpsons” saw it as pop culturally relevant a few decades after that.  Even now the tale is in our media, with the 1993 film of WSS and a 2011 movie of Jane Eyre.   There are so many different versions of Jane Eyre such as sequels, prequels, and spinoffs in so many different formats, like movies, TV shows, and books.

Jane Eyre Summary and Examples of Versions

As Wide Sargasso Sea is the only work I have read, that is the one I’m going to be focusing on.  I found it really fascinating that a book about the “crazy wife in the attic” had so many similarities to the Jane Eyre I remember reading about half a dozen years ago.  One thinks of them as completely separate people, but Rhys chose to illustrate them as having more similarities than would be comforting had people taken the time to notice them.  (By this I merely mean that nobody wants to be like the crazy lady, that they are supposedly not normal people ever, and no sane person should share any similarities of past or present with them).  Jane Eyre was orphaned at a young age, and Antoinette’s father had died, and her mother was not a supportive force in her life even before she passed.  When Jane has nowhere to live, she goes to a charity school, and when Antoinette has nowhere to stay she goes to a convent school.  “This convent was my refuge, a place of sunshine and of death where very early in the morning the clap of a wooden signal woke the nine of us who slept in the long dormitory” (33).  I found it interesting that Antoinette thought of it as a refuge, and Jane’s school is her refuge from her abusive aunt.  In the schools both Jane and Antoinette knew a Helen/Helene (respectively).  Both ended up as rich women upon the death of their family.  When they reach adulthood Jane and Antoinette (Bertha)’s lives intercross and the similarities of where they live (Thornfield Hall) are inevitable.  It is more interesting to me that their lives have so many similarities in the younger years, in Rhys’ mind at least.

The Strength of an Opening: How the Beginning of "Wide Sargasso Sea" Hints at Race/Gender Relations and Foreshadows Antoinette’s Fall into Madness

“They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did.” So begins Wide Sargasso Sea, a backstory into the character of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre who ends up insane. When a reader is willing to read the first few paragraphs of the novel carefully, the above sentence and the ones following offer a wealth of information into the world of Wide Sargasso Sea in addition to foreshadowing Antoinette’s (Bertha’s) demise.

Here is the full text of the first paragraph (page 9):
“They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did. But we were not in their ranks. The Jamaican ladies had never approved of my mother, ‘because she pretty like pretty self’ Christophine said.”

One of the most prominent points a reader can take away from this is the issue of race. Antoinette, as the narrator, states, “we were not in [the whites’] ranks.” However, she immediately follows up that statement with “The Jamaican ladies had never approved of my mother.” This suggests an uncomfortable in-between state: Antoinette’s family is clearly not considered white, but many Jamaicans find it hard or impossible to accept them as well. This racial ambiguity and the overall concept of racial hierarchies is a major theme throughout the novel, and introducing it here leads the reader to immediately grasp its importance in the world of Wide Sargasso Sea. Antoinette’s family would be later revealed to be Creoles, or alternatively “white [cockroaches]” (Rhys 13) or “white nigger” (Rhys 14). 

Another idea introduced in this opening paragraph is that of gender relations. Although Antoinette’s mother is very beautiful, she is scorned constantly by the Jamaican women for being so. Personally, I see this as not unheard of, but overall a foreign concept. It is the norm that a majority of people will admire and envy those who are beautiful instead of shunning them. To which I pose: is this cruelty due to jealousy? And how does race factor into the Jamaican women’s reaction towards Antoinette’s mother?

Although this is just the beginning of the book, there is strong foreshadowing throughout the first few paragraphs alluding to Antoinette’s loss of sanity and her descent into a dark world where she cannot depend on anything except herself. There are at least two places in the first paragraph with missing punctuation, which create a more flowing style that ignores the conventions of correct writing. This can be likened to and foreshadows the use of stream of consciousness in Part Three of Wide Sargasso Sea, where Antoinette, now ignoring set concepts of correct and incorrect behavior loses her grip on sanity altogether and adopts a more freewheeling narrative style that mirrors the chaos in her mind.

