At the beginning of Jean Rhys' novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette Cosway, a young Creole woman, lives in poverty with her mother, Annette, and her daughter brother Pierre, on the island of Jamaica. In the society they live in, Antoinette is oppressed and discriminated against because of her race, class and gender. Not only does Annette favor Pierre, but the entire family is targeted by the Jamaicans, first because of their race and the fact that they are poor, and then because of their wealth. Life is no better for Lucy Josephine Potter, the Antiguan-born protagonist in Jamaica Kincaid's novel, Lucy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Living in Manhattan as an au pair, Lucy is constantly faced with memories of the oppression she suffered in her country, both at the hands of her mother and her British colonizers. He soon realizes that no matter how much distance he puts between himself and the past, he cannot escape this oppression. The situations these two girls face may be similar, but they both approach them in extremely different ways. While the historical and cultural circumstances in which Antoinette grows up lead her to define herself exclusively as a victim, Lucy finds strength in the oppression she is forced to endure; as a result, Antoinette is driven to madness while Lucy is able to build an independent life. Due to the patriarchal society the Cosways live in, Annette is constantly dependent on men. She sees Pierre as someone who will grow up to protect her. Therefore, it is not surprising that Annette clearly favors her son over her daughter. As a result of this favoritism, Annette fails to care for Antoinette as well as she cares for Pierre; It never bothers Annette that her daughter's clothes are old and dirty until visitors arrive at their house, at which point she looks at Antoinette's dress and orders the maid, Christophine, to "throw that thing away [and] burn it" ( Rhys 25) . It is only then that Annette realizes that her daughter does not have clean and decent clothes. Despite her mother's negligence, Antoinette always strives to be a good daughter. When he sees his mother frowning, he lovingly tries to smooth out the wrinkles on her forehead. Yet Annette only “[pushes Antoinette away]…calmly, coldly, without a word, as if [she has] decided once and for all that [she is] useless to her.” Instead of spending time with her daughter, Annette just wants to "sit with Pierre...without being bothered" (Rhys 20). While this is enough to make anyone feel neglected, it is when the Jamaicans burn down the Cosway house that we are able to see how little Antoinette means to her mother. One day after escaping the riot, Antoinette is brought to visit. When Annette notices her daughter, she simply watches from the door, waiting for her beloved Pierre to enter. When she is told that her son died in the fire, she throws Antoinette from her and screams "No, no, no... .because you brought the child to make trouble, trouble, trouble" (Rhys 48). Annette eventually goes mad over Pierre's death and abandons her daughter. Due to the patriarchal society in which she lives, Annette is unable to care for Antoinette as deeply as she does for Pierre, because Pierre can offer her the security she seeks. Because of the neglect and abandonment she suffers from, Antoinette considers herself a victim of her own culture. Lucy, on the other hand, refuses to brand herself with the term 'victim'. Although she has also been oppressed because of her gender, she does not allow these experiences to define her as a person. While growing up in Antigua, Lucy and her mother hada good relationship. However, after Lucia was “blessed” with two brothers, the situation soon changed. Her brothers became the agents in all her mother's dreams. They are the ones who will grow up to become prestigious doctors. Since Lucy's siblings are boys, they are the ones who will be able to care for and support their mother later in life. However, this doesn't make Lucy feel worthless. Instead, it motivates her to make something of her life. Not only are Antoinette and Lucy oppressed because of their gender, but also because of their race and class. Antoinette grows up in a predominantly black society; the only Caucasians living there are the wealthy descendants of the plantation owners. Although Antoinette's family is a product of colonialism, they reap none of its benefits, such as money and power. As a matter of fact, at the beginning of the novel, they are no richer than black Jamaicans, and therefore do not fit into the wealthy white class, who, according to Tia, Antoinette's friend, are "real white people, [with] money golden." When Tia, who is a black Jamaican, tells Antoinette that she and her family are "nothing but white niggers now", it is obvious that the townspeople have no respect for the Cosway family (Rhys 24). The children constantly provoke Antoinette: "White cockroach, go away, go away. Nobody wants you. Go away" (Rhys 23). Her family is nothing more than a joke to the Jamaicans, who laugh and sneer at Annette and eventually poison her horse so that she has no transportation to town and must stay close to her home. Although Antoinette feels victimized by the Jamaicans, she realizes that they pose no real threat to her safety. However, when Annette marries the wealthy Mr. Mason, the situation changes. Antoinette's family is no longer considered the mighty fall; nor are they simply considered a joke. They are now part of the rich, white class and represent their ancestors