Rejection is an important theme throughout the novel.
Many instances of rejection in Wide Sargasso Sea occur firstly when Antoinette approaches her mother in Part I to try to sooth her frown and she is rejected blatantly, when Antoinette is jeered and insulted by her friend Tia, whom she has cherished, and also when Antoinette is stalked by a black girl through the bushes, and jeered, insulted and called dirty names. She is rejected one night when she cries out after a nightmare and her mother chastises her for waking Pierre. When the estate is burned down she runs to Tia, who assaults her with a stone. The black community further rejects her by killing her mother's horse, taunting her when she walks on the glacis, and stoning her on her way to the convent.
In Part I of the novel, Antoinette, who prefers and enjoys wondering and exploring the over-grown wilderness of Coulibri Estate and beyond its boundaries is found at a particular moment to be doing this, when she is approached by a local black girl who follows her persistently into the bushes jeering 'Go away white cockroach, go away'.
Antoinette VII (French plane, for military use)
Tia By Tia
Tia Draws2006-01-21aAntoinette, who feels quite embarrassed and ashamed by the young girl's chanting tries to run away from her through he wilderness, but the girl continues her provocative chanting, continuing to evoke sadness and misery in Antoinette. Eventually, though, Antoinette find refuge against a moss-covered wall, and the tauntress retreats. She remains on the wall until darkness falls, and her mother's servant Christophene comes to find her. This incident has a tremendous impact on Antoinette, because it strengthens her insecurity among the local islanders, especially the black folks. She feels that she is unwelcome in the presence of the black people, but the chant 'white...