The second and third paragraph offer farther foreshadowing into Antoinette’s future: after discussing the ostracizing of her family in greater detail, Antoinette concludes the second paragraph with “(My father, visitors, horses, feeling safe in bed—all belonged to the past.)” This last sentence’s meaning is clear: Antoinette is implying that riches and security—the things she took comfort in growing up—no longer exist for her, that the world she lives in now is different, darker, and more dismal. Again, one can see the use of foreshadowing, even though the novel is just beginning. Additionally, in the third paragraph Antoinette discusses Mr. Luttrell, the family neighbor and only friend, who suddenly disappears at sea without volition after shooting his dog. Mr. Luttrell’s sudden and unexplained exit from the narrative forecast the lost sense of self that Antoinette feels in the latter half of Wide Sargasso Sea as the people and things she could depend on in the past no longer become trustworthy, making her lose her grip on sanity.

Although initially just a beginning to a novel, Jean Rhys is already slipping hints to the reader as to understand the setting of 1840s Jamaica and the complex race and gender relations that encompass society during that time, as well as dropping frequent implications regarding Antoinette’s descent into an undependable and hellish world, where order and control do not exist.

Wide Sargasso Sea and What It Means To Be Free

Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea takes place soon after the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 was put into action. In late December of 1831 an immense slave revolt called The Baptist War or Christmas Rebellion transpired in Jamaica. Its purpose was for the slaves to receive working wage for their labor. Although it began as a simple strike, after the slaves were refused wages of any kind, it developed into a putsch when the plantation owners refused to meet the slave's demands. The sheer scope of this uprising,a 10 day movement which saw over 60,000 of Jamaica's slaves joining the movement,  led it become the most substantial slave insurgence in all the British West Indies. Due to the incalcuable loss of lives and destruction of property, the British Parliament held two inquiries which greatly contributed to the signing of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.
In the beginning, only slaves below the age of 6 were actually freed in the colonies, everyone above this age became an "apprentice," although this too was soon abolished as well, due to peaceful protests. The former slave owners were awarded a total of 20 million pounds in total for their loss.

Interestingly, the Slavery Abolition Act was repealed in its entirety in 1998. Although it did not make slavery legal in the United Kingdom once more, it did in fact overrule other laws that were signed into practice along with it:

"An Act to promote the reform of the statute law by the repeal, in accordance with recommendations of the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission, of certain enactments which (except in so far as their effect is preserved) are no longer of practical utility, and to make other provision in connection with the repeal of those enactments." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_Law_(Repeals)_Act_1998



The leader of The Christmas Rebellion, Baptist deacon Samuel Sharpe, is now a national hero in Jamica and his likeness adorns the island nation's currency.

Cause of Antoinette's Insanity

So far, I have read up to the part of the story at which Antoinette explains to Rochester the truth concerning the rumors he has been told by Daniel Cosway. At this point in the novel, many people seem to believe that Antoinette is insane. As a reader, because I clearly see Antoinette’s perspective on her life when she narrates the story, I do not believe she is insane. Having read Jane Eyre, however, I know that at some point she will become insane.  I also believe that when she finally becomes truly insane, it will be caused by the people she is surrounded by, either in Jamaica or England.  I have made this prediction because from Antoinette’s narrations, she seems to be a mostly normal woman who has little anger against the world around her or people she knows.  The only points in the novel at which she seems to dislike the world or people around her (in my opinion the beginnings of insanity) occur when other people upset her somehow.  An example of this occurs in the beginning of the novel, when Antionette describes her mother as somewhat distant, especially when she gets older.  This coldness is seen in a quote in which Antoinette describes her mother as having, “…pushed me away, not roughly but calmly, coldly, without a word, as if she had decided once and for all that I was useless to her.” (page 11).  Another quote notes almost all of the people Antoinette had to learn from and befriend as she grew up:  “These were all the people in my life – my mother and Pierre, Christophine, Godfrey, and Sass who had left us.” (page 13).  Most of these people are people Antoinette would have had trouble befriending had she tried.  Godfrey was apparently a generally disliked man who would probably have been a bad role model for Antoinette and too old to befriend as a child.  Pierre likely had trouble communicating because of his mental disability and thus would not have been someone Antoinette could befriend.  Sass obviously was not available as a friend, so the only person in the quote Antoinette could have had any relationship with was Christophine.  Christophine was luckily a good role model, but not a good sole friend to have as child because she was an adult.  Tia, not named in the quote, seemed to be a friend of Antoinette’s, although she is described as being very unfriendly to Antoinette.  This is shown by the parts of the story in which she stole Antoinette’s pennies and threw a rock at Antoinette’s face.  Therefore, Antoinette seems to have had few healthy relationships growing up in Coulibri, a fact which probably contributes to her eventual anger towards everyone around her and development of insanity.  She later lives at a convent as a child, but even there she seems to have no healthy relationships with others her age.  This is shown by the part of the story when the other children make fun of her before entering her first class.  Later descriptions of her life at the convent do not display any friendships Antoinette has with any other students.  Later in life when Antoinette lives with Rochester in Jamaica, the servants who live with her do not seem to be friendly towards her.  Instead, they are only described as serving Antoinette or Rochester’s needs.  The only friendly person to Antoinette in this part of the book is again Christophine.  This lack of healthy relationships had by Antoinette while growing up is a problem that is common with many people known to have antisocial personality disorders.  Thus, I do not believe, as many characters in the novel seem to, that Antoinette will inherit insanity from her parents.  Instead, I believe Antoinette was driven insane because she was not satisfied with healthy relationships for most of her life.  

