A comparative literary analysis of “Wide Sargasso Sea” and “The Best Place On Earth”
“Wide Sargasso Sea” and “The Best Place On Earth” are two very different books but they ultimately share similarities. The two books are written very differently from another, but both seem to share a common ground with the theme of identity and struggling to find the person you are. Not knowing your own identity can affect the person you are. The characters in the books place a mental border around themselves, which affects their identities. The theme of identity and struggling to fit in makes up the two books and are key when it comes to understanding the books and connecting with them.
When I knew that I wanted to compare the theme of identity, I wanted to better understand in detail what an identity was. I wanted to understand what things affect one’s identity. In an article I read called “identity” the writer says “Identity encompasses the memories, experiences, relationships, and values that create one’s sense of self.” these things help to give us our identity. Basically everything around us helps to make us who we are.
The “Best Place On Earth” by Ayelet Tsabari, is a collection of short stories with changing characters in each new story. The title of the book can somewhat misleading, as most of the stories in the book take place somewhere where the character wishes they were not. The characters in the stories all struggle to fit in with their surroundings and seem to struggle with depression from different events they’ve faced in their lives.
The book “Wide Sargasso Sea” By Jean Rhys, is a more complex book that tells just one story. The story is about a girl name Antoniette. Antoinette doesn’t live the best life and she struggles to fit in. She doesn’t really have anyone in her life to lean on during hard times she faces which ultimately leads her to go mentally insane.
Both books focus on the theme of struggling to find your identity and the person you are. The first comparison of the two books that focus on the theme identity focus on the characters being alone. In the second story in “The Best Place On Earth” called “Say It Again, Something else.” The main character Lily is new to Israel from Vancouver and wants nothing more than to go back to where she’s from and on top of that she’s lost her mother. Lily doesn’t have many friends and the friend she has made wants Lily to change her appearance to fit in, in her new home. Lily doesn’t know who she is and what she wants, she struggles with a sense of abandonment. In “Wide Sargasso Sea,” the main character Antoinette doesn’t have a mother that cares for her and on top of that, she doesn’t really have any friends. The one friend Antoinette did have in the story end up not being her friend anymore. Antoinette doesn’t know who she is and she isolates her self from the world.
Not knowing who you are as a person can have an effect on who you are. When you’re all alone and lack a role model or people who you can count on you lose site of happiness. Not being able to talk to someone about the things you go through can leave you feeling alone and unwanted, which is what the characters from both stories went through. In an In-depth analysis, I read of “Wide Sargasso Sea” called “ Identity Crisis for the Creole Woman: A Search for Self in Wide Sargasso Sea” writer Stephanie Courtney and I both agree that society and those around you affect the person you are. Courtney says “she struggles to develop her own identity in the face of cultural and racial rejection.” She looks at how the people around you play a role in the person you are.
The next comparison I wanted to look at was the traumatic events that took place in both of the books. Each book both had different events that character faced that affected who they were as a person. Antoinette from “Wide Sargasso Sea” goes through many traumatic events during the story, from having a mother who does care about her to being locked up by her husband. The Story “Warplanes” from the book “The Best Place On Earth” The main character (who isn’t directly named) father dies from a sickness. The character feels like her father’s death wasn’t important because he didn’t die in a war, like some of her peers. The main character gets into a fight with her friend Orli who says “Yeah, everyone says you’ve been weird since your father died. Even Meirav is not acting like this and her father was a war hero.” The charter tried to push away her feelings and pretend like she was okay.
The events that happened in the books worked to effect the charterers in each of the stories identities and the person they were. From the main character Antionette, who in the end of the story, from all the events she went through in her life, goes insane. For the main character in “Warplanes” from “The Best Place On Earth,” she ends up becoming depressed, she says “I wonder what it’s like to be dead. Shut-in and all alone”
When you go through hard events in your life, they can affect your well being and the person you are. These characters were stuck behind a mental border that they couldn’t get over. In an article, I read about the impact of traumatic events linked to mental health, called “The impact of traumatic events on mental health.” It talks about how traumatic events work to affect your mental health they said “Depression is different from feeling down or sad. Someone experiencing depression will experience intense emotions of anxiety, hopelessness, negativity, and helplessness.” The characters from the books seemed to really suffer from negativity and the feeling of helplessness, which as I’ve said really affected the person they were.
The next thing I compared was how the physical borders/setting affected the characters from “Wide Sargaaro Sea” and “The Best Place On Earth.” The settings of the books played a major role when it came to affect the identities of the characters. Where you live and grow up helps to define the person you are. This is why the setting/physical borders are so important two the stories. They shaped who the characters were.
In the very first story “Tikkun” from “The Best Place On Earth” the story took place in Jerusalem during a war. One of the main characters, Lori shares how scared of the place where he is to the other main character, Natalie. He tells her “ Look around you. Why would anyone want to raise a child in this country” The place they lived affect how they went through life with a sense of constant fear. In the Story “Wide Sargasso Sea,” Antonetti lives in Jamaica during the first part of the story, on a run-down plantation in Jamaica and then locked away in her husband’s home in England. During her time on a plantation, Antoinette doesn’t really fit in because of her race and those around her don’t accept her. In the last part of the book, while locked away, Antoinette spends the rest of her life in isolation. These two places really affected her, she says to her husband “I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where do I belong and why was I ever born at all.” She feels like she doesn’t belong anywhere, she doesn’t know who she is.
The characters were affected differently by the settings but ultimately they helped to shape who each person was. Which is why settings/physical borders are a major part of forming who someone is. In a slide show, I read by Rachel Storey called “How Does Environment Shape a Persons Identity” she shares how the environment works to shape who we are as a person. She says “One of the most important elements of personal growth, and the journey to find oneself, is cultural identity. The way a person relates to their cultural practices and surroundings can significantly affect the way they feel about themselves. Their personal perspective is especially affected when these surroundings are disrupted or shifted into something new.” Both characters that I talked about had there surrounding disrupted, it worked to make who they were.
Identity has played a huge role in each of the books. It made the stories of what they were. It’s important to understand what identity is when you read these books because it will give you a deeper understanding of what you’re reading. Without an identity, you wouldn’t be who you are just like without an identity of the character from the stories there wouldn’t be a book.
Work cited
Heshmat, Shahram. “Basics of Identity.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 8 Dec. 2014, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/201412/basics-identity.
Identity Crisis for the Creole W, www.mckendree.edu/academics/scholars/issue10/coartney.htm.
“The Impact of Traumatic Events on Mental Health.” Mental Health Foundation, 16 Jan. 2020, www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/impact-traumatic-events-mental-health.
Storey, Rachel. “How Does Environment Shape a Person’s Identity?” Arcgis.com, www.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=6ef98f48db67430eb76841963d691791.
Adams, Lorraine. “’The Best Place on Earth,’ by Ayelet Tsabari.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Mar. 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/books/review/the-best-place-on-earth-by-ayelet-tsabari.html?auth=login-google.
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