A Small Place

Many denounce Kincaid’s latest book as an over attack, her gaze too penetrating and intimidating. The tone of voice continuously shifts throughout the memoir, starting from sardonic, manifesting into anger, to slowly conclude in melancholy. Though particular accusations, such as when the narrator cruelly rejects “you” as “an ugly thing”, may upset the readers, Kincaid purposely provokes reactions of defensiveness and guilt to challenge us

Kincaid describes the reactions of the native people as tourists walk by; being a native Antiguan herself, her description of their behaviour is probably accurate. The justification she provides for their behaviour is sound. Most areas like Antigua depend on the funds that tourism brings in. While whatever luxury can be provided is given to the tourists, it is the native people who see the daily trials and sufferings. Understandably, even though their income comes from the tourists they so despise, the native population is trapped in the never-ending cycle of poverty. Unable to escape their own situations, the natives find solace in mocking tourists for their cluelessness or awkwardness. Kincaid shows this most effectively when she says, “we Antiguans, for I am one, have a great sense of things, and the more meaningful the thing, the more meaningless we make it” (113). She immediately

Colonialism is the action of taking away a country’s people, political and economical power. In Jamaica Kincaid’s essay “On Seeing England for the First Time”, she uses numbers of rhetorical strategies to show her bitterness towards England, whose oppressive, pervasive influence took over her country’s identity, culture, and minds of nature. Kincaid uses repetition, symbols, and her tone to convey her attitude towards England.

It’s hard to imagine someone’s personal experience without actually being the one enduring it; however, Jamaica Kincaid’s use of language contests other wise.Through intense imagery and emotional response, Jamaica Kincaid utilizes rhetorical appeals such as logos, pathos, and ethos, which successfully convinces her audience by creating a conversation between herself and the reader. Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place is an expression of her inner feelings on the transformation her hometown, Antigua, and the everlasting postcolonial impact that occurs. Kincaid reacts to the feelings she had as a young girl and compares that mindset to the opinions she holds today as an adult. Kincaid’s piece evaluates the foreignness, race, and power that consumes Antigua. While she descriptively explains the circumstances she faced in Antigua, Kincaid incorporates historical background which provides logical support to her purpose. Notably, the author’s first hand experiences gives her credibility, ethos, and allows the audience to clearly understand the context from her perspective. Not only does Kincaid effectively describe her experiences, but she also makes her audience feel as though they are looking through her eyes. Her purpose demonstrates the difficulty and impossibility of returning to origin after crucial influences. A Small Place proves that the effects of racism and racial inequality are long term and culture cannot simply return exactly how it once was in that specific culture,

Yet an explicit affirmation of this hatred is not necessary; the reader is quick to appreciate the irony and utter absurdity of her situation and that of Antigua. Kincaid makes us want to condemn the imperialistic attitudes which fostered this indoctrination of English values and also the supposition that this culture was somehow inherently superior to any other. By putting her readers in her own position, and by appealing to their sense of the absurd, Kincaid is very effectively able to elicit sympathy.

Antigua is a possibly one of the most beautiful places to visit in the world, let alone the Caribbean. In “A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid, she describes Antigua as place of prioritizing the foreigners and the “white” people. Regrettably, the country has been designed to become a tourist attraction over the years, causing the author’s sense of Antigua to dissipate over time (p.23). Kincaid’s perception of Antigua can be summed up by the unrepaired library, the past social and cultural interaction of the Antiguans (p. 42 – 43). To the tourist, the ruin library is possibly just another damage structure; however, to the locals and Kincaid, it has meaning, a place, a locale, and more importantly, a sense of place.

Kincaid connects the history of European colonialism in Antigua to the present day by describing the Antigua she knows in comparison to the Antigua *we* see. Kincaid starts off the memoir, non-fiction, or even satirical piece by describing what “you” see, where “you” is white, middle class tourist from America or Europe, who is ignorant to the history of Antigua. The tourist views Antigua as a beautiful island with amazing beaches and great food. Of course the tourist sees charm in the unpaved roads or the broken library. Kincaid draws in the history of slavery and European colonialism by describing the Antigua she knows. One where people lived on streets named after “English maritime criminals”, had banks owned by and named after slave traders,

To readers unfamiliar with the history of antigua, Kincaid gives a shocking portrayal of the past and present relationship between western european societies and the island of Antigua. Kincaid

Is she questioning whether you will travel to Antigua because it’s a small place, or is her reason for leading with this phase her way of warning the reader? It has me believe that by continuing to read this book you will no longer want to travel to Antigua, or that Antigua has become such an ugly place that the writer wouldn’t want you to travel to Antigua. My assumption for this stems from the word “IF”. Although she leads with a phase that you instantly question, you understand it, you may question the “IF” but you understand what she is saying. The vocabulary and language that she uses throughout the book is one that reflects simplicity, uncomplicatedness, and straightforwardness. In Kincaids book I found myself only wondering how was I to tie this book into previous books that we read in the past. Unfortunately I am unable to state that for all.

