A Small Place By Jamaica Kincaid Essay

In Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place she describes the island of Antigua to a tourist. In the passage that is discussed on this paper Kincaid is explaining to the tourist how they are seen by the locals on the island. She writes in the second person to directly address the tourist but there is a lot of nuance in her writing that reveal her true feelings to the reader. In the passage Kincaid use language as a tool to dehumanize the tourist. She paints them as more of a creature than a person.
I’d like to start by discussing Kincaid’s use of the word “ugly” specifically. She uses this broad and blunt word to express how she sees the tourist as opposed to more specific words. It is as though she does not see the tourist as worthy of nuance and complexity. Instead, Kincaid simply sees them as outsiders one as oblivious and disruptive as the next. She

This phase goes beyond the earlier statement that the tourist is “an ugly thing”. Here Kincaid clearly lays out one of the ways in which the tourist is ugly. Interestingly, this also implies being physically unpleasant is different from being ugly. This reiterates the idea that the tourist is ugly on all ways both because of their physical appearance and because of how they act and the things they do. In addition, by choosing to elaborate on the tourists ugliness Kincaid shows that she sees the tourist and completely lacking in self awareness. It is also important to note Kincaid’s tone. She speaks directly to the tourist in a way that is both matter-of-fact and condescending. By speaking in the second person you would expect her to entertain some kind of dialogue or reference how the tourist feels or what they might be thinking. Instead, she almost speaks down to the tourist by clearly stating facts about the tourist like an all knowing observer. Her tone makes her words even more pointed and