The aim of this section is to analyse some of the geographic patterns in The Blue Hour using an online tool, CartoDB, and to discuss what they reveal about the way Pizzichini represents Jean Rhys.
One of the most important foundations upon which Pizzichini builds her portrayal of Rhys as an outsider is her geographical mobility throughout her life. Pizzichini suggests that Rhys never felt a true sense of belonging while living in Europe, pointing to her frequency of relocation as a support to this idea. Using the online mapping tool, CartoDB, we can track Rhys’ movements chronologically according to The Blue Hour, by collecting the data of all mentions of locations throughout the text, and mapping them based on their sentence number within the book. This gives us a visual that roughly mirrors Rhys’ movements through her lifetime.
One of the most notable features of this visualization is the differentiation between locations that are recurring throughout Rhys’ life and those that only play a role for a set period of time, and then cease to be mentioned nearly as frequently. For example, as pointed out in Focal Points in Europe, Paris plays an important role in Rhys’ life, with a very high density of Paris references in The Blue Hour. However, this chronological map shows that Paris plays a role in the middle stage of the text, but references to Paris drop off once Rhys leaves the city. To some extent, this is to be expected, but cities like London are frequently mentioned even when Rhys does not live there. Pizzichini suggests that Paris is relevant to Rhys almost exclusively when she lives there, supporting the notion that Rhys never truly considered Paris a home. Instead, her fairly brief stay there, with little mention outside of that period, portrays her time in Paris as an escape from her life in England and one that is almost deliberately isolated.
Alternatively, a larger view of the world exposes the opposite for her relationship with Dominica.
Because she spent the first 16 years of her life in Dominica, it is not surprising that most of the lightest (earliest) points are in Dominica. It is worth noting, however, the references to Dominica through the middle, and even the end of The Blue Hour. Pizzichini highlights the role Dominica played in Rhys’ life throughout, and even especially in the very end of her life. In examining the context of these references, it becomes clear that Pizzichini points back to Dominica to stress how Rhys’ former home stays relevant in her mind. The dark red point in the middle of the Sargasso Sea relates to a passage from late in The Blue Hour, and thus late in Rhys’ life, saying ‘The Sargasso Sea stayed in her head.’ This further supports Pizzichini’s point that her displacement at a young age was a strong contributing factor to her status as an outsider in Europe, because, even very late in her life, she thought back to her childhood home. While Rhys’ frequent movement throughout her life can be tracked on this map, equally, her sense of alienation can be seen in her frequent reflection upon her former home.
An important consideration in analyzing these maps is the context of any geographical references. Many locations in the text do not actually refer to a place visited by Jean Rhys, but are indirect references. These include other people’s whereabouts, another person’s home, or other general references. After adding a new column to the dataset, sorting the data by context, we can see which points refer to Jean Rhys’ whereabouts (direct reference) and which are referenced in another context (indirect reference).
This map clarifies Rhys’ whereabouts, showing that she was not quite as mobile as some other geographical visualizations might suggest. For example, points in America, Japan, Australia, and throughout Africa could be misleading, as they apparently expand Rhys’ whereabouts across the world; however, it is important to note that none of these are references of Rhys’ actual travels, thus playing a much smaller role in her life. Similarly, points scattered around Europe, including throughout Germany, France, Poland and Holland, are in reference to World War II, and have much less relevance to Jean Rhys’ geographical life. For example, Pizzichini writes, ‘In 1945, British bombers blitzed Dresden into oblivion, killing around 50,000.’ These passages do more to locate Rhys’ life in time than in space, and to recognize them as irrelevant to Rhys’ geographical life is to demystify the notion of Rhys’ constant movement. In fact, this map exposes the relatively small area in which Rhys spent most of her life. While she inhabits a considerable number of locations in her lifetime, the overwhelming majority of them are within the bounds of France and the United Kingdom, a relatively small area. Pizzichini portrays Rhys as constantly on the move for most of her life, but she spent almost 70 years living in these two countries. Of course, within the United Kingdom, there are many locations visited by Rhys, but this is still a relatively small area to inhabit. Culturally, these places simply are not different enough to account for Rhys’ position as an outsider in these places. Of course, moving from Dominica to the United Kingdom is a considerable change, as has been previously discussed, but movement within the United Kingdom over 60 years would likely not force a person to consider themselves a cultural outsider at each new location. It is an unfair representation to say that Rhys developed as an outsider simply because of her frequent movement through her adult life; however her childhood in Dominica certainly had an effect on her, both as a young adult and in the later years of her life.
The shear volume of locations mentioned in The Blue Hour suggests Rhys’ geographical mobility as an explanation for her portrayal as an outsider, but it is important to consider the context and relevance of these locations. While, according to Pizzichini, location played a role in shaping Rhys’ character, her movement seemed to be more a symptom of her perceived alienation rather than a cause.