In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys presents the difficult situation of the white inhabitants in Caribbean area after Emancipation. Antoinette¡¦s crisis of position and identity derives from her being an inbetweener. She, on one hand, is excluded by the white society and unable to really enter the society of them, for her mother is a ¡§Martinique girl¡¨(17), not a 100% white woman. On the other hand, Antoinette has a hard time in completely blending with the Creole society. Though she partly identifies herself with the native culture and has the intention to cut off from the old time, she is still called a ¡§white cockroach¡¨(23) by the native inhabitants. Antoinette and her mother, who used to be rich before Emancipation, are now as poor as ¡§beggar¡¨(24). Under this kind of circumstance, Antoinette realizes ¡§Old time white people nothing but white nigger now¡¨(24). Because of the rise of the newly rich, ¡§the black nigger¡¨ is now ¡§better than white nigger¡¨(24). To certain extent, although Antoinette has the intention to assimilate with Creole culture, she still possesses the pride of being partly a white. From the bottom of her heart, she resists to be categorized as the same rank with the black people as Tia, her Creole friend. Even though she cannot be totally accepted by the white society, her basic pride makes her claim her being superior to the dark skinned ones. It is never possible for Antoinette to be a part of the Subject¡Xshe is always labeled as the Other, no matter which racial groups they are compared with. Being secluded by the white never means they are a part of Creole culture. Similar to Antoinette, Leopold is in the position of being an in-betweener who is black skinned but wears a white mask. Because of his white father, Leopold identifies himself with European culture and therefore feels superior to those natives. However, his Europeanized disposition does not help him to win the white identity from his father. Before he dies, although Leopold¡¦s mother asks him to give his son the ring, which represents the name of being a real white, he rejects, for he still regards Leopold an illegitimate son who is not purely white but a mulatto boy. Leopold¡¦s dark skin does not make him a part of the Caribbean society. In the eyes of his native friends, Leopold is from a rich family that is possessed by a white dominating plantation owner. His white mask does not helps him to be acknowledged by his white father. Like Antoinette, who is excluded by both the white and the black, Leopold is secluded because of his mixed race identity.

They will never become a part of the Creoles. No matter how hard Antoinette tries, even though she and Tia ¡§had eaten the same food, slept side by side, bathed in the same river,¡¨ she is after all an outsider who can never enter Tia¡¦s world. Leopold, either. Deeply caught by the plight that is created by the tangled relations among races, the mixed identity of Antoinette and Leopold lead them to confront their harsher fates.
 

In Wide Sargasso Sea, the black people hate Antoinette¡¦s family because her family is rich. I think that the black-and-white complex is not only caused by the racial reason, but also caused by the economical situation. Antoineette and her family are not original residents there like those black people, although Antoinette and her mother have the blood of the black(or Mulatoo), they are not purely black. With this reason, the black people still regard them as sort of whit people. So some black kids call Antoinette white cockroaches, this calling reflects their hatred and scorn for Antoineette and her family. Besides, Antoinette¡¦s family is rich there, this makes native black people feel unbalanced. Contrary to Wide Sargasso Sea, in Sugar Can Alley, those Africans are not native people in that place. They escaped to that place, and be ruled by French Government. Moreover, they are tortured by white men there. I use ¡§contrary¡¨ to convey the idea that Antoinette¡¦s family is tortured by black people there, and those African in Sugar Cane Ally is tortured by white people. Both the two groups are not original residents in the place they live. And they are treated with racial hostility. The same thing in these two texts is that black people are poorer than white people. And the black usually hate white people. Leopold and Antoinette are two characters who float and struggle between being a whit and a black. Their mixed blood makes them not able to be purely white or black, but they are eager to seek their own identity in the two stories. Leopold¡¦s way out is to be against to the white in order to be a part in his black friends¡¦ world, while Antoinette seems not to have any way out in the ending of excerpt of Wide Sargasso Sea.
 

In Sugar Cane Alley, distinction is made between the black locals/mulattos and the white rulers or managers. The colonial rule was manifest only in the language and the systems/institutions. The optimism expressed in their daily life marks the potential of generating a more easily identified culture as long as it does not clash with the dominant French rule. With the outer rule and oppressions, deaths in the film lead to the hope beyond this life of labor and slavery. Interestingly, the going back to the continent exists in both works. In the Sugar Cane Alley, Madouze¡¦s Africa was the land of joy and happiness with its fictionality and concreteness, but in Wide Sargasso Sea, England ended up being the land of nightmare and imprisonment. In this comparision, we may somehow conclude that the spiritual homeland is much more ideal than the actual homeland, which could represent further or another level of oppression. In the later or the present diaspora, this kind of disillusionment can just happen everyday. In France each year, a lot of young Africans born in France but without a regular legal status are shipped back to the home countries of their parents without ever knowing the culture and the language. They are discriminated against there and stuck in between. Another different treatment of the relationship between the white/creole/black/mulatto people is Leopold¡¦s alignment with the blacks constituted criminality and rebellion. This act of crime reinforces the cruel reality which is the unneglectable gap and opposition between the two groups. Though Jos? achieved to excel the general white and mulatto kids, he was co-opted into the colonizing system. He could be aware of the banana complex, but he could only assert himself under a limited condition. This is not the focus of the film of course, but it is worth considering after the education of Jos?.