Wide Sargosse Sea

            
             There's a whisper beneath the text of "Wide Sargasso Sea. It's what this whisper implies rather than says that's profound, and it's what the implications reveal that make the whisper of this story imposing. "Wide Sargasso Sea" is not merely a creation of the history of Bertha Rochester; moreover it addresses the social injustices of woman, slavery, and colonialism. Rhys intertwines a strong message within this story and uses the soft essence of a whisper to reveal the dynamic struggle of how the intertwining of lives and people of different culture and different domain can strangle a person as surely as the seaweed that floats in the deep shadows of the wide sea. .
             The whisper comes early in the novel "feeling safe all belonged to the past" (WSS, 9), as well as the struggle, "They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did. But we were not in their ranks"(9). Within the first two paragraphs the hopelessness this character is surrounded by is revealed, a hopelessness that would haunt her throughout the entire novel. This is revealed early on, for Rhys places "feeling safe --all belonged to the past"(9) within brackets; hence making the words stick, hence making the hopelessness stick. Rhys furthers the hopelessness with the "misfortunes"(9) of Mr. Luttrell who "swam out to sea and was gone for always"(9). His death, too, mirrors the loss of hope, for he "grew tired of waiting"(9). Rhys uses these images of hopelessness early to set the tone of the novel, and because hope eludes almost every character in this novel.
             The struggle of differences is first revealed with Annette. "The Jamaican ladies had never approved of my mother a Martinique girl"(9). Annette's discomfort with her surroundings began with simple jealously and with time became a ground for depression and chaos. Her spirit was torn apart "the people here hate us. They certainly hate me"(19).