Wide Sargosso Sea, Part I

In the first part of the novel "Wide Sargosso Sea" written by Jean Rhys, we witness the simple portrait of a child with her family. According to my own interpretation of these sixty pages I studied, this is a different view from the previous novel which we have studied, "Heart of Darkness" in that this is not a voyage taken to the deep forests and islands on the board in Africa. Rather, what we see is a child who struggles to live with this "scar" of being humiliated by the other people living in the same state. Jean Rhys narrates the story from the eyes of a child; that is, from the eyes of an  individual. What we can understand from the novel is that we hear the voice by "herself" rather than a third person narrative which takes place in "Heart of Darkness". "She" speaks, in this one, about her emotions, about being the center of hatred, humiliation and injustice.

The similar point between those two novels is that they both underscore the racial inequality and injustice which have been experienced in the past- and we know still it is going on in other forms. That is, the theme of these novels is the same; they explore the issue of race and racism and its implementation upon innocent people. However, the narrative  techniques differ greatly according to each other. We have different protagonists, for example. Whereas, in "Heart of Darkness" we have Marlow travelling and narrating the experiences he undergoes in Congo; in "Wide Sargosso Sea" a girl named Antoinette Mason narrates the story. Compared to each other, then, we can interpret this one as an account given by a "female" rather than by a male point of view.

Lastly, I want to add that "Wide Sargosso Sea", reading up the second part, has attracted my attention much more than "Heart of Darkness", with its characterization, and with its plot. It is not stable and more flowing.