Review of Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

The reading that I chose for this assignment is from Chapter Six in the required book for class “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History”. The chapter title is “The Sea Around Us” where the primary concentration of the chapter was the consequences that humans have on the planet with the focus on ocean acidification. This happens from the carbon dioxide we pump into the air and it slowly seeps back down into the oceans and slowly increases the PH level thus causing the ocean to be more acidic. In about one hundred years do you believe that, oysters, mussels, and coral reefs survive?

for; we are introduced to her from when she is young so we know and

“On such a full sea” is a novel written by Chang-Rae Lee. The story is about a journey of a nineteen-year old girl name Fan. She works in the tanks diving and keeping it clean, nurturing the fish and just looking after the welfare of the fish. This is one of the most important jobs for the city of B-Mor because it is one of the major ways the city can get their revenue. They sell the fish to the Charter village. Fan’s journey starts when one-day Fan’s boyfriend Reg disappeared from B-more due to the governmental-pharmaceutical cartel she decides to leave B-Mor on the search of Reg. She explores the different social classes from the open counties, which is the low-class society and there is a high rate of crimes such as murder, robbery, and aggressive

In Jean Rhys' novel Wide Sargasso Sea, whether Antoinette Cosway really goes mad in the end is debatable. Nevertheless, it is clear that her life is tragic. The tragedy comes from her numerous pursuits for love and a sense of belonging, and her failure at each and every one of these attempts.

A patriarchal society is a world in which men are the sole decision makers and hold positions of power. As a result, women are introduced to a world made by men, and a history refined by a man 's actions. In Jean Rhys 's Wide Sargasso Sea, conceptions of gender are purposefully problematized. Women characters such as Antoinette and Christophine are pitilessly exposed to constraints of an imperial world.Wide Sargasso Sea presents a modern form of feminism which takes into account the intricacy of male-female interactions to find that efforts to surpass gender norms are despairing.

In the novel Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, Antoinette Mason’s identity is frequently discussed. Antoinette, the daughter of ex-slave owners and a woman whose life is dictated by mental illness, grows up in the Caribbean as a Creole during the nineteenth century. As a young adult, she is forced into a marriage with a white man from England, an event that ultimately leads Antoinette to her downfall. At the start of the novel, Antoinette and the characters around her are optimistic about their identity and future. As the plot progresses, Antoinette increasingly struggles to understand who she is and what her future entails. Ultimately, Antoinette loses her identity and her purpose. Throughout the text there are many reoccurring motifs. A motif

Mr. Vincent’s “too-passionate” disposition, addiction to gambling, and impulsive nature created many problems for him in the novel. All of these characteristics were seen, at the time of the novel, as characteristics of Creoles. Whether or not it was intentional, Maria Edgeworth’s portrayal of Mr. Vincent made it seem as though all of his faults were because he was a Creole, and as a result, Mr. Vincent’s Creoleness is what ultimately led to his

Authors, Jean Rhys and Charlotte Bronte constructed their novels in completely different time periods and came from different influences in writing. Jean Rhys’s fiction book, Wide Sargasso Sea is an interesting relation to Jane Eyre. The female character of Jane Eyre forms into a furiously, passionate, independent young woman. The female character of Jean Rhys’s illustration is a character that Jane will know further on as Rochester’s crazy wife who is bolted in an attic. Jean Rhys further studies this character, where as Charlotte Bronte approved that it was left explained (Thorpe 175). Antoinette, considerably like Jane, evolves in a world with minimal amount of love to offer. Both these women are taken cared of as children by

Furthermore, Jane says “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself” (Chapter 27, Bronte.) This statement greatly represents the growth that Jane has undergone. She no longer dreads the solitude that once haunted her because she respects herself enough to realize that she did not deserve to experience such great dismay. Through independence and self-recognition, Jane has discovered the importance of loving oneself. Without the reliance on the thoughts of others, the once extremely troubled girl found bliss through a lack of outside control. In regards to her relationship with Mr. Rochester, Jane understands that she must leave him behind to maintain her own well-being. She does not allow the wealth or proclaimed love from Rochester to skew her decisions and she does not linger to dominate the life of her lover. Instead, she moves forward to continue her endless pursuit of happiness and independence.

Even in her state of anger she cannot help but once again be the restrained and subdued one in their relationship. Despite all of the happiness she has found with Rochester she still cannot bring herself to stay in a relationship in which she sacrifices part of herself, because she doesn’t know how to reconcile her need feel like she belongs and is taken care of while at the same time remaining uncorrupted.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys shows the delicate balance between madness and sanity. Throughout both novels there is a lot of unusual behavior to say the least from Antoinette. There are many factors that can have a detrimental effect on one’s mental stability which is shown blatantly through the relationship between Antoinette and Bertha. This shows the relationship and balance between inherited factors and environmental influences such as other people and events that are happening around the person.

Gordon, Alan. "Dreams in Wide Sargasso Sea." Dreams in Wide Sargasso Sea. Victorian Web, 21 May 2004. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.

Stereotypical attributes traditionally associated with women, such as having a propensity to madness, or being irrational, frivolous, dependent, decorative, subordinate, scheming, manipulative, weak, jealous, gossiping, vulnerable and deceitful were common in the times relevant to both works, i.e. Ancient Greece and in the 19th and early 20th Century.

this is a dangerous place for them to be in, and that, like Eden, the

The island is also a powerful means of conveying the traits of the characters. This is made possible by the fact that it appears to change depending on who is regarding it. The initial responses of the characters to their arrival on the island illustrates this ides. For Gonzalo it is temperate and full of possibility – he dreams of a commonwealth “t’excell the Golden Age”. For Antonio it is barren and unforgiving; he remarks it has “everything, save means to live”. The archcriminals Antonio and Sebastian mock the advisors observation that their clothes are undamaged and cleaner than before, but this is an interesting metaphor for the function of the island setting. The characters have been refreshed rather than hurt by their shipwreck; and, as in all Elizabethan romances, providence offers them a new