who owned the plantations where Jamaicans once worked as slaves. Annette realizes that her family must be extremely careful due to their regained wealth. However, Mr. Mason underestimates the situation in Jamaica and therefore, to his dismay, does not share his wife's distrust. Annette constantly asks her husband if the family can leave Coulibri, the town where they live, on the grounds that "the people [there] hate them" (Rhys 32). He realizes that when they were poor they were simply "something to laugh at", and now that they are no longer poor, they are no longer safe. Jamaicans now "talk about [them] non-stop. They make up stories about [Mr. Mason] and lies about [Annette]." However, when Annette reveals this to her husband, he responds that Jamaicans are simply curious and "too damn lazy to be dangerous" (Rhys 32). It is this underestimation of the Jamaicans by Mr. Mason that ultimately leads to the riot in which the Jamaicans burn down his family's house. First Antoinette is a victim because of her poverty, and then she is a victim because of her wealth. While Antoinette faces discrimination as a Creole woman in the majority Jamaican population, Lucy faces discrimination as a West Indian in the majority Caucasian population. Even her employers' African-American maid, who has somewhat similar origins to Lucy's, is quick to criticize her: she said that I spoke like a nun, I even walked like one, and that everything about me was so pious that it made her become she immediately feels sick to her stomach and sick with pity just looking at me. (Kincaid 11)However, instead of feeling stupid and worthless, Lucy responds to these insults by showing pride in her heritage. Even though she faces many racial stereotypes, she remains true to herself and her story. After the waitress finishedto shamelessly criticize Lucy, she suggests they dance, even though she's "pretty sure [Lucy doesn't] know how." When an album sung by three white singers plays, Lucy explodes with an energetic calypso about "a girl who ran away to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and had a good time, no regrets" (Kincaid 12). He is not ashamed of his origins, on the contrary he accepts them and is proud of them. Lucy is “determined to be an agent rather than a passive receiver” (Ferguson 52). She refuses to let the circumstances she finds herself in define her. When he travels to Manhattan from his hometown of Antigua, he stays in a “box in which cargoes traveling a long way should be shipped” (Kincaid 53). Although Antoinette would accept it, Lucy forcefully states “I [am] not a load” (Kincaid 7). In her essay “Lucy and the Mark of the Colonizer,” Moira Ferguson states that “from the beginning, knowingly or not, Lucy sets out to undermine metropolitan authority and asserts her right to challenge it” (52). moments in the lives of Antonietta and Lucia in which identities are offered to them by others. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rochester refuses to accept Antoinette for who she is. His insistence on calling her by another name represents this. In response to a question, Rochester replies, "Certainly, I will, my dear Bertha." Antoinette tells him “Not Bertha tonight,” but when he tells her “Of course, on this of all nights, you must be Bertha,” she gives in and obediently replies “As you wish” (Rhys 136). Because she has internalized the victimization of her past, she cannot find the strength to stand up to her oppressive husband. Lucy, however, "rejects the available identities offered to her" by "her mother… , the British Empire, her well-meaning employer Mariah,… ​​and her employers' African-American maid" (Simmons 121). Her mother attempts to mold her daughter into what she wants her to be and to have what she wants her to have: "A career as a nurse; ... a sense of duty to [her] parents; [and] obedience to the law and cult of convention" (Kincaid 133). However, Lucy refuses to allow her mother to be responsible for her own identity. Since he doesn't share the same dream as his mother, he pursues his own. She gives up attending nursing school at night and rejects her conventional education by becoming promiscuous. Lucy makes the decision to define her own destiny. In addition to her mother attempting to impose an identity on Lucy, the British Empire does so as well. As a subject under British rule, Lucy studies literature such as Milton's Paradise Lost. Through reading this and other British works, the idea that beauty consists of blue eyes and white skin takes root in Lucy's head. However, she doesn't let this idea label her as "bad." Instead, he finds beauty in his brown skin and kinky hair. Lucy has the strength to reject the ideas imposed on her by her colonizers and allows herself to define her own ideals. He's not even afraid to stand up for what he believes in. At the age of fourteen she "stands up in choir practice and [announces] that [she] does not wish to sing 'Rule Britannia! Britannia rules the waves; Britons will never, never be slaves', making quite clear that she is not British, as not long ago she would have been a slave (Kincaid 135). Lucy's employer, Mariah, also attempts to mold her into who he wants her to be. Mariah believes her worldview is correct and can't imagine it should be any other way. As a child in Antigua, Lucy is forced to memorize Wordsworth's poem about the beauty of daffodils. However, Lucy does not see daffodils as a sign of beauty, but rather as a sign of oppression. This fact is very clear in the dream he has the following night, 1994.