Wide Sargasso Sea

“Plenty white people in Jamaica. Real white people, they got gold money. They didn’t look at us, nobody see them come near us. Old time white people nothing but nigger now, and black nigger better than white nigger.” 

1.    Tia, who is a prepubescent like Antoinette when she makes this statement, expresses a precocious understanding of Jamaica’s racial hierarchy. She gives this explanation about the changes in Jamaica after Antoinette loses a bet and calls Tia a “cheating nigger” (14). Tia expresses an understanding that race means nothing, that it was merely a tool that white people used to justify their ability to withhold economic resources from black people. Now that white Creoles have been impoverished, their whiteness means nothing and is no longer an effective symbol of supremacy. In fact, according to Tia, white Creoles are beneath black Creoles because they don’t know how to make a living and are under the false impression that they should not have to.

“Dance! He didn’t come to the West Indies to dance—he came to make money as they all do. Some of the big estates are going cheap, and one unfortunate’s loss is always a clever man’s gain.”

Mr. Mason and Annette Cosway have just married and arrived home in Jamaica from their honeymoon in Trinidad. Antoinette narrates her recollections of local gossip about Mr. Mason’s true intentions in marrying Annette. It is suggested that his dancing is merely a mode of performance to put Annette at ease while he works toward his true aim of profiting off of her land since Coulibri Estates is one of the valuable lands falling into disarray.