Homeward-bound? : The Struggle to Find the Homeland in Jean Rhys´s Wide Sargasso Sea

Abstract: This essay is focused on the search for a true homeland in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea from a Postcolonial point of view. The main protagonist, Antoinette Cosway, struggles with her mixed heritage which is both Caribbean and European. As a result, she suffers from a split identity and searches for a place of belonging. Vital Postcolonial concepts, such as Diaspora and displacement are used in order to investigate the struggle to find a true homeland. Moreover, the main purpose of this essay is to investigate how Rhys uses depictions of nature and colour to convey this search, and thereby introduces yet another aspect for the characters to interact with. Nature provides comfort, sense of belonging and the opposite, but also explores the relationship between the characters. The colours red and white are highly frequent, and refer to Antoinette’s Caribbean and European identity, which alters through the novel. The images of nature are nostalgically depicted and Antoinette longs for a lost Caribbean without the effects of Colonialism, which is merely history. It is also discovered that the homeland she longs for, England, is not what she was searching for. The struggle for the homeland becomes futile, since Antoinette longs for an England of the romantic novels and a Caribbean that does no longer exist.