Burned The Book Symbolism

Jean Rhys,The Day They Burned the Books is a alluring story that uses symbolism and imagery to complement the themes of oppression, self-acceptance, and the ugly extent of love. The short story takes place in the Dominican Republic just before World War one. During this time, the socioeconomic aspect in the Dominican Republic was not favorable. This made it very hard for the natives and many of the people who lived there. The story is told in first person meaning, the narrator is included throughout this story and is telling it through her eyes. Although the narrator is young English white girl and naive, the reader can still understand the major symbols; the significance of the books, the burning of the books, the library where the books
and Mrs. Sawyer’s relationship. The friendship between Eddie and the narrator, the image of Mrs. Sawyer as a woman, and the negative treatment of Mrs. Sawyer, represent main concepts of the book. In the beginning of the short story, Mr. Sawyer is introduced as an agent for a small steamship line. It is implied that he had given his family such a bad reputation that he moved to the Dominican Republic. This in itself is an example of oppression. We tend to think of the oppressed as the victims of the story, but Mr. Sawyer was kicked out of his family because he was a disgrace. He was put down and moved so far away he did not have to deal with it. The people who knew him also assumed that he had a private income, but could not understand why he moved to a place he highly disliked, and why he married a colored woman.
Sawyer is clearly facing oppression in the most distinct of ways. We know from the beginning that Mr. Sawyer has no respect for Mrs. Sawyer. Mrs. Sawyer absolutely despised the man she had married. When Eddie, Mrs. Sawyer, and the narrator were in the library the narrator recognizes that the feeling Mrs. Sawyer had against Mr. Sawyer was complete hate. He would make her feel insecure and self conscious by telling jokes about her hair or her appearance. that was his mysterious, obscure, sacred English joke of oppression. Mrs. Sawyer was left with all of the abuse and the remnants of the hate she had towards him. She had suffered all kinds of ill treatment from her husband. The author makes it clear that Mrs. Sawyer is a, decent, respectable, nicely educated colored women. This makes the reader believe that she did have a very good reason for burning all of his books. Mrs. Sawyers says that, “Men be mercifully shot; but women must be tortured”. Her oppression has caused this ill, bitter, outlook on all