ABSTRACT
ELIANI, VALENTINA RETNO. 2004. The Influences of Socio Cultural Aspects toward Antointte’s Personality Development in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. English Education Study Program, Department of Language and Art Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.
This thesis discusses Wide Sargasso Sea, a novel by Jean Rhys. The novel presents a character, Antoinette, that experiences alienation and rejection due to the existing socio cultural aspects within the society she lives. Her experiences of being alienated and rejected have influenced her personality development.
This research is meant to see one’s personality development due to the existing of socio cultural diversity as seen in Antoinette, the main character of Wide Sargasso Sea. This thesis deals with two problems, namely: 1) “How is Antoinette’s character described in this novel?” and 2) “How is Antoinette’s personality development influenced by socio cultural diversity?”
This study is library research, meaning that the data collected are taken from books, theories and any information related to the topic discussed. The theory of character and characterization is applied to answer the first problem. The theory of motivation, racial discrimination, post-colonialism (in this case, theory of katresnanism) and psychology are applied to deal with the second question. The approach used is Marxism: this is especially due to the socio-cultural aspects discussed have something to do with the concept of alienation and oppression.
The result of this study shows that Antoinette is a sensitive person who experiences rejection and alienation from the society and family. The researcher finds that the main character’s alienation is caused by her condition that she is a white Creole. Antoinette feels that her family and society do not accept her. Her being rejected from the society has affected Antoinette’s personality development. She is under pressures because she lives without love, respect and affection from the people surrounds her. Being alienated and rejected from the society and her family makes Antoinette becomes an irritable, aggressive and paranoid person. Sometimes she acts in such a way that makes her husband thinks that she is mad.
This study recommends that further researchers do a research on the patriarchal system and gender issues founding Wide Sargasso Sea. It is also suggested that the novel be used as material to teach Intensive Reading II Class.
ABSTRAK
ELIANI, VALENTINA RETNO (2004). Pengaruh Aspek Sosio Kultural Terhadap Perkembangan Kepribadian Antoinette dalam Wide Sargasso Sea oleh Jean Rhys. Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Sastra, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Skripsi ini membahas tentang Wide Sargasso Sea sebuah novel yang ditulis oleh Jean Rhys. Novel ini menceritakan seseorang yang mengalami pengasingan dan penolakan karena adanya aspek sosio kultural dalam masyarakat dia tinggal. Pengalamannya diasingkan dan ditolak telah mempengaruhi perkembangan kepribadiannya.
Penelitian dimaksudkan untuk mengetahui perkembangan kepribadian seseorang dikarenakan adanya keragaman sosio kultural seperti terlihat dalam diri Antoinette, tokoh utama dalam Wide Sargasso Sea oleh Jean Rhys. Skripsi ini menyangkut dua masalah yaitu 1) Bagaimana karakter Antoinette digambarkan dalam novel ini. 2) Bagaimana keragaman sosio kultural mempengaruhi perkembangan kepribadian Antoinette.
Penelitian ini menggunakan metode studi pustaka, yang berarti bahwa data diperoleh dari buku-buku, teori-teori dan informasi lain yang berhubungan dengan topik yang dibahas. Teori tentang karakter dan karakterisasi diterapkan untuk menjawab permasalahan yang pertama. Teori motivasi, diskriminasi ras, pos kolonialisme (dalam hal ini teori katresnanisme) dan psikologi diterapkan untuk menjawab pertanyaan kedua. Pendekatan yang digunakan adalah marxisme, karena aspek sosio kultural yang dibahas berbuhubungan dengan konsep tentang pengasingan dan penekanan.
Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa Antoinette adalah seseorang yang sensitif yang mengalami penolakan dan pengasingan dari keluarga dan masyarakat. Peneliti menemukan bahwa pengasingan terhadap tokoh utama disebabkan oleh kondisinya sebagai seorang Creole. Antoinette merasa bahwa keluarga dan masyarakat disekitarnya nya tidak menerima dia. Ditolaknya Antoinette dari masyarakat telah mempengaruhi perkembangan kepribadiannya.
Dia tertekan karena dia hidup tanpa cinta, rasa dihargai, dan kasih sayang dari orang-orang disekitarnya. Diasingkan dan ditolaknya dia dari masyarakat dan keluargnya membuat Antoinatee terluka, agresif, dan paranoid. Kadang-kadang tingkah lakunya membuat suaminya berpikir bahwa dia gila. Skripsi ini menyarankan bahwa peneliti-peneliti selanjutnya meneliti sistem patrialisme dan permasalahan gender.dalam novel Wide Sargasso Sea. Disarankan juga bahwa novel ini digunakan sebagai materi dalam kelas Intensive Reading.
THE INFLUENCES OF SOCIO CULTURAL ASPECTS TOWARD ANTOINETTE’S PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
IN JEAN RHYS’S WIDE SARGASSO SEA
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements To ObtainSarjana PendidikanDegree
in English Language Education
By
VALENTINA RETNO ELIANI Student Number: 041214014
ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
THE INFLUENCES OF SOCIO CULTURAL ASPECTS TOWARD ANTOINETTE’S PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
IN JEAN RHYS’S WIDE SARGASSO SEA
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements To ObtainSarjana PendidikanDegree
in English Language Education
By
VALENTINA RETNO ELIANI Student Number: 041214014
ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
2008
A Thesis On
THE INFLUENCES OF SOCIO CULTURAL ASPECTS TOWARD ANTOINETTE’S PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
IN JEAN RHYS’S WIDE SARGASSO SEA
By
Valentina Retno Eliani Student Number: 041214014
Approved by
Date
Dr. A. Herujiyanto, M.A. 1 December 2008
Sponsor
A Thesis on
THE INFLUENCES OF SOCIO CULTURAL ASPECTS TOWARD ANTOINETTE’S PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
IN JEAN RHYS’S WIDE SARGASSO SEA
By
VALENTINA RETNO ELIANI Student Number: 041214014
Defended before the Board of Examiners on 18 December, 2008
and Declared Acceptable
Board of Examiners
Chairman : A. Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A. ____________ Secretary : Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd. ____________
Member : Dr. A. Herujiyanto, M.A. ____________
Member : Dr. Retno Muljani., M.Pd. ____________
Member : A. Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A. ____________
Yogyakarta, 18 December 2008 Faculty of Teacher Training Education Sanata Dharma University
Dean
Drs. Tarsisius Sarkim, M.Ed., Ph.D.
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I wrote, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the bibliography, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, 1 December 2008
The writer
Valentina Retno Eliani 041214014
ABSTRACT
ELIANI, VALENTINA RETNO. 2004. The Influences of Socio Cultural Aspects toward Antointte’s Personality Development in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. English Education Study Program, Department of Language and Art Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.
This thesis discusses Wide Sargasso Sea, a novel by Jean Rhys. The novel presents a character, Antoinette, that experiences alienation and rejection due to the existing socio cultural aspects within the society she lives. Her experiences of being alienated and rejected have influenced her personality development.