Hidden Within Her Work

After doing some research on Jean Rhys, I found out she did not have the smoothest life.  She apparently was an alcoholic and was arrested at some point for being drunk and disorderly.  She also had to get married a few times and was at times a homewrecker.  A lot of her work seems like she was writing about herself and almost venting.  She had a husband and 2 kids (one died at birth).  Her husband was imprisoned, and that was when she began writing after being taken under the wing of Ford Maddox Ford.  Rhys lived with Ford and his wife in 1924.

Her first novel, Postures (1928) was described as "the fate of the innocent, helpless victim who do not have control of her own life."  According to the website posted at the bottom of this post, which has a more detailed explanation about everything, this book was actually about the affair she ended up having with Ford.  In the book apparently the main character is a woman who's husband was imprisoned, and while he was gone, the woman is seduced by a friend.  Amongst her other novels, there is After Leavin Mr Mackenzie, (1931) which is about a woman who is separated by her lover and has set off to live in cheap hotels where apparently she would talk to herself. 

The second novel I mentioned is basically parallel towhat happened Rhys, and it seems as if she considered her writing as a form of talking to herself.  If that was how she looked at writing it is kind of inspiring that she was able to take to something she loved and use that as a way to release her inner demons which she evidently had plenty of.  She was criticized by others for her opposition of slavery which obviously was a mindset ahead of her time. One last interesting quote taken from her autobiography:
 "Black women Rhys considered stronger than white - 'Dear God, let me be black,' she wrote in her autobiography."- I found this to be a very powerful statement, considering the time period.  She was clearly very troubled. 

 http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rhys.htm Heres the article that I got my information from if anyone is interested in more details.

Insanity and Feminism Throughout Literature

The first thing I thought of when we began talking about and reading Wide Sargasso Sea, was a short story I read last year in class called The Yellow Wallpaper.  The Yellow Wallpaper is about a woman, who has supposedly gone insane, and is banished to the attic in the summer home of her and her husband.  While locked in the attic, it becomes the only safe place for her to be, and inside the wallpaper she believes is a woman trapped behind the ugliness and smell of the paper.  She is determined to take down the paper and free the woman trapped behind the paper.  In the beginning of the story, you are told she had just given birth to a baby, so all of these actions would today be known as postpartum depression.  The story is a lot more involved and at the end, she crawls around the room as though she is the women that she has just set free from behind the wallpaper, and actually is pretty funny and creepy how it is written.  Here is a link to the full text of the writing, I really enjoyed the piece and it isn’t too long, definitely worth at least looking over: http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/wallpaper.html

In the beginning of The Yellow Wallpaper as in the beginning of Wide Sargasso Sea, neither woman seems to be as insane as the people labeling them like to think that they are.  It’s only until they are locked away in a room to continuously think and over analyze what is happening and what they are feeling that the insanity becomes more and more prominent.  Like what was said in class, when anyone is forced into solitude and all they have are the thoughts going around in their mind, the sanest person would eventually go insane.  These novels all take an interesting spin on feminism and how a woman is treated in a patriarchal society.  How differently things would be, had they not been married to the man they were married to.  For many, that is what the women in The Yellow Wallpaper saying she is finally free is about, finally being free from the marriage that has made her so miserable.  Throughout Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette definitely had her moments of insanity before she was locked away to a room, but wouldn’t anyone go somewhat mad, after being raised by a mother like hers and having lived a young life the way she did?  Antoinette has a need for protection and to feel safe, she is in constant need of these feelings.  And for the most part, feels more comfortable around black people and not her own people.  The constant not being able to be a part of society that accepts her for who she is, and having a husband that won’t give her the comfort that she needs, is enough to drive her to insanity.  This insanity though comes from never fitting in and always being a part of a patriarchal society that didn’t understand her needs.  Most in our society that don’t feel like they fit in or are outcasts, eventually are driven to outlandish insanity too.

