Summary Of A Small Place By Elaine Richardson

Thesis: The Roanoke colony proved to be an unsuccessful venture in the New World for England, since leaders of the expedition held the viewpoint that privateering would prove to be the most profitable aspect of founding the new settlements in the West. However future, still unsuccessful attempts to make a permanent colony at Roanoke, helped England understand how to build a prosperous one; and it became a building block for establishing future colonies for England and helped shape the ideas that would help launch their empire.

“On Entering a New Place” by Barry Lopez is a piece of work that will really make you think. By definition, a preconception is; a preconceived idea or prejudice. Preconceptions of unknown objects or beings could really affect a person, which is what happened to the man in this reading. In the first two paragraphs, a man is having preconceptions about the desert he is crossing, but when the third paragraph comes along, he says “You can’t get at it this way. You must come with no intention of discovery.” Implying that you cannot have preconceptions to things that you are not familiar with.

According to Corrie & Betsie Ten Boom, life was a faith-building experience. Those two women were faced with one of the toughest experiences of their lives. Each day, Corrie and Betsie had to persuade each other that everything was going to be okay, once they were free from the “hell”, or the concentration camp they were placed in. And, yet, Corrie and Betsie somehow managed to keep in mind that God was with them.

In Lynda Barry's essay “The Sanctuary of School” Barry gives her own personal feelings and experiences about the school system. She points out the fact that when times are “lean” the first things the government eliminates from the school systems is the art, music. and other creative programs. In her essay she gives her readers insight on her childhood, explaining how going to school was her get-away from her financially and emotionally unstable home. Barry points out how she and her brother weren’t noticed by their family while at home. For example, at the age of seven Barry sneaks out of the house while it was still dark because she feels a sudden urgency to get to school; when she gets close, she feels a sense of peace come over her. When

Gentle waves, lush greenery, and sun-soaked beaches, Antigua embodies your ideal holiday destination. But Jamaica Kincaid turns your paradise upside down in her new memoir A Small Place. Using her pen as a sword, Kincaid slashes Antigua’s façade of perfection into shreds and presses the blade against the throats of tourism, colonialism and corruption.

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

Jamaica Kincaid successfully convinces her audience that post colonial impact still remains. Through the use of rhetorical appeals such as pathos, logos and imagery she successfully explains her claim. Through this novel she gives an insightful explanation of what antigua is like from a person who comes from that area. Kincaid being born in antigua, she gives us a view from her eyes on what antigua is really like while going through post colonial impact. Kincaid incorporates historical background in text to convince her audience that this impact is holding back antigua from the good and enjoyable place it can really be. She develops a connection with the audience when she makes them feel like the tourist that is figuring out what's going on in the background of antigua. This connection serves as pathos as it makes the audience feel the emotion of anger and disappointment for not knowing what mess is really going on in this small island. This demonstration shows how cultures everywhere are affected by postcolonialism and how there is a negative global commonality between tourist and natives.

In the short stories “Shopping” by Joyce Oates and “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan, I discovered a connection in both stories about mothers love. Both show a gratitude of reasons on how and why mothers love is present. Both stories have a completely different morals but both come together into one meaning; mothers love.

Most curriculums being taught to students withhold a mass amount of history. Some may do this because they feel some events do not have the same importance as other topics being taught. Such topics for example would be the rape and sexual exploitation of thousands of African American females during the time periods where racism and segregation was the norm. It is important for people to be educated about the horrific events that these women went through without justice. It is also essential because it shows the amazing activism Rosa Parks took part in. Most people are often just taught about Parks’ actions on the bus. At the Dark End of the Street by Danielle L. McGuire shows how Rosa Parks and many other dedicated their lives to receive equality not only for themselves, but for all African Americans in the south. Danielle L. McGuire’s work is an amazing way for people to not only learn more of Rosa Parks story, but to get a better understanding of what all African American woman had to deal with during this time period. The realism of sexual violence and its dominant impact on the African American women was one of the many events that helped ignite the Civil Rights Movement. McGuire wrote At the Dark End of the Street in order to resolve the negligence of this reality.

A tourist is under no obligation to know about the history of an island, city, state or country. It should be acknowledged that Kincaid displays anger at nearly every entity in Antigua, but at the same time it is her anger at tourists which seems to be the most misplaced because they are the ones who have the least power in fixing the problems the people in Antigua have.

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 small island that was discovered in 1493, by Christopher Columbus. The natives that lived there were made slaves by the British and the economy thrived on producing sugar. In 1834 the British abolished slavery giving Antigua its independence. The sugar industry was failing so the economy relied on tourism. A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid is about Antigua. Kincaid narrates her novel in second person, blaming the tourists for ruining the culture of Antigua. Kincaid explains that the British were cruel to the Antiguan people but she forgives them for it. Kincaid also talked about how the Government is currently corrupt and how beautiful Antigua’s land is. Kincaids novel is broken up into four parts that address all of these issues in Antigua.The way A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid was written is effective in the way that it tries to persuade and inform the readers.

Repetition is used numerous times in the novel to further depict Kincaid’s thoughts and ideas. By using repetition, the author is portraying the thought as a rant as well as in a more aggressive and serious tone. This is displayed in the novel when Kincaid says “...maybe they weren’t from the real England at all but from another England, one we were not familiar with, not at all from the England we were told about…”. In this quote, Kincaid is repeating word England in order to further emphasize how god-like England is. Kincaid is expressing how England is a place that is not within their reach and that it is placed only for the chosen ones. Kincaid expresses these thoughts in her initial reaction to the atrocious behavior of the Europeans. This quote also displays the effect of colonization on people like Kincaid. The shock that Kincaid experienced is proof that she thought very highly of the Europeans and was dismayed as soon as she found out about who they truly are. During the time of colonization, everyone was made to believe how close to God Europeans are and were forced to acknowledge how superior they were compared to them. Another quote that demonstrated the use of rhetorical questions is when Kincaid says “Antigua is a small place. Antigua is a very small place. In Antigua, not only is the event turned into every day, but the everyday is turned into an event”. In the quote, the phrase that is being repeated is “Antigua is a small place”. In this quote, Kincaid is trying to emphasize the fact that Antigua is a small place compared to the rest of the world. By saying small place, Kincaid was not only trying to convey how small Antigua is based on its land but as well as

Culture can be defined as the way of the life of a people, with regards to both the material and non-material aspects. However, as a result of a developing and maturing society, in addition to the birth of various generations and external influences, these “ways of life” can be inadvertently retained, renewed and even discarded. Our own Caribbean society, specifically Barbados is not exempt from such occurrences.

There is no doubt that both genocide and revolution have been part of Caribbean History. They have indeed help to shape the Caribbean as we know it; a diversified and rich cultural hub. Genocide has to do with the wiping out of an entire race of people while revolution deals with a complete and drastic change. Upon studying history or more specifically Caribbean history we would note that both elements were present in its makeup. This is a fact. We must now then go on to examine how central a part both genocide and revolution played.