This research is meant to see one’s personality development due to the existing of socio cultural diversity as seen in Antoinette, the main character of Wide Sargasso Sea. This thesis deals with two problems, namely: 1) “How is Antoinette’s character described in this novel?” and 2) “How is Antoinette’s personality development influenced by socio cultural diversity?”
This study is library research, meaning that the data collected are taken from books, theories and any information related to the topic discussed. The theory of character and characterization is applied to answer the first problem. The theory of motivation, racial discrimination, post-colonialism (in this case, theory of katresnanism) and psychology are applied to deal with the second question. The approach used is Marxism: this is especially due to the socio-cultural aspects discussed have something to do with the concept of alienation and oppression.
The result of this study shows that Antoinette is a sensitive person who experiences rejection and alienation from the society and family. The researcher finds that the main character’s alienation is caused by her condition that she is a white Creole. Antoinette feels that her family and society do not accept her. Her being rejected from the society has affected Antoinette’s personality development. She is under pressures because she lives without love, respect and affection from the people surrounds her. Being alienated and rejected from the society and her family makes Antoinette becomes an irritable, aggressive and paranoid person. Sometimes she acts in such a way that makes her husband thinks that she is mad.
This study recommends that further researchers do a research on the patriarchal system and gender issues founding Wide Sargasso Sea. It is also suggested that the novel be used as material to teach Intensive Reading II Class.
ABSTRAK
ELIANI, VALENTINA RETNO (2004). Pengaruh Aspek Sosio Kultural Terhadap Perkembangan Kepribadian Antoinette dalam Wide Sargasso Sea oleh Jean Rhys. Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Sastra, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Skripsi ini membahas tentang Wide Sargasso Sea sebuah novel yang ditulis oleh Jean Rhys. Novel ini menceritakan seseorang yang mengalami pengasingan dan penolakan karena adanya aspek sosio kultural dalam masyarakat dia tinggal. Pengalamannya diasingkan dan ditolak telah mempengaruhi perkembangan kepribadiannya.
Penelitian dimaksudkan untuk mengetahui perkembangan kepribadian seseorang dikarenakan adanya keragaman sosio kultural seperti terlihat dalam diri Antoinette, tokoh utama dalam Wide Sargasso Sea oleh Jean Rhys. Skripsi ini menyangkut dua masalah yaitu 1) Bagaimana karakter Antoinette digambarkan dalam novel ini. 2) Bagaimana keragaman sosio kultural mempengaruhi perkembangan kepribadian Antoinette.
Penelitian ini menggunakan metode studi pustaka, yang berarti bahwa data diperoleh dari buku-buku, teori-teori dan informasi lain yang berhubungan dengan topik yang dibahas. Teori tentang karakter dan karakterisasi diterapkan untuk menjawab permasalahan yang pertama. Teori motivasi, diskriminasi ras, pos kolonialisme (dalam hal ini teori katresnanisme) dan psikologi diterapkan untuk menjawab pertanyaan kedua. Pendekatan yang digunakan adalah marxisme, karena aspek sosio kultural yang dibahas berbuhubungan dengan konsep tentang pengasingan dan penekanan.
Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa Antoinette adalah seseorang yang sensitif yang mengalami penolakan dan pengasingan dari keluarga dan masyarakat. Peneliti menemukan bahwa pengasingan terhadap tokoh utama disebabkan oleh kondisinya sebagai seorang Creole. Antoinette merasa bahwa keluarga dan masyarakat disekitarnya nya tidak menerima dia. Ditolaknya Antoinette dari masyarakat telah mempengaruhi perkembangan kepribadiannya.
Dia tertekan karena dia hidup tanpa cinta, rasa dihargai, dan kasih sayang dari orang-orang disekitarnya. Diasingkan dan ditolaknya dia dari masyarakat dan keluargnya membuat Antoinatee terluka, agresif, dan paranoid. Kadang-kadang tingkah lakunya membuat suaminya berpikir bahwa dia gila. Skripsi ini menyarankan bahwa peneliti-peneliti selanjutnya meneliti sistem patrialisme dan permasalahan gender.dalam novel Wide Sargasso Sea. Disarankan juga bahwa novel ini digunakan sebagai materi dalam kelas Intensive Reading.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, from the deepest of my heart I would like to thank Jesus Christ for his amazing blessing, grace and mercy. He gives me faith that there is nothing impossible and it is the biggest spirit for me in finishing this thesis. I am indebted to my major sponsor, Drs. A. Herujiyanto, M.A., who has patiently guided me in writing this thesis. I thank all the lecturers and staffs of the English Education Study Program for their most valuable teaching during my study at this study program.
My warmest and gratitude are addressed to my beloved father, Leonardus Supardi and my beloved mother, C. Sri Supadmi for their love, trust, prayer and support all this time. I thank them for their hard work to give me the chance to study in English Education Study Program. I thank my sister and my brother, Mbak Atik and Mas Agung for their love and support that finally I can finish my study. My cousins,ErlianandUtik, for helping me exist. My special thanks go to my beloved, Ardi for loving me just the way I am, for the incredible years together, for always accompany me passing through the stressful days and for teaching me how to be the real I am
To my best friendYudhi, I thank him for always being here, be patient when I feel down in doing this thesis and all the things he has done to make me a better woman. I thankRisaandRini, for telling me what I did not know and her sincere in introducing me to a lot of new experiences. I thank all my PBI friends especially Christina, Sita, Aan, Joudi, Bram, Nana, Oon, Patpat, Tiwi, Ocan, Caycay,
Suksma, Lani, Reni Mak Geng, Sidha, Tia, Wida, Vina, Icha, Nora, Bayu, Toni for their magnificent friendship all of this time.
Valentina Retno Eliani
v
I see I have this patience to wait it out, and
the truth is no matter how dark I feel I would
never take my own life, because when the
darkness is over then what a blessing is the
feeblest ray of light!
- Valerie
Martin-I dedicate this thesis to:
My beloved Father and Mother
My beloved Sister
And those who have filled my life with love
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE ... i
PAGES OFAPPROVAL... ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... iv
ABSTRACT ... v
1.1 Background of the Study... 1
1.2 Objective of the Study... 4
1.3 Problems Formulation... 4
1.4 Benefit of the Study ... 4
1.5 Definition of Terms... 5
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW... 6
2.1 Review of Related Theories ... 6
2.1.1 Theory of Character and Characterisation ... 6
2.1.2 Theory of Motivation ... 9
2.1.3 Theory of Post colonialism andKatresnanism... 12
2.1.3.1 Theory of Post colonialism ... 12
2.1.3.1 Theory ofKatresnanism... 13
2.1.4. Theory of Racial Discrimination ... 15
2.1.5 Theory of Psychology ... 16
2.2 Criticism ... 20
2.3 Context of the Novel ... 21
2.4 Theoretical Framework ... 22
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ... 24
3.1 Subject Matter ... 24
3.2 Approach to the Study... 25
3.3 Procedure ... 26
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ... 28
4.1 Antoinette Character and Personality... 28
4.2 The Influences of Socio Cultural Aspect toward Antoinette’s Personality Development... 40
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS ... 57
5.1 Conclusion ... 57
5.2 Suggestions ... 59
5.2.1 Suggestion for Future researcher ... 59
5.2.2 Suggestion for Teaching Learning Activities Using Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea... 59
5.2.2.1 Teaching Intensive Reading II to the Second Semester Students of English Education Study Program ... 59
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 61
APPENDICES
TABLE OF APENDICES
APENDIX 1. The Summary of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea 2. Biography
3. Lesson Plan for Intensive Reading II Class
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
There are five chapters in this study. Chapter one, as an introduction, consists of five parts. The first part is Background of the Study, which provides the background information about this study, including some reasons that serve as a basis for writing this study and the importance of the topic of the study. The second part, Objectives of the Study, presents the aim of the study. The third part, Problem Formulation, states the questions of this study. The fourth part is Benefits of the Study. And for the last part, Definition of the Terms, defines the important terms used in this study.
