Wide Sargasso Sea | Racial Identity and Ambiguity in Wide Sargasso Sea
In the following essay, Lutz discusses racial identity and ambiguity in Wide Sargasso Sea.
In her unfinished autobiography, Smile Please, Jean Rhys records her childhood longing to be black: ‘‘[My mother] loved babies, any babies. Once I heard her say that black babies were prettier than white ones. Was this the reason why I prayed so ardently to be black, and would run to the looking-glass in the morning to see if the miracle had happened? And though it never had, I tried again. Dear God, let me be black.’’ In an unpublished manuscript entitled ‘‘Black Exercise Book,’’ Rhys suggests that she can boast a distant black ancestor: ‘‘My great grandfather...
[The entire page is 2004 words long]
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