Tia! Tia! Mama Mia!

Even at the beginning of her narrative, Antoinette can be seen as a very sad and troubled girl. She has lived a life of constant alienation from both her community and her own family. The whole village knows of her troubling and suspicious background involving her biological father and it is seen as very disgraceful. Because of this negative popular opinion, Antoinette is attributed to the many flaws of her family, and is therefore isolated from the rest of the community. She has yet to have a real friend in her life and is constantly called names such as “White Cockroach” (13) and is repeatedly told to leave this village because she is unwanted there. All of this saddens Antoinette, as she is just a little girl who just wants some companionship in her life. Although she does have Christophine in her life, there is only so much Christophine can do to satisfy Antoinette’s need for affection (to make up for the lack of affection from Annette, Antoinette’s mother), while also helping out around the house.

So, after seeing Antoinette hiding, frozen still in the garden after being harassed by other kids, Christophine goes and finds a friend for Antoinette. A friend who will be able to hang with Antoinette and bring a fun aspect to her life. A friend who could teach Antoinette what she could not. A friend named Tia. Although Christophine can attempt to fill both the maternal and paternal roles in Antoinette’s life, she cannot be the sibling role that will help Antoinette mature as she grows older. Fortunately for Christophine, she is able to find Tia, who serves as an temporary older sister in Antoinette's life. “Sometimes we left the bathing pool at midday, sometimes we stayed till late afternoon. Then Tia would light a fire (fires always lit for her, sharp stones did not hurt her bare feet, I never saw her cry). We boiled green bananas in an old iron pot and ate them with our fingers out of a calabash and after we had eaten she slept at once. I could not sleep” (13). Antoinette looks at everything Tia does with awe and admiration. She is amazed by Tia’s vast knowledge which moves her to want to be more like Tia. But, this sisterly relationship changes once the bet comes around.

It starts out as just a case of a little sibling rivalry. Initially, when Antoinette believes that Tia has cheated, the interaction is still just a fight between sisters, nothing too harmful. It isn’t until Antoinette pulls out the race card that things begin to get a little heated. “‘Keep them then, you cheating nigger,’ I said, for I was tired, and the water I had swallowed made me feel sick. ‘I can get more if I want to.’ That’s not what she hear, she said. She hear all we poor like beggar. We ate salt fish--no money for fresh fish. That old house so leaky, you run with calabash to catch water when it rain. Plenty white people in Jamaica. Real white people, they got gold money. They didn’t look at us, nobody see them come near us. Old time white people nothing but white nigger now, and black nigger better than white nigger” (14). Once the word “nigger” comes out of Antoinette’s mouth, the whole tone of the conversation, situation, and their friendship has changed. Antoinette basically states that even if Tia won, she still has leverage over Tia because she’s white, therefore stating that it would be impossible for Tia to win in the grand scheme of things. Although I think Antoinette was just using a word she had heard around her house, not knowing the actual deep meanings of it, I do think her intentions were not great and that she had at least a basic understanding of what the word meant. Before, it was just two little girls playing in a pool of water, away from the judgement and restrictions of the adult world. But, once that word slips out of Antoinette’s mouth, the adult world has encroached on them and a darkness shrouds their friendship and pretty much ends it.

But Antoinette isn’t the old bad one in this fight. Although Antoinette does start it, Tia doesn’t hold back when it’s her turn. She lays it on Antoinette the realities of her household and how they are ostracized from the community, a reality that Antoinette has had to live with her whole life. Now, although both girls laid harsh comments about each other, I don’t think they really meant them. They are both just repeating information that has been fed to them by the adults in their lives. Antoinette doesn’t mean her harsh comment because she wishes she could be more like Tia, and Tia, I think, enjoys the company of Antoinette, even if the community doesn’t approve. But once Antoinette brings the harsh realities into their initially, innocent friendship, there is an immediate shift in their friendship. Tia then decides to take Antoinette’s dress, giving her her old, matted dress in return, possibly symbolic of Tia showing Antoinette of what her place really is in society. Even though Antoinette’s family may have more money than Tia’s (probably not by much, if at all), from her choice of words, Antoinette believes that she is more well off than Tia, and Tia decides to strip her of that notion by both reducing her pride and clothing to what all the villagers think of her and her family. It’s a very harsh scene all together that abruptly ends Tia’s and Antoinette’s friendship seemingly for good.

It’s sad because I thought that this friendship would be great for Antoinette, since she has had a lack of socialization outside of her household for all of her life. But, what Antoinette said was uncalled for (along with how Tia retaliated). I suppose later, Tia shows a little bit of remorse when she throws a rock at Antoinette, and Antoinette seems to understand how Tia must feel and so she doesn’t judge her for her actions, at least not completely. But it’s unfortunate that their friendship came to an abrupt end. I hope Antoinette has learned from this situation and will be able to act more kindly in the future, or else her life may never get better.