An Anlaysis Of Cultral Identity In Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys is one of the most famous novelists in 20th century. Born in a windward island in Dominicia, she is a descendent of Creole. During her life, she created five full-length novels and many other storiettes. Due to her own double identities and special life experiences, most of her works focus on the theme of alienation, identity loss and marginalization. Her special living background provides a special visual angle for her to write. As a writer, born in Caribbean colonized by English, Jean Rhys'novels mainly tells the story of the Carribeans, especially the Carribean women's life experiences. Most of her novels describe the Carribean women's suffering and tragic life in the patriarchal society.As a prequel of Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea gained a lot of attention from many readers as soon as it was published. The novel mainly tells us the story of Bertha, Mr. Rochester's wife before marriage. How is she driven insane by her husband and why is she confined in the attic and regarded as the mad woman, Jean Rhys made the crazy woman Bertha who is regarded as the element of destroying Rochester's and Jane's love in Jane Eyre into the heroine of Wide Sargasso Sea and endows her with voice and personality. The tragedy of Antoinette exposes that the patriarchal and colonial systems not only create the women's alienation, but also deprive them of their living rights as an individual.This thesis tries to analyze Wide Sargasso Sea from the point of culture identity. Through the analysis of the loss of the heroine's racial identity, female identity and religious identity, and the hard process of pursuit of identity and the final attribution, the thesis endeavors to appeal to more people to pay attention to the living environment and the pursuit of identity of the women in the margin position. In order to keep one's own gender and racial identity, the weak group should hold together and resist the oppression of colonial and patriarchal systems. We should devote ourselves to protect the weak cultures in case that the weak cultures become less and less and become extinct. We should endeavor to protect their good and valuable traditions. Through dialogues and negotiations, the main culture and the margin culture can become harmonious and realize the sustainable development.The thesis is composed of introduction, main body and conclusion. The part of introduction mainly introduces Jean Rhys'life experiences and her workers. As a white Creole, most of Jean's works focus on the themes of identity loss, self-alienation and marginalization, especially that of the women in weak groups. Her own experience helps her to vividly and deeply describe the hard life of white Creoles in Wide Sargasso Sea. Furthermore, the part also briefly introduces the writing purposes and the current critics and researches on Wide Sargasso Sea all around the world. Then the thesis puts forward the innovate points: the thesis tries to analyze the heroine's tragedy from the point of identity loss and identity pursuit and reconstruction.The main body is composed of three chapters.The first chapter mainly introduces the development, the features and the influence of post-colonialism. Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth is regarded as theoretical origin of post-colonialism; in which one article provide the current postcolonial critics with inspirational thought. Since the publication of Edward Said's Orientalism in 1918, post-colonialism has drawn more and more attention. With the development, post-colonialism absorbs modernism, nationlism and cultural hegemony, which explores the new stage of literature study. In literature, post-colonialism focuses on the principles of the other, cultural identity and hybridity. Recently, cultural identity has become one of the most popular topics in the field of the postcolonial literature all over the world. It mainly refers to national characteristics and cultural characteristics with national signs of the literal and cultural study. With more attention to the cultural and systematic criticism in the western literature, cultural identity has become an important part of feminism and post-colonialism. In micro—layer, cultural identity includes national identity, ethnic identity and so on. In macro—layer, cultural identity can be divided into different groups according to the religion, gender, occupation, region, ages, economic incomes and educational levels. The brief introduction to definition of culture identity and categories provides the foundations for the further analysis of the novel from the two points.The second chapter mainly discusses the reasons for Antoinette's loss of identity, including the loss of racial identity, female identity and religious identity. Antoinette's tragedy is a product of the patriarchal colonial society. Firstly, the loss of Antoinette's racial identity is the main reason for her tragedy. Despite the abolition of slavery, in the early 19th century, the harsh relationship formed during the past years between the slavery and the ruling class still existed. Antoinette, as a white Creole, due to her color of skin, she is rejected by the blacks'culture and regarded as Antoinette is white; but born in West Indies, where the blacks live, she is also abandoned by her mother country land-Europe. Therefore, Antoinette is destined to survive in the in-between situation. Next, the women in the patriarchal society can't avoid facing the financial independence, spiritual oppression and physical oppression due to their own reasons and social status. All these make them feel confused and lose themselves. At first, Antoinette doesn't have her own name and always accepts the given names by her father and husband. In fact, the name is the major sign of identity, therefore, the repeated changes of her names make her lost. Next, after her marriage with Rochester, Antoinette depends on her husband totally on the economy, which leads her to disadvantage position. When she finds later that her husband doesn't love her at all, she can't leave her husband to live a life by herself but to bear all this. In the spiritual aspect, Antoinette bears all her husband's behavior because of her love, which can't get her husband's love in return. On the contrary, Rochester tries his best to destroy Antoinette. He not only suppresses her voice, but also destroys everything she likes. Due to long time in-between situation, she doesn't know whether she is a white or a black. She doesn't now whether she should believe in Christianity or in Obeah. Thus Antoinette can't find her stable religious beliefs, which also leads to her identity loss.The third chapter mainly discusses the heroine's hard process of pursuit of identity. No matter the racial identity or the female identity, Antoinette tries her best. When Antoinette was a child, she tried every way to become a black. When Antoinette is excluded by the black, she tries to build her white identity through the marriage with Rochester, a white man. However, as soon as Rochester possesses her poverty, he deserts her as the colonizing people desert the colonized and imprisons her in the attic. When Antoinette realizes her marriage is a tragedy, she finds she can't be a white at all. Her mind is full of black consciousness. In spite of all kinds of difficulties and setbacks, she finds her identity in her own way and successfully gets ride of male manipulation in the patriarchal society. She burns down the Thronfield, the main symbol of men's manipulation and the colonizers'property in anger and finds her black identity attribution. The part of conclusion summarizes the whole thesis. Antoinette's long process of identity pursuit gives us great inspirations. Antoinette is just one sample of thousands of women who suffer from the torture in the patriarchal society. The purport of this thesis is that the weak group should rebuild and keep their own cultures and make the main culture and the margin culture harmonious and develop sustainably through dialogues and negotiations.