1.1 Background of the Study
Literature is expression of life through medium of language (Hudson, 1960). Literature presents some kinds of human aspects of life such as history, psychology, moral, social and many more. We know that literature is a piece of work which portrays our daily life. One kind of literature is novel. The problems presented in a novel are the reflection of problems in our daily lives. By reading literary works, we can get some lessons of life which are closely related to human aspects of life. This fact interests me to choose novel as the subject to be analyzed. There are two aspects of human life, namely individual and social aspects. Especially for the individual aspects, they are concerned with physical changes and personality development of human life. Human’s personality development
itself is influenced by two major factors. The first major factor is human’s early experiences within the family and the second major factor is important events happening outside the home (Hurlock, 1974).
A literary work is unable to be separated from the real life since it is a presentation of the phenomena that happens in the world seen from the author’s point of view. In fact every event or phenomenon that happens in this life has its effect either on the individual who experiences it or the people around him.
In this study, the writer is going to analyze Jean Rhys’s novel. Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea is interesting because of its content and writing style. This study brings the problems of the Creole existence and lays emphasis on Antoinette's feelings of alienation due to the socio cultural diversity. In this case the white Creoles are neither part of the black slave community or accepted as European either. Those problems influence the personality development of its main character, Antoinette.
environment. Environment itself includes social and culture, other people, and experiences outside the home.
In this novel Jean Rhys sets out to show how the main character may have been driven to madness by the rejection from her family and environment. She enables us to see how the socio cultural diversity influences human personality development.
Antoinette Mason lived in Jamaica in the mid 1830. During her lifetime, she had been discriminated from inside or outside the home. Antoinette lived with her family. Since the death of her father, Antoinette had been ignored by her mother, who was obsessed with her sick son, Pierre. She had only one friend, Tia, who later left her, stole her dress and thrown stone at her. The only person who loved and cares about her is Christophine, her nanny. Christophine practices obeah, or magic. Ironically Christophine’s magic cannot save her from her unhappy marriage which causes her to lose her happiness, name, money and freedom. It is because of the bad treatment from her husband who manipulates her life. How her mother’s treatment towards her has given significant influences to her personality development. Antoinette and her family as a Creole socially rejected from both of the black and the better of white communities. Antoinette becomes increasingly fearful of other people and her condition.
1.2 Objective of the Study
The aim of this study is to see one’s personality development due to the existing of socio cultural diversity as seen in Antoinette, the main character of Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea.
1.3 Problem Formulation
Based on the information above, there are two questions to be discussed in this study:
1. How is Antoinette’s character described in this novel?
2. How is Antoinette’s personality development influenced by the socio cultural diversity around her?
1.4 Benefits of the Study
The study has the benefits for the readers generally and for the students or other researchers who want to conduct such kind of literary work. The readers can enrich their knowledge of literary study, particularly the Jamaica society and cultural aspect and how these socio cultural aspects can influence personality development. I hope that this study is to highlight the idea of the novel that would make the readers understand about the story of the Jane Rhys’s Wide Sargaso Sea.
1.5 Definitions of Terms
1. Racial Discrimination
According to Rawins William Beck (1993: 436), racial discrimination is presents people are treated differently than others who similarly situated because they are members of a specific race. It can occur when individuals are treated differently because of unalterable characteristics, such as physical features, indigenous to their race.
2. Personality
According to International Encyclopedia of psychology (1996), personality is defined as the unique combination of thoughts, feelings, and behavior that make individual distinct from other.
3. Development
In Human Development (1961), Pikunas defines development as a series of sequential changes in an organism to lead to its maturity as a result of experience. In this study development refers to the increasing of the maturity as the result of maturity and better understanding.
4. Creole
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
In carrying out this study, I present some theories which are relevant to the analysis of the novel. There are four sections in this chapter, namely theoretical review, criticism, content and theoretical framework. The first section presents the theory of literature which covers relevant and supportive theories to the study. The second section of this chapter is criticism made by some expert concerning Jane Rhys and her works. The third section is the context which covers the condition when the author writes the novel. The last section is the theoretical framework that discusses the application of the theories, which are important for the analysis of the problems.
2.1 Review of Related Theories
2.1.1 Theory of Character and Characterization
Character is one of important elements in novel. Abrams in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms defines characters as the person presented in a dramatic or narrative work who are interpreted by the readers as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say ( the dialogue) and what they do ( the action). Meanwhile, the main character is the most important person in the story. Character from the beginning to the ending parts (1981)
In more details, Abram (1980: 20) states that as people presented in the story, characters have the same characteristics as real human beings. They have temperament and moral nature. Their temperament and moral nature will become the basis of their speeches and actions. In the story, characters may remain stable or unchanged or may undergo a radical change through its development or as result of an extreme crisis in the story itself.
After we know the existing characters in the novel, we need to know another element such as characterization to describe the characters, either physically or psychologically. To make the readers know what kind of character he or she is, the author uses some methods to explain the innermost thoughts of characters.
2.1.2 Theory of Motivation
There are many definitions of motivation given by different psychologist. Bootzin, Lotfus, Zajonc, Blake, Lo Piccolo, and Holahan in their book Psychology Today, An Introduction say that a “motive” is the “dynamic property of behavior that gives it organization over time and that defines its end states” (1983: 367). While the “corresponding process” of the motive is called “motivation” (1983: 367). Bootzin et al. believe that a person behavior is “organized.” We should imply that the behavior is conducted by some “purpose and that it leads to some end state, which may be a goal or the satisfaction of some need” (1983).
Motivation can be stimulated either from “external” condition which is called “incentives” or from “internal” condition which is called “drives” (bootzin et al., 1983: 368). It is also stated that motivation which is caused by individual’s established preferences is called “intrinsic” motivation (1983).
According to Maslow, the human being is a “wanting animal.” He or she always requires and “desires something”. People seldom gain “a state of complete satisfaction except for a short time. As one desire is satisfied, another pops up to take its place” (1971: 39).
