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American Imperialism In A Small Place

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Title Throughout history, exploration of foreign lands has always been intensely appealing to the average man. In the past, men such as Christopher Columbus traveled far and wide in the search of new lands. When Columbus discovered those lands he was essentially a tourist to those lands even though he had the intentions to colonize the new found land. At the time of colonization, Columbus did his best to convince the reader that colonization was going to help the natives of the land. A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid points out how this colonization did had the complete adverse effect on the native people. Throughout the story A Small Place Kincaid paints a picture of the beautiful country that she grew up in called Antigua. Antigua is a country that was once colonized by the Brittish. Because Brittain colonized Antigua the entire country’s native language is English. This also means that all education and literature that is provided to the Antigua people is in English. Kincaid believes that throughout her lifetime the Antiguan people have become far less educated and ignorant. The government within Antigua is also filled with politicians …show more content…

Kincaid wants the reader to feel as if they are a direct contributer to the morally wrong concept of being a tourist. The author wants you to feel awful for thinking about being a tourist in a poverty stricken country such as Antigua. The tourists and natives of Antigua are similar in the sense that they both want to escape the reality in which they are currently living in. For example, the Antiguan people have very similar stuggles that the tourists do back home. Throughout the reading Kincaid is also using a colossol amount of sarcasm. This is done to lead the reader into genuinely feeling bad for ever wanting to be a tourist in a poverty stricken country. Kincaid is attempting to directly pick at the readers

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