Antoinette's relationship with Tia represents several values ​​for her. Their relationship embodies several racial metaphors. Tia is the symbol of the person Antoinette desperately wants to be but could never be. She embodies the black character free from alienation accepted by her community, unlike Antoinette who is neither black nor white. He struggles to decipher his own identity. The novel opens with the depiction of the Cosways' downfall after emancipation, due to the fact that they once owned black slaves. They call them white cockroaches. 'I never looked at any strange niggers. They hated us. They called us white cockroaches' (Pt1 Page 9). However, they find safety with some blacks, namely those who are not from Jamaica, like Christophine and Tia. Antoinette not only finds herself in the hatred of the black community, but the new English settlers also reject them because of their long intimacy with blacks and the fact that they are "creoles" and not the English who label them as "white niggers". girl who is around Antoinette's age, someone she can relate to, who is black and therefore has the privilege of being accepted in society She was strong unlike Antoinette "the sharp stones didn't hurt her feet, not I've never seen her cry" (Pt1 Pg9), so he looked to her for strength, comfort, and a sense of belonging. We learn through her actions that Tia looks up to Antoinette for her money, and envies her for it, even though it's clear that the Cosway no longer possess a fortune. When Christophine gave Antoinette some pennies one morning "they shone like gold in the sun and Tia looked at them." (Pt1 Page 9) Her look evidently shows her desire so she bets to do a somersault in the middle of a sheet of paper to be and when I hesitated she laughed. I heard her say, "You're scared"...I called out, "Tia!" and I jumped and woke up.' (Pt3 Pg124) Once again she was easily ordered around by Tia, paralleling what happened earlier in the novel when she tried to do somersaults in the water to impress her. This suggests that throughout her life, her desire to become like Tia was a driving force and she saw it in herself as being who she wanted to become. The friendship between Antoinette and Tia was based on something they both wanted from each other. They were very close, almost like sisters, to the point that Antoinette saw herself in Tia and saw her driving force in Tia. Antoinette longed to be like Tia to escape the cage of abandonment, while Tia also wanted money. There were both altruistic and selfish motivations behind their friendship, but their conflicts are perhaps completely unavoidable.