The Fires in Wide Sargasso Sea

One of the principle ideas that is present throughout Wide Sargasso Sea is the idea that Antoinette doesn't really belong anywhere. Due to her ethnic background she is rejected in the land where she is raised, and because of her ethnic background and because of where she was raised she finds nothing but rejection and isolation in England. This idea manifests itself in a physical sense in the form of fire twice in the novel, causing literal destruction as well as burning away Antoinette's sense of self.

When it comes to Antoinette's childhood home, tensions between the black servants of the area and the white creoles are constantly simmering. Antoinette faces near constant abuse and harassment because of her light skin, and her mother repeatedly warns Mr. Mason that it is not safe to stay where they are. Tensions boil over and her mother's fears are confirmed when black servants set fire to Antoinette's home. The fire isn't enough however, when the family comes outside they are faced with stones and shouts of "Look the white niggers! Look the damn white niggers!" from the angry mob that has gathered. Antoinette is caught between her childhood going up in flames and the people who have made it so shouting even more hate, and she is forced to come to grips with just how rejected she is in this community, the only one she's ever known. The fire is a symbol for any hope that Antoinette has of a normal life being destroyed, a symbol of her being lost.

The second fire is implied in Wide Sargasso Sea, but Antoinette dreams it and anyone who has read Jane Eyre that there actually is a large fire that occurs at Rochester's mansion during the last act of the novel. This fire is set firmly during Antoinette's stream of consciousness section which coincides with her descent in to madness, and her dream reflects that. She imagines one of the common rooms as a church, and sees images of many of her family as she sets fire to Rochester's drapes. Having left her home and taken to someplace that seems more nightmare than reality, Antoinette dreams of setting fire to her master's house--though initially she doesn't know why. It is only when she wakes and waits for Grace Poole to go to sleep that she reflects "Now at last I know why I was brought here and what I have to do" (Rhys 112). The dream inspires her to set the actual fire, representing the first real directive to action she's had since making it to England. This fire represents Antoinette trying to carve her own place in the world since no one else will allow her one--she'll set fire to the place that has imprisoned her as a way to get back at those who would have her silenced. While the first fire in the novel represents loss and a lack of belonging, the second fire will represent redemption.

Jamaica's Complex Race Relations in Wide Sargasso Sea

Within the first section of Wide Sargasso Sea, the reader is bombarded with the dynamics of the complex race relations on the island of Jamaica following the emancipation of the slaves. From Rhys’ dialogue early on in the novel, the reader observes first-hand the newly empowered black population on the island. I was intrigued by Tia’s insults of Antoinette in the first section, Rhys writes, “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” (14). Clearly, Tia is inferring that Antoinette is a member of the “old time white people”. It seems that former slaves are already considering themselves superior to their ex-slave owners. From Tia’s commentary it is apparent that the accumulation of wealth is the distinguishing factor between ‘real white people’ and ‘white n*ggers’. It is interesting to see that the former slaves of Jamaica are not used to seeing whites that weren’t affluent.

Following emancipation, ex-slave holders had a hard time converting their former slave force to a force of free laborers. Despite the money that was paid to them by the English government for their lost work force, many fell on hard times. Because of this swift decline, freed slaves felt the need to realign their views of race since money no longer separated them from their ex-masters .  For many ex-slave owners and their families, racial prejudice was used against them due to their poverty, past transgressions upon Jamaican slaves, and their minority status in terms of population (whites were outnumbered by freed slaves twenty to one).