The explanation of each need is as follows. 1. The Physiological Needs
The first, “the most basic, the most powerful, the most obvious of all man’s needs are his needs for physical survival.” These needs are “the needs for food, liquid, shelter, sex, sleep, and oxygen.” When a person is extremely hungry, he or she only wants food. “No other interest but food. He dreams of food, he remembers food, he thinks about food, he emotes only about food, he perceives only food” (1971: 38). These needs must be fulfilled before fulfilling the next higher needs.
2. The Safety Needs
Once the physiological needs are satisfied, the safety needs emerge. A person needs the safety to grow. He or she needs “to feel secure and safe.” He or she needs to be “out of danger” (Handoko, 1992: 20) 3. The Belongingness and love Needs
that we need love is of exactly the same “as “the evidence that we need iodine or vitamin C.” The lack of love “stifles the growth and the development of potential” (1971: 41).
4. The Esteem Needs
There are two esteem needs according to Maslow. They are “self respect and esteem from other people. Maslow explains those two terms. He says:
1. Self-esteem includes such need as desire for confidence, competence, mastery, adequacy, achievement, independence, and freedom.
2. Respect from others includes such concepts as prestige, recognition, acceptance, attention, status reputation, and appreciation. (1971: 42)
A person who has “self-esteem is more confident and capable and, thus, more productive.” When the “self-esteem” is absence, “the individual has feelings of inferiority and helplessness, which may result in discouragement and possible neurotic behavior” (1971: 42). 5. The Self-actualization Needs
6. The Desire to know and to understand
“A character of mental health is curiosity.” Maslow also says
This process has been phrased by some as the search for meaning. We shall then postulate a desire to understand, to systematize, to organize, to analyze, to look for relations and meanings, to construct a system values. (1971: 43) These are Maslow’s theory about needs which make people conduct actions.
2.1.3 Theory of Post colonialism and Theory ofKatresnanism
2.1.3.1 Theory of Post colonialism
Edward in his book Orientalism states that post colonialism (also known as postcolonial theory, or spelled with a hyphen) is a set of theories in philosophy, film and literature that grapple with the legacy of colonial rule. (https://www.poscolonialdiscourse.com/cgi-bin/db/single, accessed on 5 March, 2008)
Bill further says that a major feature of post colonial literatures is the concern with place and displacement. It is here that species post colonial crisis of identity comes into being, the concern with the development recovery of an effective identifying relationship between self and place. A valid and active sense of self may have been eroded by dislocation, resulting from migration, the experience of enslavement, transportation, or ‘voluntary’ removal for indentured labor. Or it may have been destroyed by cultural denigration, the conscious and unconscious oppression of the indigenous personality and culture by a supposedly superior racial and cultural model (1989: 8).
The dialectic of place and displacement is always a feature post colonial societies whether these have been created by a process of settlement, intervention, or a mixture of the two. The alienation of vision and crisis in self-image which this displacement produces is as frequently found in the accounts of Canadian ‘free settlers’ as of Australian convicts, Trinidadian-Indian laborers and West Indian slaves (1989: 8). Such an idealisation is also exposed by the so-called theory ofKatresnanism.
2.1.3.2 Theory ofKatresnanism
holding the commitment—things such as one's work (including one's own work), numerous life situation by using positive thinking.
He furthers explains that positive thinking produces a better understanding
of things including that of one's own, so that one may be able to see that “giving
means receiving.” In katresnanism, positive thinking is but central. To have a
positive thinking is, thus, having an attitude ofkatresnanism(2006).
Herujianto states that there are 99 aos katresnanism representing the
hypothesis of this theory. Up to now, 33 aos (principles) have been discussed.
The fact that theory of katresnanism is an open ended may be seen through the
words positive thinking and through an invitation to anybody to develop by,
among others, proposing for adding more aos. These aos or principles or rather
characteristics may also be called the components ofkatresnanism .(2006: 128)
Theory of “Katresnanism” (divine Love) may, thus, be seen through the
following figure (2006):
Those who offerkatresnan
=
Those who receivekatresnanGiving Receiving
Katresnan
The Real Truth:Aos Katresnanism
10.yatna yuwana 21.rukun(promoting harmony)
Like action research, theory of katresnanism may be considered as a strategy to help us live positively and in a way that we feel the very enlightening-peaceful way. It is believed, however, that the attitude is for the overt and covert meaning and values. They are seen through applyingaos katresnan.
2.1.4 Theory of racial Discrimination
Since the study deals with racial discrimination, I believe that it is necessary to present some theories related to the study.
Racial, ethnic, and cultural differences among peoples play a major role in the events of our times, in countries around the world, and have played a major role with the long history of the human race. Both inter group socio economic differences within a given country and larger differences on a world stage between nations or whole civilizations reflect large cultural differences that have pervaded history (1994: 1).
Race gives important contribution in the civilization since it has a great power to unite people and also to separate or to divide people. People can be united when they belong to the same race, but they also can easily be divided when they do not to the same race. In Race and Culture: A World View, Thomas Sowell also says that “race as a social concept is a powerful force uniting and dividing people” (1994).
In a racist society, race is used as the key to determine one’s class position. Usually, the class position of colour people is under the white people. Fenon, as cited by Karenga in Introduction to Black Studies, says that “in a racist context, i.e., the colony, race is the key determinant” (1993).
2.1.5 Theory of psychology
2.1.5.1 Personality
quickly affected by illness, decease, or unusual emotional strain (1956: 156). Furthermore, the emotional strain is explained further by Ruch in his book Psychology and Life. According to him, through a process called repression, a person can eliminate conscious awareness of both the stimuli and the responses in emotion if they cause him psychological pain. In addition, he states that people’s external behavior, and even their internal physiological responses are often influenced by emotions of which they themselves are entirely unaware (1948).
In his book Pattern and Growth in Personality, Allport states that from all determinants that possible to determine a person’s personality, environments seem to take the biggest contribution. Environments give more complex contributions to one’s personality. Therefore, Allport acquired the situation and the role as the determinant factors to determine a person personality. Each factor has its own contribution in forming one’s personality (1970).
Hurlock in her book, entitled Personality Development, describes that there are three major factors which determine the development of personality pattern. The first is the individual’s heredity endowment, the second is the early experiences within one’s family, and the third is important events outside one’s home environment. Actually, behavior learned in childhood may later be changed by direct training or by altering one’s environment (1974).
an adult personality. However, there is no final personality. It is because later experiences can modify the effects of the early experiences. An individual frequently will encounter new stimulus conditions. Therefore, he then may behave in a totally new way, it means that new may be, formed and new attitudes develop. While according to Abraham Maslow in his book Humanistic Phsychology (1983) states that without the support or a fixed place to live and a fixed place in the world’s work, one can grow increasingly irritable and aggressive.
2.1.5.2 Human Personality
According to Allport in Hurlock’s Personality Development (1974), personality development is a stage in growth of constantly changing and involving process within an individual.
