A Small Place (Sec. 1 & 2)

      

       The short novel by Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place, first talks about the readers experience on her homeland from the moment they arrive to the airport, to what they confront in their way to the hotel. By Kincaid’s description, the tourist witnesses the beauty of the island in this path towards the hotel, but at the same time describes how this perception is very different from those who reside in the island because they have a much harsher reality to live with. The reality the author describes is that of poverty, but to the tourist the island shows wealth, or at least a stable economy, because the cab drivers have very expensive cars. Finishing the section, Kincaid says that the residents view tourists with envy because they have the ability to turn their own banality and boredom on the island, into a source of pleasure.

       

       The next section of Kincaid’s novel talks about her memories of the old Antigua, which was a colonial possession of Great Britain by the time. The author describes such in kind a rage because of the many humiliations the Antiguans had to go through. She emphasizes how Antiguans had not a proper identity because they talked the language of those who enslaved them in the past. I think Kincaid’s purpose of the first two sections is for the tourist to not be an ignorant and think that what he or she sees is all the island has, there is much more behind what the tourist sees.