I Used to Live Here Once Critique - Essay Example

I Used to Live Here Once by Jean Rhys Jean Rhys was born in the British colony of Dominica in West Indies in 1890. Her father was white while her mother was a Creole white, implying she was a white born in the Dominican community, but with her ancestry in Britain. She had moved from the Dominican Republic to Britain when she was 16, implying she was dislocated, or cut off from the black community, and a place that she knew as home. Rhys through this transition lost her identity. The story I Used to Live Here Once is sentimental of this disconnection, and the psychological effects it had. The story is thus more of an autobiography where the author talks about her life. The title of the story is symbolic as she wrote many literary works about the Dominican Republic during her school in Britain. The short story I Used to Live Here Once is a small story in a collection of stories Sleep It off Lady. Therefore, the story is symbolic as it amplifies the despair, loneliness, and psychological trauma that come along with isolation in the persona life as she lacks a real identity and people to identify with. Frickey (100) explains that the story being very short has been symbolically placed in the novel to signify a case of finale, which may signify the return of Rhys after many years of exile to Dominican Republic. The strong emotional presentation of the persona’s return in the story is crucial because of an important incidence in her life. The story is presented in a third person presentation, implying the narrator is not part of the story, which may signify lack of identity as the narrator was removed from her ancestral home, she lost her identity and she presents herself as another person in case of duality. The title signifies the narrator is the main actor, but the use of third person may reflect loss of identity as explained. The story is an emotional reflection, where the persona recalls her past life, and the developments that had occurred with her absence, recounting the mysterious journeys in life and the effects they had in her life. The fragmentation is the main style employed in the narrative: the author balances the present and past throughout the story, in connecting memories and the present until the end. Symbolism is another major stylistic device employed by the author. At the beginning, the author describes her surroundings as a “blue day,” and that the sky looked “glassy” (Rhys 358). The blue day is symbolic of the clarity that the narrator remembers all events and her past life in the place she used to call home. However, glassy represents the new ‘unremembered’ life that signifies the new life as she closes the river to search for her lost heavens. The sky looks glassy therefore signifies the unclear that she steps into after closing the river. This glassy and blue sky looks portray the reflections of the persona between the past that she clearly remembers, and knew, and a new life that is not clear to her. Frickey further argues that “she” is extraordinarily happy walking alone, recognizing the previous settings and noting the changes (100). Everything was thus much clear the persona, making her happy. The novel starts as she is standing at the bank of a river, watching the flowing water, remembering each stepping stone (Rhys 358), and everything was as she remembered. Flowing water is symbolic of the rolling wheels of life. The persona is reflecting on how life has passed, and she clearly remembers each detail of her life as symbolized by stones. The unsafe stone was perhaps what had caused her disconnect and removal from her ancestral home; as agitation by the natives increased symbolized by overflowing water, they were forced to exile. Wilson (68) explains that Rhys was just like other people who were forced to exile and disconnected from their ancestry, and their past. The session at the river therefore signifies reflection of how life has passed and the events that have happened since they were removed from their land. The theme of isolation and suspicion is live in this story. As the persona was happy walking alone after remembering every detail of her old home, she comes across a girl and a boy and “her arms went out instinctively with the longing to touch them” (Rhys 359). However, the boy looked directly and told her sister it has gone cold; the two run to the house together “and she watches them running from her” (Rhys 359). This brings out the aspect of despair, loneliness, and disconnection prevalent in Rhys novels. The children have rejected her company leaving her alone and cold; a loneliness that results to despair of being rejected. However, racialism and mistrust in this, as Frickley (100) explains, implies she has brought about the cold as described by the children. Being a stranger, she brings about mistrust and fear in children. Thus the children are not aware they represented Marcus and Rose to her, two children she had relinquished some time back (Frockey 100). The running away signifies that thou she has returned to her home in Indies, there was no place for her as she is not welcomed. This amplifies her loneliness and despair and brings out the sympathetic mood of the entire story, as a result of rejection, in a place she recognized as home. The theme of dislocation and psychological alienation is evident through Rhys story I Used to Live Here Once. Many critics view these stories as being presented as a struggle