A Commentary on the Travel Writing of Pierre Jean Grosley and Ramond de Carbonnières

Trask is able to use logos to prove how tourism has affected the Hawaiian culture. Trask refers to Hawaii as a “She” who “Rubs off” on the visitor with her magical presence. The beauty of Hawaii is used as an escape from “Rawness and violence” for most Americans though, Trask mentions that the land has a “Western sexual sickness” (Trask 1993). “Of course, all this hype is necessary to hide the truth about tourism, the awful exploitative truth that the industry is the major cause of environmental degradation, low wages, land dispossession, and the highest cost of living in the United States” (Trask 1993). Trask says that the areas of Hawaii which were “sacred” to the Hawaiian’s have now been turned into top of the line hotels. The beaches that were once full of fishermen and their nets are used for recreational activities like surfing getting a tan and jet skiing. On most of the beaches owned by resorts, the beaches are reserved for hotel residences only. In the essay, Trask gives the readers logos as to how tourism is changing the land. For example, thirty years ago the ratio of Hawaiians outnumbered the tourist 2:1. Today,

“On the outskirts of town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage. It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned because the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation, while its comparative remoteness put it out of the sphere of that social activity which already marked the habits of the emigrants. It stood on the shore, looking across a basin of the sea at the forest-covered hills toward the west.”

In “The Ugly Tourist” by Jamaica Kincaid, tourism is thought as a disgusting and an extremely harmful industry. In her perspective, it allows first world citizens to escape and marvel at the simplest and most ordinary things. Although there is some truth in what Jamaica Kincaid describes to the reader, I believe there is a prejudiced view towards the tourist themselves. Kincaid’s essay about the ugliness and affects of being a tourist contrasts everything I’ve experienced being a tourist in Italy and Greece.

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid presents the hypothetical story of a tourist visiting Antigua, the author’s hometown. Kincaid places the reader in the shoes of the tourist, and tells the tourist what he/she would see through his/her travels on the island. She paints a picturesque scene of the tourist’s view of Antigua, but stains the image with details of issues that most tourists overlook: the bad roads, the origin of the so-called native food, the inefficiency of the plumbing systems in resorts, and the glitches in the health care system. Kincaid was an established writer for The New Yorker when she wrote this book, and it can be safely assumed that majority of her readers had, at some point in their lives, been tourists. I have been a

Daily, hundreds of thousands of people are traveling, whether it’s by plane, car, bus, boat, or foot, people are traveling to new locations and being immersed in different cultures. Many fail to realize how ignorant of a tourist they are. Kincaid explains that tourists are morally “ugly” and use other, less fortunate people, for their own amusement. She tries to enlighten those who are privileged to be more considerate when they are visiting new places. Published author Jamaica Kincaid wrote “The Ugly Tourist,” originally written in her book, A Small Place, where she tries to convince readers that tourists are, “a piece of rubbish” (207). Kincaid’s attempt to convey to the audience that tourists are ignorant and morally “ugly” is partially successful, due to her satisfactory emotional appeal, yet inability to produce a less angry tone, along with minimal logical appeal.

There are the tourists—those who seek temporary relaxation, or famous sights. There are the travelers—those who wander, without aim, for the love of moving. There are the explorers—those seeking adventure, the thrill of unearthing things rarely seen.

If you were forced to pick your paradise, where do you think your thoughts would take you? Would you go to the quaint wooden cabin in Michigan that has been in the family for years? Or would you think of your cozy apartment a top a skyscraper in your favorite concrete jungle? Without a second thought, my mind rushes to Pawley’s Island, South Carolina. As locals describe it best, the “elegantly shabby” beachside town 40 minutes from Charleston has been my chosen vacation spot since childhood. Between the hammock shops, crabbing in the creeks and ghost stories, there is always something to entertain you on the island. With only the best memories there, never did I think that there would be something to hold me back from indulging in the lazy

When we had landed at that island which I have a few seconds ago said was called Juana, I continued along its coast towards the west for some separation; I discovered it so expansive and without discernible end, that I trusted it to be not an island, but rather the mainland nation of Cathay; seeing, in any case, no towns or urban areas arranged on the ocean coast, however just a few towns and inconsiderate ranches, with whose tenants I was not able chat, in light of the fact that when they saw us they took off. I continued more distant, believing that I would find some city or vast homes. Finally, seeing that we

