Racism In Wide Sargasso Sea By Jean Rhys

Superior Essays
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys discusses White-Black relations during a crucial changing point in the West Indies. According to Maria Olaussen, the Wide Sargasso Sea showed that racism was still alive during the setting 's time, although the Emancipation Act, otherwise known as the Abolition of Slavery Act, had already been put in place (65). In my own opinion, I believe that Rhys showed racism with her characters throughout her work of the Wide Sargasso Sea. In Wide Sargasso Sea racism between the White and Black races in the book can be seen in the background and history of the time era that Jean Rhys wrote the book, the search for racial identity, and in the text when those of the Black race and the White race are in contact or have conversations. …show more content…
An example of the resistance to forget the past after the Emancipation Act can be seen in the Wide Sargasso Sea when Christophine thought and said, "No more slavery! She had to laugh! 'These new ones have Letter of the Law. Same thing. The got magistrate. They got fine. They got jail house and chain gang. They got tread machine to mash up people 's feet. New ones worse than old ones- more cunning, that 's all ' " …show more content…
Antionette 's husband, although not specified is thought to be Mr. Rochester, showed that racism still existed in this post-slavery area when he kicked Christophine off of the island when she spoke up against the injustice that Rochester was causing to Antoinette, with her affection and with her money (1071-1072). Rhys portrays this conversation when Christophine said, "And she love you and give you all she have. Now you say you don 't love her and you break her up. What you do with her money, eh? '" leaving Rochester to respond with, "Leave the West Indies if you don 't want her no more" (158). Mardorossian stated that this action from Rochester shows that "the abolition of slavery has far from eradicated the set of attitudes on which the concept of Englishness depends"

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Lorraine Hansberry’s play, “A Raisin in the Sun”, is about an African American family, the Youngers, who are surrounded by poverty, racism, and family conflict. The Youngers aspire to give themselves a better life to ultimately pass that down to future generations. Their conflict comes into play when the family receives an insurance check for $10,000 and has split decisions on what to do with it. Hansberry’s play suggests that poverty is a symptom of racism by using characters that seem to be of the typical racial stereotypes, and a setting surrounded by racial concepts. This play uses the racial stereotypes of a mammy, jezebel, profligate as well as the racial concepts of institutionalized racism, internalized racism, intraracial racism, and…

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In 1964, a giant step was taken by the people of America. Segregation was abolished and the hope for racial equality, in all senses, was high. Unfortunately, this giant step toward equality was not enough to actually get there. Many people of color face injustice to this day and biases based on the color of a person’s skin often determine where they end up in life. Walter Dean Myers writes about a 16-year old boy named Steve Harmon who is on trial for murder.…

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jasper Jones is a 2009 fictional novel by Fremantle-based writer Craig Silvey. Jasper Jones is a novel that deals with so many different issues and themes ranging from truth and lies, to stereotypes and assumptions, to the cruelty of humankind. Silvey’s novel follows the story of young Charlie Bucktin; the protagonist of the novel, a scrawny, socially awkward Caucasian thirteen-year-old living in a reginal mining town called Corrigan in the 1960s; who is late one night startled by his secret visitor, Japer Jones. Jasper Jones is known for his terrible reputation in Corrigan. He is known as a thief, a liar, a thug, a tyrant, as lazy, unreliable, feral, and he is practically an orphan because his dad is never home and always drunk.…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the late 1960 's, segregation had just been outlawed in the United States after a strenuous, nearly 15 year long civil rights movement. Still, despite this great achievement, racism and white supremacy still existed in the South. These tensions are seen throughout Pat Conroy 's memoir The Water is Wide, in which he shares his experience as a teacher on the extremely isolated Yamacraw Island. Here, a majority of his preteen students were severely undereducated African Americans, many of whom didn 't even know the alphabet.…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why would one want to retell and relive their experiences of physical, emotional, and mental abuse? In the case of human chattel enslavement, the goal was abolition – and the means were to enlighten the world about the horrors of the legal and societally accepted practice. The slave narrative is one that dates to the mid 1700’s (“Slave Narratives”), and continued into 1863 when the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves – yet the struggle for African Americans continued well into the 20th century with Jim Crow. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1789), by Olaudah Equiano, is just one of thousands of these slave narratives that depict unimaginable suffering, loss of…