The novel A Small Place is another piece that discusses the negative effects of neo-colonialism. This small novel is written in the second person, with the author directly addressing the reader. Through out the novel the author points out the sad rundown state of her homeland Antigua. This state is firmly placed on the degenerative effects of neo-colonialism. The first effect of neo-colonialism discussed in A Small Place is the Antiguan economy. ?You look closely at the car; you see that it?s a model of a Japanese car that you might hesitate to buy; it?s a model that?s very expensive; it?s a model that?s quite impractical?.You will be surprised, then, to see that most likely the person driving this brand-new car filled with the wrong gas lives in a house that in comparison, is far beneath the car; and if you were to ask why you would be told that the banks are Won 4 encouraged by the government to make loans available for cars, but loans for houses not so easily available? you will be told that the two main car dealerships are owned in part or outright by the ministers in the government? (Kincaid 7). This section discusses the control of Japanese car

The essay begins at a conference in London where the main topic was slavery and legacy of the slaves. A young woman stood up and asked a question that really raised Andrea Levy’s curiosity when she asked “how could she be proud of her Jamaican roots, …, when her ancestors had been slaves?”. Andrea Levy herself does not understand why anyone would feel any ambivalence or shame at having a slave ancestry. This was the

The effects of colonialism are ingrained into every facet of society in Trinidad. The novel The Dragon Can’t Dance written by Earl Lovelace, has many aspects of a postcolonial society, from the way people act on a day to day basis to the traditions upheld during Carnival. There is enough evidence to argue that the town and all its residents are experiencing postcolonialism, or the aftermath of colonial rule. Three central time frames in the novel will support this: before Carnival, during and after Carnival, and after Aldrick’s six year term in prison. These scenes in the novel depict this theme and demonstrate the postcolonial values that still dominate Calvary Hill. Postcolonialism also affects Pariag and is demonstrated by how he is treated by his neighbors. Finally we will deconstruct the idea of the “Carnival” and figure out the relationship of this to the Postcolonial Theory and how this is a reflection of colonial rule.

Indeed, postcolonial literature in the colonial language is a double-edged sword. Without its use, the writing may never reach a wide audience, as it is impossible to translate every work into each different indigenous language. Furthermore, those who have experienced a diaspora after colonization, such as the Africans who were transported to colonial lands, lost their indigenous language. Their ancestors grew up with the colonial language, and unless they learn their indigenous language, they have no choice to write in the colonial language. Yet, writing in the colonial language furthermore reflects the power that colonists still exert today, that their language must be used to describe the aftereffects of their subjugation of another country. “The colonial language becomes culturally more powerful, devaluing the native language as it is brought into its domain, domesticated, and accommodated.” Ultimately, the writers must take into consideration the positives and negatives of each approach. They have the choice to write in either language,

More than three-quarters of the people living in the world today have had their lives shaped by the experience of colonialism. It is easy to see how important this has been in the political and economic spheres, but its general influence on the perceptual frameworks of contemporary peoples is often less evident. Literature offers one of the most important ways in which these new perceptions are expressed and it is in their writing, and through other arts such as painting, sculpture, music, and dance that the day-to-day realities experienced by colonized peoples have been most powerfully encoded and so profoundly influential.

Throughout Introduction to Caribbean Literature and Ideas, the class explored a number of texts, both fictional and non-fictional, that spoke to a number of larger historical issues that have affected the Caribbean as a whole. In every text we read, I saw a recurring concept come about: traveling. The act of travel, or the circulation of people in and out of the Caribbean, seems to be very important, in order to understand many of the issues that Caribbean people face. Whether it is “the boys” of The Lonely Londoners having to migrate to London to find work, tourist from the U.S. coming to Jamaica for vacation, or Martine escaping a traumatic experience that coerced her to migrate, the commonality among all of these narratives is the act