Conflicts
Internal conflicts:
External conflicts:
- Antoinette suffers from an internal conflict between her racial and cultural differences. Antoinette was born of English descent although she is a white Creole. However, she grows up in Spanish Town, Jamaica, very radically different setting. She isn’t able to identify with either culture and finds herself stranded in an unwelcoming community where she feels extremely out of place.
- Antoinette struggles with her differentiation between reality and her fantasies. This becomes more prominent as the novel goes on, and the ultimate proof lies in her recurring dreams in the Mason mansion. The reader watches this conflict intensify as Antoinette slowly but surely goes insane.
External conflicts:
- The marriage of Antoinette and her nameless husband proves to be a conflict throughout the novel. Today, marriage may be seen as an act of love, but in Antoinette’s society, it is seen more as a financial agreement. In marrying her husband, Antoinette loses all of her wealth and economic standing. Their marriage proves to be a conflict through the ghastly events they take place.
- The conflict between white and black men is one that ultimately scars Antoinette. It is what causes this protagonist to feel unsettled in her own home, as well as feeling as if she has no place in the world. This conflict manifests itself in the scene of the burning of the Coulibri estate.