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After hundred year of the emancipation proclamation, the nation was still heading in reverse. The hope of freedom that was promised by the Civil War was widely vanishing, replacing by bigotry. The segregated society in contrast of race had become a reality, shining away from the Illinois congressman’s a “new nation”; it was rather a good old nation with its racist attitude. The widely practiced Jim Crow Law and dived but equal was not only threatening the south, but it was also reflecting fear and intimidation. The country fighting a war outside of home to liberate people from prejudice, was reluctantly refusing its reality.…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    James McBride, who was the writer The Color of Water, is a great example on the hardships of racism. McBride tells us of how he and his mother were faced with struggles and still prospered though because It does not matter if he is considered Jewish or Christian; It does not matter if he is considered black or white, all that matters is that you must advance.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the United States, there is a common assumption that the Civil War marked the end of the slavery era. However, Douglas Blackmon’s book Slavery by Another Name dispels this supposition. It uncovers chilling evidence that slavery went into the 1900s. Blackmon explains that the form of slavery that was prevalent in the early 1900s is synonymous with that of the earlier years. In this regard, the book distances itself from discussions regarding institutionalized racism; it tackles the grim nature of human bondage, forced labor, cruelty, and poor living circumstances that persisted legally to the mid-twentieth century.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the literary work, Slavery by Another Name: The Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, by Douglas A. Blackmon, a critical piece of untold history regarding the issue of slavery is explored in a captivating and compelling argument stating slavery had not truly been abolished until forty-five years after the emancipation proclamation. To any human who has completed grade school through high school this claim might come to shock you, as we are told that Lincoln had freed the slaves through the emancipation proclamation in 1863. This story explores the question up for popular debate concerning the role of black men in society. The author does an excellent job of explaining to the readers that despite the great strides that were made after the civil war; slavery would continue to be a battle many would fight for a much longer period of time…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In the memoir, My Beloved World, By Sonia Sotomayor, she speaks about the ongoing hardships of growing up in a world that seems to only push you down. Sonia rose above it all, she had the strength to continue on. She speaks of the several hardships she faced throughout her life such as a poor home life, chronic illnesses, anxiety and stress, and just the disadvantages of growing up as a person on Latina descent. In the starting pages of the novel, you get a glimpse into her chaotic world.…

    • 1674 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Racism In The Secret River

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be reworked, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” The acknowledgement of history is vital in an individual’s progression to remedy past mistakes. “The Secret River” illustrates a narrative about 19th Century Australia, whilst simultaneously making comment on the treatment of Indigenous Australian’s at the time. The racist attitudes of the white settlers in the story can also be seen as the foundation of contemporary-day Australia’s casual racism. “The Secret River” articulates a vivid image of the unjust atrocities that the Aboriginal people encountered.…

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Lincoln proposed the Emancipation Proclamation during the summer of 1862. The North, the region where slavery is uncommon, showed rejection to the Emancipation, yet Lincoln kept pushing it forwards (Guelzo, 355). By doing so, Lincoln showed his determination to abolish slavery. In addition, Guelzo provided some counter-arguments which raised questions from those who looked at the history through Richard Hofstadter’s lens. One of the question was : “Did the slaves free themselves?”…

    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    CRITIQUE ANALYSIS OF “SO WHAT ARE YOU, ANYWAY?” By Lawrence Hill Racism and ethnic discrimination in the North America has been a biggest issue since the colonial times. The segregation continues to take place in many social areas such as housing, education, employment, especially for Afro-American people. 1970’s was the crucial time of the racism, many students killed by the national guards in U.S. during their protests against racial injustice. The violence followed by the Civil Rights Movement and caused awakenings of the anti-racist ideology in literature because” white against black” was not a determinable social impact.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    When a character is placed into a time of racism and hate he or she might become sullen and numb to feelings. For Amir in the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, this was exactly what happened. Amir is in Afghanistan, with his father, in the beginning of the novel. They then move to America later on, and during the ending of the book Amir spends most of his time back in Afghanistan. When surrounded by many geographical and cultural factors, Amir learns that running away from your problems does not help and he can never be perfect.…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Capitalism and Slavery In the introduction to his book Capitalism and Slavery, Eric Williams clearly states, “Here, then, is the origin of Negro slavery. The reason was economic, not racial; it had to do not with the color of the laborer, but the cheapness of the labor.” This meant that he was attempting to pursue an understanding of the economic aspects of slavery without the association of morals nor ethics. An argument that is indeed controversial in our now humanitarian-based society.…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays