". . . providing it is a cheerful lie."

I'm sure I wasn't alone in noticing similarities between Song of Solomon and Wide Sargasso Sea , not just in the characters but also the themes. I think perhaps the most obvious parallel is between Pilate and Christophine. They both seem to have supernatural powers, and even give another character a love potion. But besides that, they also fulfill similar roles in the books. Both act as a sort of mother figure to the main character, in the place of the main character's weaker biological mother. They also are at odds with the male figure trying to 'take away' the main character, whether Macon or Rochester. I especially found this interesting since we briefly discussed in class the potential racism of putting Christophine in a caretaker role. There are of course differences between the two characters. Pilate just has more autonomy, probably because she lives in a predominantly black environment that white people rarely intrude on (versus Christophine being constant...

The love potion-drug that Antoinette gives to Rochester symbolizes the larger incompatibility of West Indies and colonialist British cultures. First, Antoinette tries to use obeah magic on Rochester, a British man. This attempted crossover between the two cultures ultimately fails. Rochester even describes it as "poison". This failure happens because they are fundamentally incompatible: Rochester is the colonist, and the obeah magic comes from those who were colonized. As Christophine puts it, "it's too strong for beke". This failure also occurs, though, because Antoinette does not belong to either culture. As Christophine says to Rochester, Antoinette is "not beke like you, but . . . beke, and not like us either". Thus, when she tries to use obeah magic, she fails, because she is not truly Jamaican; when she tries to connect to Rochester, she fails, because she is not truly English. Additionally, Antoinette and Rochester's main relationship is...