Imperialism In Jamaica Kincaid's Essay 'The Ugly Tourist'

The film compares a tourist's experience in Jamaica to a native’s experience. This parallel narrative allows the audience to see the juxtaposition of a tourist's experience versus the lives of the natives. This narrative allows the audience to go deeper into the history of the country’s financial crisis. For example, as the movie spans images of tourists eating there is a voiceover that says, "When you sit down to eat your delicious meal, it's better that you don't know that most of what you are eating came off a ship from Miami. There is a world of something in this, but I can't go into it right now." The cinematic structure of the documentary allows the audience to see the reality of the natives and compare it to their own reality. This allows the audience to connect to the country on a deeper level. Using contrast as a cinematic tool allows the audience to see how Jamaica and their citizens are different and yet the same as themselves. For example, as the clip spans over Kensington a voice over states, “ Every native would like to find a way out. Every native would like a rest. Every native would like a tour. But some natives, most natives in the world, cannot go anywhere. They’re too poor to escape the realities of their lives.” The film connects the audience by allowing them to relate with Jamaicans on tourism and the privileges that go along with

Well known author and journalist, George Orwell, in his essay, Shooting an Elephant, describes his experiences as a Policeman in Moulmein, Burma during European Imperialism. Orwell’s purpose is to convey the ideal that what is right and what is accepted don’t always align. He adopts a remorseful tone in order to convey to the reader the weight of his actions. By looking at George Orwell’s use of imagery and figurative language, one can see his strongly conflicting opinions on Imperialism.

Antigua is a beautiful island in the Caribbean that got its name from Christopher Columbus in 1493 when he first visited the small 108 square mile island (Niddrie). Antigua was later colonized by England in 1632, and won its independence in 1981 (Niddrie). Antigua was originally a country that was planned as a slave-breeding colony, but never became one; the slaves who were imported came to live self-reliantly in their own community (Niddrie). After, Antigua gained its independence; it established a constitutional monarchy, where the British monarch is still head of state, represented by a governor general (Niddrie). Sadly, Antigua is an impoverished country that has a history of being a victim of British imperialism, government corruption, and tourism (Kincaid). Kincaid informs her audience

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.

This story is a representation of George Orwell’s perception of British imperialism around the world. It is a firsthand account of how imperialism affects both rulers and the oppressed using a short story. The author shows how imperialism is a prison to not only the Burmese, but also the British. The message can clearly be seen though Orwell’s regret in being forced to kill an elephant. The purpose of this essay is to explain Orwell’s true message of anti-imperialism using the nature of tyranny and the British Empire as examples.

Aspects of both Kincaid’s and Walcott’s literature pieces show great comparison with each other along with a few contrasting ideas. “A Far Cry from Africa” and A Small Place both demonstrate the movement from colonialism to post-colonialism and describe how the characters feel and are reacting to the major change. Walcott’s poem “The Sea is History” compares to A Small Place in the way that both pieces of literature deal with history being bias towards the person who is reflecting on it. Colonial corruption and oppression become significant throughout Kincaid’s A Small Place and Walcott’s poem “Ruins of a Great House”. Kincaid’s A Small Place and Walcott’s poems “A Far Cry from Africa”, “The Sea is History” and “Ruins of a Great House” all are centered around the main idea of colonialism and allows the reader to compare the similarity and differences of each author’s views.

Jamaica Kincaid is able to distinct herself from most essays in “The Ugly Tourist” by using a paradoxically haphazard sentence structure, repetition of certain words, and the use of second person. When first reading this essay sentences seem unbalanced and unstructured; for example, many sentences begin with conjunctions and one sentence almost covers a whole page. Kincaid decides to use such a unique, almost haphazard sentence structure to separate herself and her writing style from other writers. The reason paradoxically haphazard could be used to describe her sentence structure is because at first it appears to be a mess, but one can also see how she adeptly and frequently uses literary devices, such as parallel sentence structure, to

Mainstream media tends to focus on the negative side about Indigenous Peoples like the ‘problems’ and the relationship between the Indigenous Peoples and the public (McCallum, & Waller, 2013). Educational systems are the same, as the students learn more on the negative history of the Indigenous Peoples instead of the contemporary arts and performances of Aboriginal history. This leads to the view of many Indigenous children feeling outcast as people stereotype on their race when they don’t (Salote Bovoro, 2008, citied in Korff, 2016). We cannot deny that everyone stereotypes, including myself but I have become more aware that I should think before I do or say something. I was taught in previous years that I should ask myself, what if someone said that to you, how would you feel? That’s the same with Indigenous Peoples, they don’t want to be treated that way because yes, everyone is different, but we don’t need to point it out and criticise about it.