2.1.6 Marxism Approach
Since this thesis discusses about alienation and oppression, it is important to understand about the Marxist theory of alienation and Marxist perspective on racism.
Marxism has been essential to the struggles of anti-colonial independence movements around the world. Marxism provided almost the only legitimate “counter-narrative against the unfettered expansion of capitalist modernity”. Marxism has also introduced concepts such as “alienation and labor exploitation”. It has continually emphasized the “material basis of colonial exploitation”, without denying the existence and importance of the “socio-cultural formations” that both “produced and reproduced the colonial relationship” (Hawley, 2001: 293-296).
Gilroy states that “oppression. …determines their lives”-“the people who are actually affected by racism” – on one hand and on the other he expounds that “It is not that people … are … incapable of thinking abstractly about the character of the oppression which determines their lives” (Gilroy, 1987: 116). Here the “people” are both victims of racism and oppression. The important point is the victims of oppression are alienated. In the book The Marxist Theory of Alienation, Ernest Mandel in his essay, “The causes of Alienation”, states:
existence of their own and be integrated in an economic and social mechanism which becomes oppressive and exploitative of human beings (Mandel and Novack, 1970: 16).
2.2 Criticism
Joyce Hart a freelance writer and author of several books discusses the concurrence of power and helplessness that flows through Jean Rhys's novel Wide Sargasso Sea. He argues that although an overall feeling of helplessness permeates Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, there is a current of power that lies underneath the surface of the story. Each character, no matter how helpless he or she may seem, is touched by this current. Much like the real Sargasso Sea, whose mysterious forces gather all the wandering seaweed from miles around and hold them together in a haphazard mass, so does this underlying power align Rhys's characters. As each character tries to understand her or his relationship with the other, the surge of power pulsates amidst fear and vulnerability and moves the story forward.
2.3 The Context of the Novel
Jean Rhys was born in Dominica, one of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean, in 1890. The daughter of a Welsh doctor and a white Creole mother, Rhys grew up in the final days of England's colonial heyday, a time that witnessed the waning of an aristocratic and exploitative Creole culture. Her parents' heritage situated Rhys between two competing ideologies—one that sought to exoticize Caribbean life and one that incorporated the racial pluralism of West Indian values. Rhys was further influenced by the black servants who raised her and introduced her to the language, customs, and religious beliefs of the native Caribbeans.
While Wide Sargasso Sea reflects the distinct sensibilities of a West Indian writer, it also bears the stamp of European modernism. At sixteen, Rhys left her home in Dominica and moved to England, aligning herself more closely with her father's Welsh heritage. A feeling of displacement that characterizes both Rhys's own life and the lives of her characters left her unable to root herself to her ancestors' home.
Rhys's first four novels Postures or Quartet (1928), After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie
(1930), Voyage in the Dark (1934), and Good Morning Midnight (1939) mirror
her own life, with heroines who lead drifting, alienated lives as stigmatized
outsiders. While these early novels met with some success, they never went far in
establishing Rhys as a leading European modernist. With some reluctance, Rhys
settled down in England, a country for which she felt little fondness. She more or
less disappeared from the literary scene until the 1960s, when her work was
rescued from obscurity.
The 1966 publication of Wide Sargasso Sea, twenty-seven years after the appearance of her last novel, reflects the culmination of her earlier heroine sketches, while shifting focus away from an industrial European context and back to a nineteenth-century Caribbean landscape.
2.4 Theoretical Framework
This analysis takes some theories to answer the problems proposed in the problem formulation. They are theories of character and characterization, theory of motivation, theory of post colonialism and katresnanism, theory racial discrimination, theory of psychology and Marxism approach.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
This chapter discusses the method of the study. There are three parts presented in this chapter. The first part is the subject matter, which deals with novel Wide Sargasso Sea. The second part is the approach used in conducting this study. The last part is the procedure related to the steps of conducting this study.
3.1 Subject Matter
The primary data of this study is Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. This is the Penguin Books edition. This book is published by Penguin Students edition 2001. It consists of 173 pages that are divided into three parts.
Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of a woman named Antoinette Mason. The novel tells about her life from a young solitary girl in Jamaica to depraved lunatic in English garret. Antoinette has been discriminated during her lifetime. Antoinette never receives tender felling and affection from her mother. She is however rejected by all the people she allows herself to love, except Christophine. She is rejected by her mother; Antoinette tries to love her but her mother refuses her. Antoinette’s mother only concerns on Pierre especially when she realizes that Pierre’s condition is incurable and then where Pierre die. She is also rejected by her only childhoods friend, Tia who leaves her, steals her dress and later throws a stone at her forehead. She is also rejected by her husband. She loves him, but he neglects her. He lets himself to be persuaded by lies from the surroundings. Finally he makes love with the black servant, Amelie, in the room next to
Antoinette in order to hurt her. Unfortunately, her husband treats her as a mad woman for he believes what Daniel Cosway says to him about Antoinette’s depravity background and the madness in her family. He brings her to England and locks her in the attic under the watch of a servant. Being rejected and discriminated Antoinette becomes irritable, vulnerable, aggressive, and frenzy.
3.2 Approach of the Study
The approach that is applied in this study is a Marxism approach. This approach is used because Marxist literary theories tend to focus on the representation of class conflict and racial discrimination as well as the reinforcement of class distinctions though the medium of literature.
Like traditional historical and biographical critics, the Marxist is also interested in the sociological context of literature. The Marxist views a literary text as a product of history; certain social and economical factors have influenced the literature and in return these situations are conveyed through the literature. However, the Marxist critic is interested in more than abstracting from literature “themes of interest to the social historian” (Eagleton, 1976: 461). Literature does not only reflect this social and economic condition; it is also a part of the entire system of social relationship and modes of production that have emerged throughout history. In his essay Literature and History Terry Eagleton explores how literature is a part of the power structure of history (Eagleton, 1976).
show the relations between literature and society, but also suggest for the defined conception of what the relations should be, both in present society and in a future ‘classless’ society. It tells us not only what were and are the social relations and implications of an author’s work but what they should have been or ought to (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 95-5). Marxist literary critics tend to look for tensions and contradictions within literary works. This is appropriate because Marxism was originally formulated to analyze just such tensions and contradictions within society.
Thus, the Marxist approach is appropriate in analyzing Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea since alienation, oppression, and class consciousness are the central theme in Marxist writing. Marxist approach on literary text reveals also about how having classes within society is the catalyst for oppression and unfairness. Marx gives the idea that oppresses should speak out against oppression and alienation they face in capitalist country so that they can liberate themselves.
3.4 Procedure
This thesis uses a library research as the method of the study. The primary source is Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. The secondary sources are books, which provide the theories that are needed.
The second step was by finding some theories or any sources that support the analysis. The source which contains the supporting issues were collected and those become references to limit and develop analysis of this study.
The third step was stimulating the problems, which were going to lead the study to find the personality development as the focus of the study.
The forth step was identifying the element of the novel to be discussed. The element was personality development. The suitable approach was the marxism approach. This study chose this approach as the appropriate one since the study concerned about class conflict and racial discrimination.