This link has some pretty interesting facts about Jamaica and the Emancipation of 1838: http://www.jis.gov.jm/special_sections/This%20Is%20Jamaica/emancipation.html

Why Antoinette Wanted a Looking-Glass

This book reminded me a lot of the ghazals that we studied in the beginning of the semester. We learned how mirrors were used in ghazals to symbolize self-reflection and self-understanding. Did anyone else notice the use of the looking-glasses in Wide Sargasso Sea? Antoinette mention them several times. One of the first uses is when she is at the convent. "We have no looking-glass in the dormitory, once I saw the young nun from Ireland looking at herself in a cask of water, smiling to see if her dimples were still there" (30). Even though these women are in a convent and they are all supposed to look similar and plain, this women still wanted to make sure she had her dimples, which were a unique physical characteristic that set her apart from others. The mirror is used as a source of individualism.

At the end of the book when Antoinette is in England, she describes her room and complains that "there is no looking-glass here and I don't know what I am like now" (116). I think the wording here is important. Antoinette does not say that she can't see what she looks like, but rather she can't  see what she is like. It seems like she needs the mirror to reflect what her personality is like.

I wonder if this has any correlation to the topic of insanity we discussed in class, and how a person is only insane if others declare it. Maybe Antoinette wanted to see her own reflection so that she would understand how other people were viewing her. Any thoughts?

Here is an article on the history of mirrors and how they shaped individualism. It goes into detail about the importance of mirrors throughout history, and how they were used for other purposes other than satisfying vanity. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/500284.html

Mary Lou Emery's Views on Jean Rhys

In her literary criticism "Modern Crosscurrents," Mary Lou Emery investigates Jean Rhys as a writer and how her identity could have translated into her writings.

Emery identifies Rhys as a female, West Indian writer who does her work under the influence of European modernism; she sees Rhys participation in literary movements with such larger social contexts as very influential. In her analysis, Emery considers two approaches. The first approach considers European literary ideas of “character” and “self.” The second approach considers how Rhys’ ideologies built from identity can be conflicting and at the same time critical of the “colonizing countries’ concepts and values even if governed by them.”

Emery believes that Jean Rhys’ life experiences, “her upbringing in Domenica, various jobs in England with traveling theatrical companies followed by a disastrous love affair, a marriage, and a period spent wandering in Europe,” were very impactful of the novel. Rhys was often described as an “outsider among outsiders,” as a female writer and living in a world dominated by men. Rhys was married three times, gave birth to two children, and struggled with alcohol dependence among other social issues. She became marginalized.



How do you think these issues show up in “Wide Sargasso Sea”?

A Shift in Power in the Wide Sargasso Sea

When beginning this novel, I found myself struggling. I could not emerge myself into the story. All the notes on the bottom of the pages, I felt as though I was reading two separate novels; one fictional and the other non-fictional. Once I got the hang of the structure of this novel I really got into it. The first theme I picked up on was the transition of power. From the abolishment of slavery both whites and blacks are recreating their identities in this new world. Many whites are going from being wealthy to living an impoverished life. Whites in Dominica are not only dealing with impoverishment in the economic standards but also in a loss of power. During part one, Antoinette runs into many characters who do not like her because of the color of her skin. One little girl sings a song to Antoinette as she walks down the street, “Go away white cockroach, go away, go away. White cockroach, go away, go away. Nobody want you. Go away” (13). The interesting dynamic  in this novel is that Antoinette was not alive while slavery was still legally allowed, but she is paying for the actions of her ancestors because of the color of her skin. The same way slaves were forced into to slavery because of the color of their skin. The thriving of power and identity is coming full circle during the beginning of the novel. There is also a part in the novel where Antoinette is playing with her friend Tia and they get into an argument about money, “Keep them then, you cheating nigger...That’s not what she hear, she said. She hear all we poor like beggar… Old time white people nothing but white nigger now, and black nigger better than white nigger” (14). This quote really highlights the shift in power, not exactly from white to black but definitely out of the white people’s hands. It also shows the consiquences of slavery not only for blacks but also for whites. There is a desperate feeling of trying to create an identity where one was lost.

