The house at Granbois is an excellent example of cultural hybridity, it is described as "... an imitation of an English summer house - four wooden posts and a thatched roof" (60). I'm not sure of this but to me the thatched roof is out of place, an aspect of Caribbean architecture placed atop a mimicry of the English summer home. (Khalid your input on this one would be great, maybe you have learned something about the architecture of English summer houses or traditional Caribbean homes in one of your courses.) On page 63 it is mentioned that the kitchen outbuilding has no chimney, it looks English but is missing the chimney the would be used when heating the home on cold days in England.
The house is trying desperately to remain english but is being overtaken by the island as illustrated in this excerpt:
"At the top a badly cut, coarse-grained lawn and at the end of the lawn a shabby white house. 'Now you are at Granbois'. I looked at the mountains purple against a very blue sky.
Perched up on wooden stilts the house seemed to shrink from the forest behind it and crane eagerly out to the distant sea. It was more awkward than ugly, a little sad as if it knew if could not last." (60)
This threat of being swallowed up is reminiscent of Antoinette's struggle as an English child surrounded by the culture of the Islands. The house seems unsure of it's true identity, and so is Antoinette.
Fashion:
"She seemed pleased when I complimented her on her dress and told me she had it made in St. Pierre, Martinique. 'They call this fashion a la Josephine.'
'You talk of St Pierre as if it were Paris.' I said.
'But it is the paris of the West Indies.'"(67)
Naming the fashion "a la Josephine" demonstrates a hybridity of french language with Caribbean style. The centre of fashion among the islands is St Pierre, a french named town imitating Paris. To Antoinette's English husband St Pierre is not near equal to Paris, illustrating his rejection of the hybrid in another dimension.
Food:
I feel that these excerpts are relevant but I don't know what to do with them at the moment:
"The food, though too highly seasoned, was lighter and more appetizing than anything I had tasted in Jamaica. We drank champagne."(67)
"We boiled green bananas in an old iron pot and ate them with our fingers out of a calabash and after we has eaten we slept at once." (20)
"She hear all we poor like beggar. We ate salt fish - no money for fresh fish. That old house so leaky, you run with calabash to catch water when it rain. 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 white nigger now, and black nigger better than white nigger." (21)
cal·a·bash
noun \ˈka-lə-ˌbash\1: a tropical American tree (Crescentia cujete) of the bignonia family; also : its large hard-shelled globose fruit
2
: gourd; especially : one whose hard shell is used for a utensil
3
: a utensil (as a bottle or dipper) made from the shell of a calabash
Music:
A song sung by Amelie as she exits Antoinette's room:
"'The white cockroach she marry
The white cockroach she marry
The white cockroach she buy young man
The white cockroach she marry.'"
Antoinette's response to the song:
"It was a song about a white cockroach. That's me. That's what they call all of us who were here before their own people in Africa sold them to slave traders. And I've heard English women call us white niggers. So between you I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where do I belong and why was I ever born at all." (85)
"Adieu - like all those old-time songs she sang. Always adieu (and all the songs say it). If she too says it, or weeps, I'll take her in my arms, my lunatic. She's mad but mine, mine. What will i care for gods or devils or for Fate itself. If she smiles or weeps or both. For me."(136)
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Literary Hybridity:
I found a good example of literary hybridity as I understand it on pages 126-127. Christophine is confronting "Mr. Rochester" and after each sentence her speech is repeated in his mind. The voice repeating her words seems to be a combination of Christophine's direct speech, Antoinette's experience, and Mr. Rochester's own thoughts.
"'...all you want is to break her up.'
(Not the way you mean, I thought)
'But she hold out eh? She hold out.'
(Yes, she held out. A pity)
'So you pretend to believe all the lies that damn bastard tell you.'
(That damn bastard tell you)
Now every word she said was echoed, echoed loudly in my head.
'So that you can leave her alone.'
(Leave her alone)
'Not telling her why.'
(Why?)
'No more love eh?'
(No more love)
...
'...I don't meddle in that for beke. I tell her its foolishness'
(Foolishness foolishness)
'And even if it's no foolishness, it's too strong for beke'
(Too strong for beke, too strong)
'But she cry and she beg me.'
(She cry and she beg me)
'So I give her something for love.'
(For love)
'But you don't love. All you want is to break her up. And it help you break her up.'
(Break her up)
'She tells me in the middle of all this you start calling her names. Marionette. Some word so.'
'Yes I remember, I did.'
(Marionette, Antoinette, Marionette, Antoinetta)
'The word mean doll, eh? Because she don't speak. You want to force her to cry and to speak.'
(Force her to cry and to speak)
'But she won't. So you think up something else. You bring that worthless girl to play with next door and you talk and laugh and love so that she hear everything. You meant her to hear.'
'Yes, that didn't just happen. I meant it.'
(I lay awake all night long after they were asleep, and as soon as it was light I got up and dressed and saddled Preston. And I came to you. Oh Christophine. O Pheena, Pheena, help me.)" (126-27)
In this excerpt the italicized voice is at first replying to Christophine with "Mr. Rochester's" thoughts, around the line "(Foolishness foolishness)" it transforms to mimic Christophine's voice, and the very last statement in brackets; "(I lay awake all night long after they were asleep, and as soon as it was light I got up and dressed and saddled Preston. And I came to you. Oh Christophine. O Pheena, Pheena, help me.)" is an interjections from Antoinette herself. This interjection of thought is hybrid in meaning, occupying a space that combines white, black, and Creole voices, but it is also physically hybrid as it occurs between lines of spoken dialogue from two opposing parties.
Another example of literary hybridity is the novel itself. It is a hybrid of Jane Eyre and an entirely new narrative.
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On another note, I think this quote is really crucial to understanding Antoinette's inner life. I don't know where we can use it in the presentation but it seems so important to me!
"Then, not so far off, I saw Tia and her mother and I ran to her, for she was all that was left of my life as it had been. We had eaten the same food, slept side by side, bathed in the same river. As I ran, I thought, I will live in Coulibri. Not to go. Not. When I was close I saw the jagged stone in her hand but I did not see her throw it. I did not feel it either, only something wet, running down my face. I looked at her and I saw her face crumple up as she began to cry. We stared at each other, blood on my face, tears on hers. It was as if I saw myself. Like in a looking glass." (38)
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Aly
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