The fifth step was analyzing the data gained from the library research by applying the theories on the analysis.
The sixth step was drawing a conclusion based on analysis. The conclusion would be a kind of review of the previous chapters, in which the writer tried to clarify the elements, that was personality development, and give suggestion to further researchers, and recommend how to make use of the real to teach language skills especially reading for the second grade of Senior High School.
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter is divided into two subchapters. The first part is about the descriptions of Antoinette’s characteristics as the major character in the novel. The second part is about Antoinette’s personality development influenced by the socio cultural diversity around her.
4.1 Antoinette Character and Personality
The analysis of Antoinette is based on the theory of Character and Characterization that has been mentioned in Chapter II. To understand the characters of Antoinette, this study applies the methods which consist of the description of the author, the character’s speeches, the character’s actions, and the other characters’ say about the character.
Antoinette is the female protagonist character in this novel. She is a Creole, a white woman of European descent born in the West Indies, who lives on an estate on the island of Jamaica (a British colony) in the mid 1830. In her whole life, she faces a lot of unhappy events. It can be called that she is an unlucky person. She is rejected not only by the English citizens and the black West Indians for being born in the West Indies to a failing a slave-owning class, but also by her mother and her husband. Her childhood is miserable and marks her personality.
Antoinette, the main character in this novel is a beautiful woman. The quotation that shows Antoinette’s beauty is her husband’s opinion when they have
candle light dinner together. The beauty of Antoinette attracts his attention when Antoinette was sitting on the sofa. Her husband said, “I wondered why I had never realized how beautiful she was” (80).
Her husband also admires her when she is sleeping. At that time her husband realizes that his wife is beautiful.
As I looked she moved and flung her arm out. I thought coldly yes very beautiful, the thin wrist, the sweet and well of the forearm, the rounded elbow, the curve of the shoulder into her upper arm. All present, all correct. (88)
Antoinette Marson is also a woman with high self dignity. She always keeps her pride in every time she behaves, whether when she says or does something. She is willing to sacrifice to defend her pride. The example of her effort in keeping her dignity is that she keeps many things to herself rather than tells people how actually she feels which is shown through Christophine’s opinion about Antoinette.
So she run off to tell you, I’d treated her did she? I ought to have guessed that “she don’t tell me a thing”, said Christopine …she have more pride than you and she says nothing. (97)
Antoinette believes that love and dignity are more valuable than money. She does not care of money as Christopine’s opinion: “She is better than you, she has better blood in her and she doesn’t care for money. It’s nothing for her” (98).
(53). Soon after Antoinette gets married with Rochester, she chooses to live in her island because she feels more comfortable as her husband state his opinion about Antoinette.
We have arrived from Jamaica after an uncomfortable few days. This little estate in the Windward Island is part of the family property and Antoinette is much attached to it. She wished to get here as soon as possible. (75)
Antoinette feels free when she lives in her own landscape. She feels that she can do whatever she wants s in her land.
Antoinette said “here I can do as I like, not I,” and then I said too, it seemed right and that lonely place “here I can do as I like.” I grew to like these mountain people, silent, reserved, never servile never curious (or so I thought), not knowing that their quick sideways looks saw everything they wished to see. (80)
How Antoinette loyal to her landscape is also seen from her opinion about how beautiful and how she feels comfortable to stay in that place through her sense of belonging. She likes the nature of her island so, Antoinette eager to stay there for she really loves it.
Moreover, Antoinette Marson is actually a loving person. She also has a deep concern about others. She really loves her mother (Annete). It can be seen by her effort when she visits her mother after her mother goes mad. At that time, her mother ignores and rejects her. Antoinette will do anything to keep her mother. It can be seen through Antoinette statement: “I am not forgetting person…one day I made up my mind to go to her…I thought I would kill anyone who is hurting my mother” (85).
“Then, it must be her…’But I am here, I said, and she said, ‘No’quitely. Then No ‘no no’very loudly and flung me from her. I fell against the portion and hurt myself.” (87)
Antoinette loves Christophine very much. Antoinette does not decide the consideration that the people whom she loves are black or white people. It can be seen when she hugs and kisses Christophine. She does not care although her husband does not tolerate her attitude because of Christopine is only a black servant.
“Why do you hug and kiss Christopine?” “I’d say why not?”
“I wouldn’t hug and kiss them, I’d say, I couldn’t.” (91)
Antoinette loves her husband very much. She would like to do anything to get her husband’s love and care. She asks Christophine to help her. Antoinette believes that Christopine can make such a magic love potion to make her husband love her again. Antoinette is also willing to give anything to her husband, as Christophine’s opinion.
Antoinette also has deep concern for the children. She tries to help a boy who cries when Antoinette and her husband prepare to leave to England. That boy wants to follow Antoinette’s husband to England, but he does not care with that boy.
He asked me when we first came if we if you would take him with you when we left. He doesn’t have any money. Just to be with you. Because she stopped and ran her tongue over her lips, he loves you very much. So I said you would take him. Baptize has told him that you will not. So he is crying. (112)
Antoinette cares about her servant. She tries to defend her servant from her husband’s mocking way. She explains to her husband why Hilda is giggling very rudely. It is not because she is stupid but because she is a shy girl.
Antoinette is a generous person. She gives her money, food and drink to all visitors. Her husband cannot tolerate her behavior because it just wastes money for useless thing.
As for the money which she handed out so carelessly, not counting it, not knowing how much she gave, or the unfamiliar faces that appear then disappears, though never without large meal eaten and a shot of rum I discovered-sisters, cousin, aunts and uncles-if she asked no question how could I. (90)
Antoinette is not a religious person. She does not believe in God’s power. She thinks that God does not help her in solving problem, because her family always gets a lot of problem. Besides that, Antoinette feels that she has been discriminated by others.
And God who is indeed mysterious who had made no sign when they burned Pierre as he slept not a clap of thunder, not a flash of lightning. (21-22)
Antoinette is an irrational person. Antoinette is different from the conventional female heroines of nineteenth and even twentieth-century novels, who are often more rational. We can see that Antoinette is in contrast. We can see the potential dangers of wild imagination and she is irrational. It can be seen when Antoinette asked Christophine to use her obeah magic to concoct a love potion. After her husband ignores and does not care at all with her like before he gets a letter from Daniel. In that case Christophine warns that such a brew will only make Rochester feels desire for his wife, not love but Antoinette forces her to do what she wants because she believes that Christophine can help her. It can be seen through Antoinette statement: “Yes you can, I know you can. That is what I wish and that is what I came here. You can make people love or hate or die” (112).
