Wide Sagrosse Sea by Jean Rhys portrays nature in many ways. It can be an escape or somewhere that is peaceful. It can be described as dangerous and savage. Similar to what colonizers think of natives of that time. That nature and the natives can be tamed. 

 The nature that we read about is from a garden that has been neglected. This can represent how the Jamaicans have been neglected and their rage and injustice grows. “But it had gone wild. The paths were overgrown… flourished out of reach or for some reason not to be touched.” (11)Nature, like people, need care to survive. The native Jamaicans were in a way flourishing in their own way before they came into contact with the outsiders just like the plants in this garden. 

 Nature can also be seen as an escape. A peaceful area away from tensions such as independence or anarchy in the country.“Watching the red and yellow flowers in the sun thinking of nothing, it was as if a door opened and I was somewhere else, something else.” (16) The freedom of nature is beautiful, and this can represent someone reminiscing about time before coming in contact to those that want to enslave them. In all, the natural setting works perfectly because of the many things it represents such as labor, freedom, danger, and tranquility. 

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.