Postcolonial narratives and rewritings attempt to address minority responses by recovering their untold stories resulting from European colonization (Reavis). This literature addresses the problems and consequences of the decolonization of a country and individual responses to questions of imperialism and racism. Jean Rhys takes on the task of giving voice to historically silenced characters in her novel Wide Sargasso Sea, a precursor story to Bronte's Jane Eyre from the point of view of Mr. Rochester's insane and seemingly bestial wife, Bertha Mason , whose first name turns out to be Antoinette Cosway. Throughout the novel, Rhys uses various symbols to convey the concept of the "other", as well as themes of social and cultural identity, entrapment, and ecocriticism to reflect the psyches and experiences of the characters. Rhys uses the concept of mirrors particularly in Wide Sargasso Sea to symbolize Antoinette's dual identity, her madness, and ultimately her deteriorated personality under a system of patriarchal oppression. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay Mirrors initially play an important role in Antoinette's chaotic childhood to convey her dual identity and fluidity between social groups . In a pivotal scene where Jamaican natives besiege Antoinette's home at Coulibri Estate, Antoinette uses her passive, poetic rhetoric to describe an otherwise dire situation. When she and her family finally emerge from their burning house, Antoinette alludes to the mirrors while running towards her childhood friend Tia: "When I was close, I saw the jagged stone in her hand but I didn't Didn't see her throw it. I didn't feel it either, only something wet was running down my face. I looked at her and saw her face fall as she started to cry. We looked at each other, blood on my face, tears on his. It was like I was seeing myself. As in a mirror” (Rhys 45). This scene, full of intensity and emotion, constitutes an interesting juxtaposition of two different female experiences. Antoinette, a young white Creole girl living in Spanish Town, Jamaica, in the midst of post-slavery illegalization, often refers to herself as a "white cockroach." Throughout her narrative, she does not belong to any social group, as she cannot identify with the black residents of Spanish Town but is also too "exotic" to fit into any part of English culture. Tia serves as her significant double, and like Antoinette, she embodies the anger and grief that Antoinette ultimately seeks to express, but from the other side of the looking glass of racial separation. Tia is the image of an identity that Antoinette aspires to be her own: a black woman with a sense of belonging, not a white Creole woman stuck between a real community. The concept of the mirror and Tia as a double seems to repeat what Antoinette knows, which is that she will never find the sense of belonging or identity she wants for herself. As Antoinette's madness develops, the mirrors reflect her alienation from any sense of identity. The third part of the novel is a chilling culmination of Antoinette's psychosis through isolation that raises the question of whether her madness is intrinsic or simply a consequence of her poisonous treatment and history. Annette, Antoinette's mother, despite her brief appearance in the novel, had the habit of constantly looking for her own reflection in the mirror. Antoinette adopts this part of her mother, perhaps indicating their shared need to be.