Antoinette’s irrationality can be seen when her husband asks about white powder that is strewn on the floor. Antoinette explains that it is only to keep cockroaches away. Of course it makes her husband feels that there is something strange because there are no cockroaches in the house.
unconfident person because of Antoinette lacks a strong mother figure. Her only female role model is Christophine, who is an unattainable model because of her blackness. In her childhood, Antoinette feels that her mother grows stronger and more distant. Antoinette spends more time in her overgrown garden because she has nobody to talk to and to listen to. It can be shown when Antoinette tries to touch her mother’s forehead suddenly her mother pushed her away coldly and without a word. Her mother also says that she wants to be alone. Therefore Antoinette always spends most of time in the kitchen and in the garden. Antoinette feels that she is useless for her mother.
In her garden, she feels comfortable and is protected from the cruel world of human being. She feels so close with nature. Feeling isolated from the world outside, she stays in her garden until it is nearly dark and sits close to the old wall at the garden.
When I was safely home, I sat close at the end of the garden. It was covered with green moss soft as velvet and I never wanted to move again. Everything would be worse if I moved. Christophine found me there when it was dark and I was so stiff she had ton help me to get up. (7)
..And one afternoon when I was watching her, hardly able to believe. She was the pale silent creature I had married.
Then I would look at her for long minutes by candlelight, wonder why she seemed sad asleep… In any case she had given any, but coldly, unwillingly, trying to protect herself with silence and blank face. (52-54)
Antoinette is a vulnerable person. It can be seen through her husband opinion about her. After they get married Rochester wonders why Antoinette looks so sad while she is sleeping. In the night Antoinette always wakes and tells her husband about her unhappy childhood. She says that she is only happy in the daylight hours.
Then I would look at her for long minutes by candlelight, wondering why she seemed sad a sleep,…I’d like remember her effort to escape (No I’m sorry I don't wish to marry you). (90) Antoinette is always sad and cries at night. She also often talks about death. She tells her husband that, if he told about her dying, his words would kill her. It means that if her husband hurts her and wishes her to die the world will kill her. Basically she really needs someone to safe and protect her since she lacks of her mother’s love.
“If I could die. Now, when I am happy would you do that?
You wouldn’t have to kill me. Say I die and I will die, you don’t believe me? Then try, try, say die and watch me die.” (55)
her statement when she is asked by her husband whether she wishes to marry him or not. Antoinette answers that she actually does not wish to marry him because she is afraid of what may happen later (78-79).
Antoinette is an emotional person. It can be seen when Amelie says to Antoinette that her husband does not like their honeymoon. Therefore Antoinette gets angry with her. Antoinette jumps out and slaps Amelie’s face. She also grips her face and groups her hair. Antoinette is angry when her husband asks Amelie to go away by calling her as a child. “You call her child,” said Antoinette “She is older than the devil himself, and the devil is not crueler” (100). After that, Antoinette goes away and she walks very steadily. When her husband wants to help her, she pushes him away.
Antoinette took a few steps forward. She walked steadily. I went to help her but she pushed me away, sat on the bed and with clenched sheet pulled at the sheet, then made a clicking sound of annoyance. She took a pair of scissors from the round table, cut through the hem and tore the sheet in half, then each half into strips. (100) Antoinette’s emotionality can be seen when her husband tries to offer her rum, but Antoinette pushes the glass away.
I poured some rum out and offer it to her, but she pushed the glass away so roughly that spilled over her dress. (132)
the house and when she returns, she seems totally angry which is shown through her husband’s opinion.
She passed me without looking at me, dismounted and went into the house. I heard her bedroom door slam and her handbell ring violently. (143)
The other thing that shows Antoinette is an emotional person is from her husband’s opinion about his wife. He describes that Antoinette is totally angry with him when Antoinette opens the door she looks crazed.
Antoinette shrieked the bed room, Baptiste! Christophine!...When I saw her I was too shocked to speak. Her hairs hung uncombed and dull into her eyes whish were inflamed and staring, her voice was very flushed and looked swollen. Her feet were bare. (144)
Antoinette is very emotional and rude if someone hurts her. Antoinette speaks rudely to her husband for he has betrayed her with Amelie. She stands with a broken bottle in her hands and murder in her eyes. She says that her husband is the same with the other slave owner, having slept with a servant and sent her away. Antoinette accuses her husband of trying to transform her through obeah or magic by calling her “Bertha”, a name that he particularly fond of.
thing. You send the girl away quicker, and with no money or less money, and that’s all the difference.” (95)
Antoinette expresses to her husband how she hates him so much. Antoinette blames her husband for he has ruined everything even the most valuable thing in her life, the place that she loves.
“Do you know what you’ve done to me? It’s not the girl, not the girl. But I loved this place I hate. I used to think that if everything else went out of my life. I would still have this, and now you have been spilt it…I hate it now like I hate you and before I die I will show how much I hate you.” (95)
Antoinette's emotionality can be seen when her husband tries to touch her. She bites her husband’s arm, when her husband grabs her wrist. Antoinette cannot control her emotion. She is hysteric and curses all the member of her husband’s body.
I manage to hold her wrist with one hand,…but I was angry now and she saw it. She smashed another bottle against the wall and stood with the broken glass in her hand and murder in her eyes. “Just as you touch me once, you’ll soon see if I’m dam’ coward like you are.” Then she cursed me comprehensively, my eyes, my mouth, every member of my body,…(96).
husband. Antoinette can no longer view time and place anymore. She does not even believe that she is in England when Grace tells her. She is totally angry but she cannot express it. It makes her really depressed. Feeling rejected, oppressed, and isolated, she has potential danger by expressing herself emotionally, and when Richard Mason comes to see her, he treats Antoinette as a stranger. She cannot bear her emotion. Antoinette rushes at him with a knife and she later bites him. She overhears Richard saying, “I cannot interfere legally between yourself and your husband” (119). It is when he says “legally” Antoinette attacks Richard faints. This event shows how emotional Antoinette is. She attacks Richard with knife and bites him as expression of anger.
“This gentleman arrived suddenly and insisted on seeing you. You rushed at him with a knife and when he got the knife away you bit his arm. You won’t see him again.” (118)
Antoinette has many characters in her life such beautiful, high self dignity woman, loyal, loving person, has deep concern with others, generous, vulnerable, irrational, introvert, not religious, emotional and silent person. She is used to escape from the problem that she faces. She keeps many things to herself rather than tell people how she feels and how she thinks. She rarely takes an action to solve her problem and prefers to accept her condition passively.
4.2. The Influences of Socio Cultural Aspects toward Antoinette’s
Personality Development
of motivation, theory of post colonialism and katresnanism, theory racial discrimination, theory of psychology and Marxism approach.
Actually the slavery issue created severe conflicts between the white and the black populations of the West Indies. Antoinette’s mother, Annette, who is a white Creole from French Martinique, married an old slave-owner in Jamaica. This connection with a slave-owning family makes Antoinette alienated from the other people of the island. She is rejected and despised by both the black and the white population so she does not belong anywhere. When Antoinette explains her feeling of non-belonging to her husband, Mr. Rochester, the black servant girl, Amélie, sings about Antoinette:
It was a song about a white cockroach. That’s me. That’s what they call all of us who were here before their own people in Africa sold them to the slave traders. And I’ve heard English women call us white niggers. So between you I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where do I belong and why was I ever born at all. (64)
for Antoinette and she often wonders “who she is and where is her country and where does she belong and why was she ever bon at all” (102).