“They are too poor to escape the reality of their lives; and they are too poor to live properly in the place where they live, which is the very place you, the tourist, they envy you, they envy your ability to leave your own banality and boredom, they envy your ability to turn their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for yourself” (Kincaid, 18-19). The locals are completely envious of the tourists because they are able to turn the home of the locals, which the locals feel so bitterly about, into a perfect spot for themselves. The tourists get the chance to escape their homes and boring lives, whereas the locals of Antigua feel they do not get the chance. Of course they dislike the visitors, they wish they could be them and they wish they could have what the tourists have. Yet, the tourists feel the same way; they wish they were ‘lucky’ enough to live on the island of Antigua.

This is suitably conveyed when De Botton is explaining his thought process when deciding to travel to Barbados, “to render me intensely susceptible to the unsolicited arrival one late afternoon of a large, brightly illustrated brochure entitled ‘Winter Sun’.” In this, de Botton illustrates the impressionable state of people wanting to travel abroad. He then goes onto state; “it’s cover displayed a row of palm trees, many of them growing at an angle, on a sandy beach fringed by the turquoise sea, set against the backdrop hills, where I imagined there to be waterfalls” inclusive language conveys the extreme susceptibility people are faced with around such inspiring landscapes. Finally, de Botton concludes; “Those responsible for the brochure had darkly intuited how easily their readers might be turned into prey by photographs whose power insulted the intelligence and contravened any notions of free will” The exaggeration effectively relates external influences as a very powerful means of adjusting people’s views and creating unrealistic fantasies, or, ‘insulting intelligence and contravening any notions of free

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,

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 a 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 (pp.23). Kincaid’s perception of Antigua can be summed up by the unrepaired library, the past social and cultural interaction of the Antiguans (pp. 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.

Throughout the novel, Kincaid takes issue with the numerous instances in which Antiguans are still treated as second-rate citizens within their own land due to political and economic corruption. It is clear that the skeletons of these organizations remain from the time of British colonization. From perceptions of beauty to the structure of the government, British influences are seen all throughout Antigua. Kincaid describes the beautiful yellow of the buildings that she enjoys so much in comparison to the starch white of the Government Housing (10).

The Caribbean is a popular area to vacation and visit. The great weather, the beautiful scenery, and endless resorts that people can choose from create an attractive destination. Once on the island, tourist are graced with an amazing view of the island, great customer service, and remarkable accommodations. Yet, at what cost? Typically, a tourist would answer with the response of money and time being the cost. But, how do islanders feel; at what expense must temporal pleasures be bought for tourists? In her story, A Small Place, Jamaica Kincaid defines tourists as, “ugly things” because tourist visit islands to escape their mundane lives while islanders do not have the same luxury to watch other peoples lives like a spectacle at their disposal (14). Other stories such as “Visiting”, by Roger McTair, and articles such as “It’s Time to Take the Virgin Islands Out of the Closet,” by Devin Robinson, share similar and eye-opening dilemmas derived from tourist marginalizing islanders and the deceitful nature that attracts tourists. The relationship between islanders and tourists is growing increasingly bitter due to the causes of islanders being envious of tourists’ affluence, resorts being deceptive in what the islands have to offer (and what they consist of), and tourists marginalize islanders into the sole purpose of pleasing them and enhancing their ‘Caribbean’ experience.

Volunteer tourism- also known as “Voluntourism”- is part of a new alternative market of tourism. It consists of tourists taking part in volunteer oppportunities while they go on vacation, usually in a developing country. (Hanson Pastran 2014) While this sounds like a positive idea, and it can be, it is important to consider the efficacy (or lack thereof) of voluntourism, and the fact that it could potentially perpetuate more harm than good. It can be hard to believe that a concept like voluntourism- that was supposedly built on the premises of helping people- could be a negative concept. It isn’t always negative, it can in fact be beneficial when it is done in a correct manner. However, in this paper I will be arguing that despite some of the cases in which voluntourism has proven to be effective and beneficial, there are numerous ways in which it can be not only ineffective- but also harmful. The harm is not caused through the physical volunteer work itself, but instead through the negative stereotypes of the Global South that are perpetuated by the agencies that organize these volunteer trips, as well as the neocolonialist tendencies that are displayed by those volunteer agencies- by Me to We in particular. The neocolonialism is evident through not only the actions of the organizers of the trips, but also through the marketing for Me to We. By perpetuating these kinds of messages in their advertising, harm is done to the impressionable youth that are exposed to this.