to retain sanity and control from an alienated position, making her plot development characteristic of alienation, loneliness, and despair (Fallon 358). Many critics view Rhys’ stories and sketches to be very brief and going much deeper to reject the structural plot, and the fullness of characterization, as well as rejecting descriptive and expository presentations (Fallon 359). For example, I Used to Live Here Once is only about two pages long, with very few characters who have not been brought out; the persona is “she,” with author disconnecting from being a character in the story. In addition, many critics argue that these stories are heavily coupled with psychologically disturbed characters, which catches the attention of the readers and critics alike; this renders her story to have a sober and sympathetic mood. For example, at the scene that she is rejected by children, implying she is not welcome in the society captures this psychological distraught effectively. The last sentence where the author says, “that was the first time she knew” (Rhys 359), in addition to being symbolic of her realization of being an outcast who was not welcome to her ancestral home portrays psychological distraught. Though by crossing the river she believed she had reached the other side of heaven where she would be happy, she was psychologically disturbed after knowing that the so called heavens do not need him. Just as children were innocent, it signifies she was cast out form heaven by angels; she was then an outcast without identity or a home. As Linett (437) explains, the representation of Rhys’s characters as being powerless as indicated above is to acknowledge the powerlessness, and viewing it as a result of going through social oppressions. In addition, just as the persona in the story, Linett (437) explains Rhys’ characters to be badly educated females and as colonial subjects who had exiled to metropolis. It is the exclusion faced by these characters that make them powerless and this social marginalization brings about psychological trauma. This character formation and narrative voice is symbolic in Rhys narratives (Anonymous 1309); in this case it justifies the theme of disconnection both physically and psychologically as explained. Fragmentation is another style used by Rhys in her presentation in the novel. Woolf (85) explains the break in all Rhys’s narratives is to portray the fragmented mind of her protagonists. The fragmentation is Rhys’s main literary device to present mental processes. Being an outcast leads to fragmentation of one’s life; one cannot adequately consolidate their lives around a specific ancestry place, implying psychological trauma that lead to a fragmented life. As Herman (42) explains, a completely powerless person has no form of resistance, making them to go to a state of surrender, with the self-defense taking root immediately. In order to escape from her position, the helpless person cannot do it physically, but will only escape through altering their state of consciousness. Therefore, as Herman elaborates, Rhys characters being helpless would not escape from this reality in action, but have to alter their consciousness. This explains the use of fragmentation in the story above. Herman further notes that the traumatic memories cannot be encoded in a verbal and linear narrative, which is assimilated into an ongoing life narrative (Herman 37). Similarly, Rhys presents the story not in a linear flow, but integrates the past and the present along her narrative, which seems confusing to the reader. This explains the overemphasis on some words such as ‘remembering’ along the narration (Fallon 358). Rhys’ I Used to Live Here Once is an emotional narration detailing the loneliness, rejection, psychological trauma and general disconnect between the persona and her community. The narrative is a journey of reflection where the persona was taken from her native home to Britain and then returned later to find she could remember most of the things though with few changes. Surprisingly, she is treated as an outcast by the same people she identifies with. Lastly, the persona laments that she knew, implying she realized she was not welcome to the Dominican society. The author heavily utilizes symbolism, narration, and fragmentation throughout the story. Therefore, the story I Used to Live Here Once is characteristic of oppression, rejection, and the psychological trauma that comes along with such rejection. Works Cited Anonymous. The Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Fiction. Volume 2, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2011. Print. Fallon, Erin. A reader’s companion to the Short Story in English. CT: Greenwood Publishing, 2001. Print. Frickey, Pierrette M. Critical Perspectives on Jean Rhys. Washington, DC: Lynne Rienner Publishing, 1990. Print. Herman, Judith. Trauma and Recovery. New York: Basic, 1997. Print. Linett, Maren. “New words, new everything': fragmentation and trauma in Jean Rhys.” Twentieth Century Literature: a scholarly and critical journal 51.4 (2005): 437-66. Print. Rhys, Jean. I Used to Live Here Once, in Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Eds. Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 1999. Print. Wilson, Lucy. “European or Caribbean: Jean Rhys and the Language of Exile.” A Journal of Women Studies 10.3 (1998): 68-72. Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. San Diego: Harcourt, 1957. Print. Read More