In theory of racial discrimination, it is stated that basically, race gives important contribution in the civilization since it has a great power to unite people and also to separate or to divide people. People can be united when they belong to same race, but they also can easily be divided when they are not in the same race. In Race and Culture: A World View, Thomas Sowell also says that “race as a social concept is a powerful force uniting and dividing people” (1994: 6). This condition leads Antoinette to be an unconfident and helpless person. The feeling of unconfident and helpless may result in neurotic behavior. It is supported by Maslow statement:
A person who has “self-esteem is more confident and capable and, thus, more productive.” When the “self-esteem” is absence, “the individual has feelings of infentiority and helplessness, which may result in discouragement and possible neurotic behavior” (1971: 42).
In nineteenth century the black women have more freedom, particularly sexual, than the white islanders who must conform to the constraints of the colonist. It can be seen that Antoinette’s only childhood friend, Tia, is presented as an extremely liberated ‘free spirit’ in Rhys’s novel. Right at the start of the novel, Tia has skills to be envied; “fires always lit for her, sharp stone did not hurt her bare feet, I never saw her cry” (23). Spatially, Tia is represented as free in Wide Sargasso Sea she has the freedom to go where she pleases, and do whatever she wants. In contrast, Antoinette feels inhibited by her own inability to leave Jamaica, or, eventually, to leave Rochester, her husband. Another point to consider is that Tia is free because, knowing no other life; she has no sense of being ‘marooned’. At the Caribbean context, the word ‘Maroon’ was the pre-emancipation term given to a runaway slave. If slaves were skilled and lucky enough to escape the plantation of their owner and not get caught, they were, for all intents and purposes, free. Thus the term ‘marooned’, for Tia, exudes a sense of rebellion and liberation. Conversely, in regards to Antoinette and her mother, the term has entirely different connotations. Traditionally, marooned sailors were punished, isolated people, abandoned by the rest of their crewmates and left to die. In this sense, Antoinette and Annette are marooned, castaways on the old estate of Coulibri, and have been actively abandoned there. Those different cultures that happened between Antoinette’s and Tia’s life create a different personality development too. Antoinette becomes a marooned and isolate person.
Antoinette’s personal repression is made all the more evident through the black ‘free spirits’ that inhabit the pages of the novel. Rhys deploys the black women of her novel in such a way that highlights Antoinette’s lack of freedom, and in this way the black characters in Wide Sargasso Sea are effectively manipulated in order to better express the white Creole perspective and isolation. Antoinette’s fight with Tia at the river is an example of this tendency in Rhys’s work. Tia’s taunting words, and her subsequent theft of Antoinette’s clothes, emphasize the feelings of loneliness and isolation experienced by Antoinette throughout the course of the novel. Her unconditional longing to be just like Tia is thwarted by Tia’s hostile behavior towards her:
“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… “(19).
This memory is followed closely by the burning of Coulibri, on which night the gap between Antoinette and Tia becomes impassable:
It is significant to note that Antoinette’s displacement in the novel is expressed in terms of negatives. She is not black, but she is not white either. Similarly, her longing is expressed also in negatives: “not to leave Coulibri, not to go” (24).
The problematic nature of a white Creole existence is emphasized right at the start of the novel, in Antoinette’s explanation of her lonely, isolated existence: “They say when trouble comes, close ranks. And so the white people did. But we were not in their ranks” (5).
West Indian spirituality and the threat of ‘black magic’ are also credited with much of the blame for Antoinette’s isolation and fear as a child. Right at the start of the novel, Antoinette speaks of Coulibri being ‘changed’, ruined for her, by talk of Christophine and her obeah. Antoinette’s account of a spiritual encounter that took place in Christophine’s bedroom encapsulates her early childhood fears of obeah and black magic:
“I was certain that hidden in the room… there was a dead man’s dried hand, white chicken feathers, a cock with its throat cut, dying slowly, slowly. Drop by drop the blood was falling into a red basin… .”(15)
identity, a concept that encompasses both the colonized and those who belong racially to the colonizers site of power, yet are not regarded as equal within the dominating order.
Start from the beginning of the story, Antoinette is a marooned and lonely girl. Her personality is formed because of her being isolated and alienated by the society. Her being isolated starts at home and continues in the nunnery, influencing her identity. She spends almost all time in the room and close people regard her as mad, although she acts in a rather normal way. As stated in beginning of the novel that "No one came near us. I got used to a solitary life" (18). It shows that no one notices her and her family, people betray her trust and hopes. Antoinette's experiences of being isolated in childhood have shaped her personality, negatively influencing her adult life and relations with people. This vulnerable and emotionally destroyed woman lives in her own created world, and when Rochester, a person she loves, alienates from her, she can no longer endure this isolation. Antoinette seeks love and attention, but her own husband fails to understand her.
trying to smooth her mother’s frown, she pushes Antoinette away, not roughly but calmly, coldly, without a word, as if she had decided once and for all that she is useless to her (20). Even though she gets used to this treatment, nobody can substitute a loving mother, not even her nanny Christophine. Yet Antoinette is very modest and does not complain about the lack of mother’s love openly. Antoinette therefore is an outcast even within her own family. Her mother’s treatment makes her becomes a shy and introvert girl. She also becomes unconfident person. It is proved when visitors finally come to the house, she has become so used to being a recluse that she runs away and hides. Antoinette’s reclusive emphasizes her adolescent isolation.
Herujianto in theory ofkatresnanismstates that positive thinking produces a better understanding of things including that of one’s own, so that one may be able to see that “giving means receiving”. Although her mother does not love her and gives her security as Antoinette expected, she still loves her mother, because she has of positive thinking inside her mind. Antoinette thinks that she loves and cares with her mother means that she also receives her mother’s love.
As a result of Antoinette’s marginalized racial status, she lives in almost complete isolation.
Basically, according to the Justin Pikunas in his book Human Development: An Emergent Science, the emotional condition and social development of the children are influenced by her mother’s attitude “the psychosocial development and emotional security of the child are based on the mother’s reasonably patient and tender care. In this case, Antoinette does not get the security from her mother. Her mother never makes her feel comfortable and safety. When Antoinette gets bad dream in one night she awakes crying about being chased by someone who hates her. Her mother gets angry with her for waking Pierre. Her mother discriminate Antoinette instead of Pierre. Her mother only cares and worries about Pierre, she worries if he wakes up because of Antoinette crying. Without the reassuring love of a mother, Antoinette finds herself living in a world that is dominated only by her own thoughts, fears, and needs. That condition leads Antoinette to be a fragile girl.
of happiness because she cannot get it. She often suffers and feels hopeless about happiness. She feels that she has nothing to live for, she feels abandoned. It can be shown through Antoinette thought, “I am not used to happiness, she said, it makes me afraid” (55).