Feelings of Power

     There are various groups of people in the first part of the book that hold different amounts of power.  That power is based off of beliefs and the background of the people.    Annette, Mr. Mason, Christophine and the workers on the estate all have their own forms of power over themselves and others.  At first Antoinette’s childhood is simple and she feels at home even though she is the only white child in the area.  She feels equal until her encounter with the black girl on page 6. “One day a little girl followed me singing, ‘Go away white cockroach, go away, go away‘ I walked fast but she walked faster, ‘White cockroach go away, go away, go away’.”  After this Antoinette runs home and hides until Chistophine finds her.  The other girl feels a sense of power over Antoinette, even though she is part of the “elite” she knows the strength of her people and how their numbers are greater.  Mr. Mason feels that he has power over the workers due to his status and how he views the workers.  “They are curious. It’s natural enough.  You have lived alone far too long, Annette. You imagine enmity which doesn’t exist.  Always one extreme or the other.” - “They’re too damn lazy to be dangerous”.  Mr. Mason underestimates the workers and that gives him a sense of power, thinking they could not be a danger to him.  The workers also feel a sense of power as they gather to burn the house.  They have the numbers advantage and the they have been insulted by Mr. Mason so they are spurred into action.  The power remains with them until the parrot dies and Christophine comes out, then the power has shifted to the Obeah and superstition.  “I heard someone say something about bad luck and remembered that it was very unlucky t o kill a parrot, or even to see a parrot die. They began to go then, quickly, silently, and those  that were left drew aside and watched us as we trailed across the grass. They were not laughing any more.”  The various characters in the book move in and out of power positions due to their actions and how they view themselves at the time.  When a character feels like they hold power, like Mr. Mason, they act on it and whether or not they do hold power is irrelevant, as they spur another group into response.  That group or person may or may not affect the balance of power but since they are affected by it, it alters their view and changes how the power is viewed.  I found a link to a website that looks at some of the themes of power in The Wide Sargasso Sea as well, http://www.shmoop.com/wide-sargasso-sea/power-theme.html.

A Sexual Revolution in Red Patent Leather Shoes

It's old news, but today I discovered an article about Aliaa Elmahdy's photographic protest. I thought it would spark some relevant discussion because Elmahdy used an internet blog as a tool for global communication and social protest, and her description of social structures in Egypt reminded me of the oppression we studied in Tagore's The Home and the World.

Aliaa Elmahdy posted a nude photograph on her blog- wearing only sheer, thigh-high tights and red patent leather shoes. Her explanation for publicizing the photo on her blog and other social forums like Twitter and Facebook, was:

Put on trial the artists’ models who posed nude for art schools until the early 70s, hide the art books and destroy the nude statues of antiquity, then undress and stand before a mirror and burn your bodies that you despise to forever rid yourselves of your sexual hangups before you direct your humiliation and chauvinism and dare to try to deny me my freedom of expression.

In a CNN interview published in 2011, she also states that "Most Egyptians are secretive about sex because they are brought up thinking sex is something bad and dirty and there is no mention of it in schools. Sex to the majority is simply a man using a woman with no communication between them and children are just part of an equation. To me, sex is an expression of respect, a passion for love that culminates into sex to please both sides." Elmahdy speaks openly about her relationship with boyfriend Kareem, her use of sexual protection, and her adoration for the female body as aesthetically beautiful.

In another article, Chris Monty writes that "Nudity is looked down upon in Egyptian society, even as a form of art. Elmahdy’s posting is almost unheard of in a country where most women in the Muslim majority wear a headscarf and rarely wear clothes exposing the arms or legs in public." Elmahdy expresses distaste for the veil, which she says some Egyptian women wear merely to escape the public backlash and harassment that would ensue if they shed it. She is living in a time of conservatism and female oppression. The SCAF responded to a political protest in Tahrir by giving the women activists virginity tests- thrusting two fingers into their private areas.

What do you think of Elmahdy's decision to pose nude?

How do you think this Egyptian news compares to Bimala's revolution in the Indian novel The Home and the World?

Also, we use this blog as an educational tool to discuss class readings. What do you think of Elmahdy's use of the internet to achieve global media coverage and garner support?

The Peppered Moth and Fordlandia: Matacao in Real Life?

I loved the way that environmental issues were presented using magical realism in Through the Arc of the Rain Forest. In the middle of the book, the ball in front of Kazumasa Ishimaru's head was describing that "what was most interesting about the discovery of the rain forest parking lot  was the way in which nature had moved to accommodate and make use of it" (100). The grotesque deformities of the animals that had inhabited this particular section of the rain forest were over-exaggerated and unrealistic, but they somehow captured the mood of what is actually taking place in the Amazon, and other environmental areas being effected by industrialization and cultivation. He describes how "the entomologists were shocked to discover that their rare butterfly only rested in the vinyl seats of Fords and Chevrolets and that their exquisite reddish coloring was actually due to a steady diet of hydrated ferric oxide, or rusty water" (100). Ew. He then goes on to describe a new species of mice. "These mice had developed suction cups on their feet that allowed them to crawl up the slippery sides and bottoms of the aircraft and cars" (100). This wouldn't actually happen to mice in the real world (or at least not anytime soon I hope) but there have been famous cases in the past where animals have been forced to genetically change to adapt to the quickly-changing environment caused by humans. I think the most famous example that most of us learned in school alongside our basic studies of the Industrial Revolution was the evolution of the peppered moth. Here is a short video that quickly explains this evolution.

