In chapter one of Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place the author talks about her homeland Antigua and the tourist that visit the island. Kincaid describes the problems that modern day Antigua suffers from. There is corruption, evidenced by the control of the government of the only two car dealerships in the country and the fact that the banks promote and overall make more accessible loans to buy cars than loans to buy houses. The people that live in the most luxurious houses in the island are either members of the government, drug sellers or women that seduce the members of the government o attain power. Corruption is also evidenced by the fact that there was once a scandal of people obtaining illegal licences without having passed their driving test. We see problems in the conservation of drinkable water, which is a scarce resource in Antigua because it does not usually rain there. There is a lack of facilities such as hospitals who's three doctors neither Antigua's people or its government trust. Schools also lack proper bathrooms having only some latrines outside the school also, the library in the island was destroyed by an earthquake and never repaired. We see poverty as people have "better" cars than they have houses. The cars they use require a gasoline that is not even available to the people of the island. Roads are small and are not maintained and water is not disposed of properly. All of this shows that there is a problem of inequality and government abandonment in the island. On the topic of the tourist the author shows great distaste toward them, criticizing and belittling them. She describes the tourist as selfish, and naive for they consider Antigua as exotic and a refreshing change of pace, despite of the many problems the country faces, only because they get to leave the island and do not really experience what it is like to live there day after day. Kincaid also says that while the tourist may find the natives strange the natives find the tourist even stranger. Natives even mock tourist for the way the talk and act. Natives also envy the tourist for they have enough resources to escape from their "boring" everyday life spent in comfortable modern cities while they are stuck in poverty in their country unable to leave.
In chapter two of A Small Place the author speaks of the Antigua of the past when she was little before it was freed form colonization. That old Antigua was also corrupted evidenced by the banks that were owned by the previous slave traders. There was racism toward the people of Antigua by immigrants, such as the Americans that excluded black people form entering their establishment; the dentist who demanded his wife too see his patients before him so she could clean them; and the teacher from North Ireland which compared Jamaica and here fellow classmates with monkeys on top of trees.The people of the island were, and still are, heavily influenced by English culture, customs and beliefs. They celebrated English customs without knowing why, for example queen Victoria's birthday. The English controlled what Antigua could see and what they could interact with. Furthermore, the author outright states the hate she bares to people from countries that have or are still colonizing. She expresses frustration with them when they ask why she is still mad. She feels that the British took her people culture, traditions language and freedom and imposed theirs, as well as that they were mistreated by them. The author hates how they still view the colonized as inferior and how they expect them to accept their beliefs even after the bad experiences they had with the colonizing country.
This reading relates with Puerto Rico in that both Antigua and Puerto Rico were colonized, we still are however. Their is corruption and an abusive government in both islands and we both have distaste for foreigners. We are also still forced to see things through the eye of the colonizer just like Antigua was also forced. Overall Jamaica Kincaid expresses her anger and frustration toward the state that her country is in and how the colonizers are at fault for it.
In chapter two of A Small Place the author speaks of the Antigua of the past when she was little before it was freed form colonization. That old Antigua was also corrupted evidenced by the banks that were owned by the previous slave traders. There was racism toward the people of Antigua by immigrants, such as the Americans that excluded black people form entering their establishment; the dentist who demanded his wife too see his patients before him so she could clean them; and the teacher from North Ireland which compared Jamaica and here fellow classmates with monkeys on top of trees.The people of the island were, and still are, heavily influenced by English culture, customs and beliefs. They celebrated English customs without knowing why, for example queen Victoria's birthday. The English controlled what Antigua could see and what they could interact with. Furthermore, the author outright states the hate she bares to people from countries that have or are still colonizing. She expresses frustration with them when they ask why she is still mad. She feels that the British took her people culture, traditions language and freedom and imposed theirs, as well as that they were mistreated by them. The author hates how they still view the colonized as inferior and how they expect them to accept their beliefs even after the bad experiences they had with the colonizing country.
This reading relates with Puerto Rico in that both Antigua and Puerto Rico were colonized, we still are however. Their is corruption and an abusive government in both islands and we both have distaste for foreigners. We are also still forced to see things through the eye of the colonizer just like Antigua was also forced. Overall Jamaica Kincaid expresses her anger and frustration toward the state that her country is in and how the colonizers are at fault for it.
I've noticed that you are very good at writing summaries of stories, have you considered doing a blog about it? I agree with how you describe Kincaid's recounting of a tourists day and how the Antigua she knew is not the same one we know. Its very true that we are going through a similar situation as Antigua did and though it seems that our level of poverty has not reached the state Antigua was (is?) in there are parts in PR that are suffering severely and corruption is all too evident in our government.
ReplyDeleteNo one's ever told me that, but its probably something I developed from summarizing the class material for an exam to fellow students a day before or the very same day the exam was for. I don't know if I'll do it this blog thing is still pretty new to me.
DeleteI strongly agree with Eva with the whole summaries of stories, you're really good at it. I also agree how you visualize the problems that Jamaica Kincaid suffers like we do in Puerto Rico. I also talked with some of this pointers and it's good to see how our generations as young as we are still can see the problems we suffer day by day. That we not live in a bubble and we have strong opinions about them.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I could definitely see how you narrated this story so well, I could picture myself reading the original text, great job. On the other hand, I understand how this is such a relatable tale when we compare Antigua to our island which currently faces threats to go back to an even more explicit state of colonization with the fiscal control committee that they are proposing to bring unto the island. I was able to visit Antigua during spring break and it is definitely a poor island, but as I visited I kept what Jamaica Kincaid wrote in my head. They are poor, but even so when asked about their island they are proud of what they are: hard working, safe and overall nice people. Which was corroborated throughout the day as I interacted with a few of the locals.
ReplyDeleteAs others have said, you did an amazing job summing up both chapters of Jamaica Kincaid's book. These are brief but very detailed summaries, really helpful for those who have not read it before. After reading your post, to me it seems like the main point of it is to expose all the problems Antigua faces and to compare it with those that Puerto Rico also faces. It's very well done, I might add.
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