Mirrors Mirrors

Honestly, none of the points Spivak made stood out to me, which is why it has taken me till Sunday night to respond. She didn’t seem to have any strong points, only things we have heard before. I also must agree that her language was very difficult. Her essay made for a difficult read, but I did make out a vague generalization of points, again, which made it difficult to respond. I will say I did like how she pointed out the “images of mirroring,” (WSS 242). I was glad to see that the things that seemed connected to me, where also seen a connection for someone else.
The fact that Tia is a mirror image of Antoinette is one point of mirroring Spivak points to, and it is interesting to me that Tia is also the rejection of Antoinette in her own world. We see this many times; while they play by the water, Tia steals her clothes (WSS 14), Tia throwing a rock at her, as part of a riotous local group (WSS 27). Even though Tia is her friend and the reflection of her as a native, she portrays the force of rejection and disintegration that Antoinette clearly faces. It is funny to me that Rhys builds this character of companionship for Antoinette in Tia, then shows us how even in her friendships, there is no loyalty. This in itself mirrors all of the relationships Antoinette has throughout her life. We see this in her mother who abandons her, her real father who left her, her stepfather and stepbrother who sold her, her husband who buys her and gives up on her, keeping her in bondage, and her closest friend Christophine who for all we know has kept her drugged her whole life to keep her under her control as well.
In the bigger picture, this story novella could be a story of a young woman growing up in a world of abandonment and rejection, and Spivak supports that point by showing us the ideas mirrored throughout.

The Crazies

I have to start of stating how much I enjoyed reading Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. It was full of imagery, culture, superstition, and structure. There were a few things that stood out to me as particularly interesting, you know, those things you underline for no real purpose other than to come back to later and ponder, or just because they are amusing. However, I must say that I read the first 20 pages before I remembered I was reading a novella for class and needed to pay attention to the details, it was just that easy to get wrapped up in! The first of these things that caught my interest was the way Christophine was referred to as “a Martinique obeah woman,” (WSS 17). I had never heard this reference before, so luckily there was a footnote describing it. Obeah being a woman who basically practices her “magic” to bring wealth and good fortune to her clients, it is clear why she is assigned this role. It adds to the perspective that the natives commonly engage in the practice of such superstitious activities. The second thing that really stood out to me as peculiar was something Antoinette portrays during her stay at the convent. Up to this point we have a pretty clear perspective of her characters thoughts and feelings towards her life and surroundings, then in one scene she shows something very opposite, “and my mother, whom I must forget and pray for as though she were dead, though she is living, liked to dress in white,” (WSS 33). As she is giving us a description of something completely unrelated, she throws in this line about her mother and her need to consider her mother as dead, when she knows she is still alive came off in a very different tone than the rest of her thoughts. I wonder if this new perspective was influenced by her new lifestyle and teaching there at the convent. This seems to be a point where her character goes though a big change.
Those are some of the interesting things I came across in the first half of this novella. I can’t wait to finish it!