Tia: Antoinette's looking glass

To me, one of the most profound moments of this novel was when Antoinette is hit by the rock thrown by Tia and is losing consciousness on the ground in part 1. What really struck a chord with me was when Antoinette narrates “It was as if I saw myself. Like in a looking-glass”.

The title of the novel itself The Wide Sargasso Sea serves to indicate the predicament that Antoinette is in socially. As Mr. Mitchell told in class, the Sargasso Sea is the sea that separates Europe from the Caribbean. The title symbolizes how Antoinette is stranded in her struggle of identity, stuck in a vast space between the two worlds. As we observe her childhood in Part 1 of the novel, we as readers see how Antoinette does not completely fit the Creole identity, seen through her dispute with Tia, and the fact that she is the daughter of a land-owner. However, we also see how she doesn’t fit within the aristocratic identity, as seen by the dispute with her mother about her dirty dress, and the way that she is neglected by her mother, and is more comfortable around Christophine.

I don’t think that there was a more poignant part of this novel that indicated this predicament than the rock-thrown scene. Antoinette tries to escape her aristocratic life to join Tina and her mother, and live a commoner life at Coulibri, however she is rejected, literally stoned, and lies on the ground with blood streaming down her face.

However, what made this scene very significant was that Tia starts crying. Her crying suggests that the violent act of throwing of the rock was not out of true hatred. Rather, it suggests that in that moment, she regrets what she has done. This suggests that the act of throwing the rock has been guided by other forces, forces such as the mob mentality.

But why does Antoinette narrate that the image of her with “blood on my face, tears on her” was “as if I saw myself”? I felt that this was because Antoinette understands the reasoning and feelings that Tia felt as she threw the rock at her. Tia, just like her, was trying to fit into what her ‘identity’ was: a part of the mob that hates the slave-owners. Both their situations, Antoinette rejected from her two worlds as she tries to fit into both, and Tia who tries to do as the forces around her push her to do, blood on Antoinette’s face, tears no Tia’s, happened because of their desire to be accepted, and to step into their identity’s.

It is significant that Antoinette’s first thoughts are not of betrayal, and hatred. Rather she feels a deep sense of empathy. (Although perhaps this is because she is in shock). Because of this, this moment in the novel resonated with me very deeply, as it confirmed my initial impressions that the novel was more than just a book about aristocratic, social politics. It was a novel that heavily emphasized the subtle undertones of social class, and race.