ESSAY CEMETERY

Not an Ode: On the Reader-Writer Relationship in Kincaid's A Small Place Jamaica Kincaid's personal essay A Small Place is a highly polemical text. Written by the Antiguan native in 1988, A Small Place encompasses two voices: that of the impoverished, post-colonial Antiguan native and that of the luxuriating, capitalist Westerner. In the text's very syntax resides a meeting between these two very different types: its narrator is an Antiguan native who utilizes the second person throughout the entire text, a style generally associated with poetry, advertisements and open letters. The narrator accuses its presumably Western reader of being a personal contributor towards the suffering of the natives. With its inflammatory language, its breathless-angry style, and unapologetic imagery the text binds its readers to the natives of Antigua through discomfort and guilt. Kincaid creates a debate between the natives of Antigua and the Western tourist, in which the tourist has

I The speaker/narrator addresses a tourist to Antigua. She points out discrepancies in the experience of being a tourist and living there. She walks through the tourist experience, from landing in Antigua to experiencing its various holiday offerings. She describes the corruption in the government, the bad education and health systems and relics from the day of British rule. She lays out the reasons for tourism and the difference between tourism and home life. II She tells of Antigua during British occupation. White people came and flourished in business, and excluded the Angtiguans or made them servants, which made them offensive to the natives. The natives thought the whites were being rude but years later the author came to understand that they were being racist. They partook in British traditions without understanding them and assumed that England was nicer than the Englishmen they encountered. The English are horrible because they took that which was not theirs to tak

Jamaica Kincaid Style ·        Addressing the reader ·        Run on sentences ·        Sarcasm ·        Accusatory tone, hostility Themes ·        Discrepancy between living in Antigua and coming there as a tourist ·        Difference between Antigua and America ·        Cheating tourists ·        Search for authenticity ·        Government corruption in Antigua ·        The paradoxical influence of the british over Antiguans – they wanted and got independence but have deteriorated and become corrupted since ·        Racial guilt transferred down generations ·        Affluent people are foreigners and drug smugglers ·        Weather as friend or foe ·        Difference between tourism and homelife ·        Closed-mindedness of locals ·        Native resentment of tourists stems from their own desire to be a tourist but their inability to do so ·         Accusing the criminal in the criminal's language is problematic ·        The

·        Man's rights are endowed by God “…that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” ·        Governments should stem from within the people governed and it  is governments' responsibility is to keep men's rights “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” ·        The right of the people to instate new government “That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness” ·        The British Crown has abused America “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all h

Jefferson says that it needs to be said why America intends to separate from England. Americans are entitled to equal rights as the English, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is the job of governments to see that these rights are kept, and when they are not kept it is the right of the people to abolish that government and institute a new one. America has been subject to much abuse from England and this separation is not due to frivolous reasons. Some examples of the abuse are refusal to create laws to benefit Americans; neglecting to attend to American law and yet demanding that no laws be created without him; dissolving legislative bodies repeatedly and refusing to replace them. Other transgressions are preventing immigration, raising the price of land, refusing to instate judiciary institutions, rendering the military superior to civil power, keeping military in America in times of peace. The English crown has also impeded trade, imposed taxation witho

Themes ·        Rebellion “As the king of England hath undertaken in his own right, to support the parliament in what he calls theirs, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpations of either.” ·        Universality of struggle “The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind.” ·        Unity in times of adversity “Now is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor.” ·        Warning traitors “The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; The wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters” ·        Advocating reason ·        The claim to the US lies with Europe “Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of

Introduction Paine says that the idea he is about to propose will not be popular, because people are used to a certain state of things and he propounds to change them. Since the English Crown is abusing its power over America, "the good people of this country… have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions [of the Crown] … and to reject the usurpations". The natural rights of Americans are being violated. Thoughts of the Present State of American Affairs Paine calls the public to suspend their prejudices while reading his essay. It is war, he says, that will decide the issue of American independence, a great cause. This issue is not an issue of point but global and universal. He calls for the continent to be united. Any traitor will be remembered for posterity. War with England has started. As such, thoughts of union with England are no longer practical. Independence thus must be considered. We come to much harm because we are still dependant o