This is the message Kincaid, conveyed, when she expresses how tourist “marveled” at how in tune the Antiguans are with nature and how they are able to take simple things and create useful things and she tells the tourist that what you surprised at, the only reason why we are left in this state serving you because we don’t have the resource to escape our realities is because your ancenstors enslave us and left us poor that they benefited from. So you the tourist come, leaving your luxurious life to enjoy a pleasureable vacation all at the hands of the poor

To the above point, one of the reasons that Antigua is a destination for tourists is because of its aforementioned aesthetic beauty. Antigua’s beauty belies the reality of the situation that the people have, but it is not something that tourists should feel any responsibility to change. More to the point, Antigua’s beauty is one of the reasons that tourists should not be challenged. Indeed, tourists have no reason to believe that the people of Antigua are miserable because of the beauty of the land and the hard work that the people of Antigua put in to make sure that the tourists have a good time (even if the tourists acknowledge that the workers may be poor). One example of how Kincaid’s argument is flawed is when she says that tourists appreciate the fact that Antigua has no rain, when the lack of rain actually leads to droughts which negatively affect the natives in the long-term. Kincaid’s discussion of rain is representative of the difference between her perspective and the perspective of the tourist. The tourist has no stake in Antigua beyond how it profiles as a vacation

When I close my eyes and imagine, I can still clearly hear the gentle splash of the waves lapping the shoreline, and feel the slight ocean breeze whizz through my hair, sending it flying in every direction. During the frigid and dreary months of Missouri’s winter, there is one place in particular that my heart longs to be. Marco Island, Florida. When most people think of a luxurious vacation, they imagine crystal clear water, snowy white sands, and a miraculous five star hotel. Marco Island is no Bora Bora, but to me it’s the most enchanting small town that values simplicity and offers pure bliss to anyone coming to visit.

I remember the day just like it was yesterday, the pale color and coldness of her skin. The sky was clear blue, soft, with a touch of red, and the trees seemed stiff in their bright green shade. The wind was blowing with its humid dry air. And All I could do was stand silently in disbelief, caught up in my own thoughts and calm as I ever been. Wondering what I could have done differently to change the course of time, life had taken us upon. Since that very day a chunk of my heart was ripped away, and broken into pieces… “Oh how I miss her so much.”

I went to Burger King with three friends. We walked a long way then I

From the start of “A Small Place,” the author establishes an unsettling position for the reader by using second person perspective to give the audience a personal experience, “The thing you have always suspected about yourself the minute you become a tourist is true: A tourist is an ugly human being” (Kincaid, 14). The act of being the tourist in respect to Kincaid's statement is being unaware of the surroundings and people who reside in this country you refer to as a paradise. She pushes the audience out of their comfort zone to an unsettling acknowledgment of ignorance - if you have traveled and expressed these behaviors. The author presents the idea that the act of traveling with the mindset that indigenous people are benefiting is a form of self-justification rather than reality. Kincaid acknowledges the audience’s ignorance of the situation as an institutional one that educated you to have this mindset. She describes this situation the people of Antigua endured, as something you were not taught, which exonerates your oblivious demeanor toward your surroundings,

The tourist’s experience is “dominated by the spectacle of the Other” which results in changes in behaviour that most likely would not fit with social norms in their home countries. Palmer and Lester use the example of photography in the film, noting that tourists become like stalkers when attempting to capture evidence of the primitive. Photography is a focus in the film, as it serves as an “embodied performative act.” The tourists are not interested in creating meaningful relationships with locals. The social interactions seem ingenuous and largely commercial. A woman stages a photo with local children, exclaiming “aren’t they cute?” She doesn’t create any meaningful connection with them, however the photo was composed in a way that will appear that she has to family and friends back home. In most aspects of cultural tourism, there is an aspect of staged performance to fit the needs of the audience. There is a dependence on the local people to perform a role eg. Selling objects, doing dances in native costume or performing a role from another era of history. In Cannibal Tours, the objects being sold are not authentic however tourists still purchase them, adding to the commodification of the interactions between tourist and local. Locals are confused why tourists come to buy inauthentic items instead of engaging with local history and culture in meaningful ways.