Although this was recently scientifically proven to be false (apparently there were already variations in the color of this moth prior to the industrial revolution), I think that a similar issue is of concern to Yamashita and she does a brilliant job of expressing that concern using magical realism.

For those of you who are interested in the environmental history of the rainforest, I highly suggest (if you haven't already) looking into Fordlandia. Fordlandia was a suburban town created by the Ford Motor Company in the beginning of the 21st century to house Ford workers in the Amazon. The company was tired of paying for over-priced rubber through Great Britain, so Henry Ford decided to grow his own rubber in the Amazon. His company burnt acres and acres of trees down to make room for new rubber trees. However, Ford's limited knowledge of how to actually grow rubber and his stubborn refusal to seek professional help contributed to the downfall of Fordlandia (not to mention the disease, starvation, and clashes with the native people). Traces of Fordlandia are still left behind. Buildings, water towers, mailboxes, and fire hydrants are now overgrown. Yamashita's description of the "rain forest parking lot" is considerably similar to the actual remnants of Fordlandia (100). Here's a link to a brief description of Fordlandia and what it looks like today. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105068620.

The Only Warmth She Knows in England

Rochester’s viewpoint of Antoinette’s homeland is drastically different from her own narrative.  As he stares at Amelie, Rochester reflects: "A lovely little creature but sly, spiteful, malignant perhaps, like much else in this place" (65). The sea creeps "stealthily forwards and backwards," Antoinette's eyes are "long, sad, dark alien eyes," and the "rain began to drop down the back of [Rochester's] neck adding to [his] feeling of discomfort and melancholy" (66-67). He is a spectator looking in, and he is consistently uncomfortable and intimidated by Antoinette’s world. "Everything is too much, I felt as I rode wearily after her. Too much blue, too much purple, too much green. The flowers too red, the mountains too high, the hills too near. And the woman is a stranger" (70). 

In contrast, Antoinette’s descriptions of the Caribbean are full of admiration for its untamed life. She describes her garden as “large and beautiful as that garden in the Bible- the tree of life grew there. But it had gone wild. The paths were overgrown…Orchids flourished out of reach or for some reason not to be touched. One was snaky looking, another like an octopus with long thin brown tentacles…” (19). She speaks of bathing pools, eating with her fingers, and lying half-awake from the stimulation of the world around her. She feels safe in the protecting arms of the cliffs, high mountains, and sea. Even when her house is torched and Aunt Cora shields her eyes from the burning image of the parrot alight, she does not feel contempt for her homeland. “Nothing would be left, the golden ferns and the silver ferns, the orchids, the ginger lilies and the roses, the rocking-chairs and the blue sofa, the jasmine and the honeysuckle, and the picture of the Miller’s Daughter” (45). She feels remorse for the loss of so many beautiful things. 

In her article, "And it Kept its Secret: Narration, Memory,and Madness in Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea” Kathy Mezei theorizes that at the core of Antoinette's first person narrative is the secret that she is telling her story in order to resist madness. "By her act of narration, she retains her tenuous fragile hold on sanity, on life itself, since to narrate is to live, to order a life, to 'make sense' out of it...Antoinette survives only as long as she creates narratives" (197). Her urgent need to preserve her memories is most prevalent in lapses into the present tense. Mezei uses the example of Antoinette saying: "Quickly while I can, I must remember the hot classroom" (53). She is afraid that she is losing her mind, forgetting. Mezei’s article may provide some explanation for Antoinette’s descriptions- dripping with color, nostalgia, and love. She is trying to recreate her home in the cold, dark attic in England where she is slipping into madness propelled by her ostracism. Rhys writes that there must be a “reason why [Antoinette] tries to set everything on fire, and eventually succeeds. (Personally, I think that one is simple. She is cold- and fire is the only warmth she knows in England)" (Letters, p. 157).