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Thesis on the Ugly Tourist by Kincaid
Thesis on the Ugly Tourist by Kincaid
Thesis on the Ugly Tourist by Kincaid
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Novelist, Jamaica Kincaid, in her excerpt, The Ugly Tourist 1988, expresses difficulties tourists have brought upon Antigua. She backlashes on tourists who are ultimately ruining her own land, and are oblivious to the political corruption and harm they are causing. Kincaid's purpose is to persuade tourists to take control over their actions and to stay in their own country. She adopts a candid tone in order to appeal to similar experiences in her native Antiguan's/ any native readers. With the use of biting diction, repetition and imagery , she's able to develop and further enhance her argument about the type of people tourists are.
Kincaid opens her excerpt by ridiculing tourists oblivious behavior. Their behavior is accentuated by the use of language, which can be described as biting. Through the use of cruel text, the quote will enhance the ignorance and oblivion tourists uphold. "The contents of your lavatory might, just might, graze gently against your ankle as you wade carefree in the water, for you see, in Antigua, there is no proper sewage-disposal system"(1). This quote shows tourists are being ignorant to their surroundings and the people who live their. They
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have no idea what happens not only to their food, but certainly not limited to the sewage system. Also the word 'carefree' perfectly ties into tourists believing they shouldn't worry about anything around them, but rather enjoy the 'beauty'. Kincaid uses biting diction to further extend her argument about the type of people tourists are, and appeals to the audience by addressing the tourists in a blunt manner. Kincaid strengthens her argument of tourists behavior by using repetition and imagery.
"Oh, what beauty! Oh, what beauty!" (1), "You see a beautiful boy skimming the water" (1), "You see yourself, you see yourself..." (1). In order to connect with Kincaid's focal point and to strengthen it, imagery is used to create a vivid picture for the audience, and to make the connection of what's occurring. The use of repetition and the pronoun 'you' shows she is not associated with the tourist, and would never want to be. Instead she dislocates them from herself to prove she's better than them, and would never assume everything is 'beautiful'. The repetition of words show cases the simplistic life of a tourist, not worrying about anything and not worried what's happening deep within
Antigua. In conclusion, The Ugly Tourist is widely supported by her candid tone which appeals to the natives who are experiencing the same frustration, along with biting diction and the help of repetition and imagery to enhance her main point for tourists to be aware of their behaviors and surroundings. .
“Jamaica’s a country of great dichotomy. On the one hand you have a tourist industry with great beaches and resorts, but on the other you have such great poverty and the violence that goes along with that.”(Michael Franti) In this paper, I will talk about the geography, the history of Jamaica, the people that live there now and that lived there in the past, the lifestyle of the society, and the society, like the government and economy.
Whereas, the essay, A Small Place, written by Jamaica Kincaid in 1988, effectively uses an ironical tone to persuade and criticize the close-mindedness of tourists; the review, Antigua and Barbuda, published in www.wheretostay.com, adequately advises readers to visit, by addressing the different types of tourists who would be interested. One of the main differences between these two texts is the tone the authors use. In the essay, A Small Place, the author makes use of a 2nd person perspective to create a narrative the reader can follow and put themselves in the situation. This type of perspective directly points out and speaks to the audience.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus in his quest to validate his claim that the world was round and that it should belong to his Spanish patrons, the king and queen of Spain, set sail on his ship Santa Maria. He soon discovered the “New World”, which was new to him, but not to the Antiguans who lived there. Cultural imperialism was one of the most prominent means Western countries like Spain and Britain used to colonize other parts of the world at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Cambridge dictionary defines cultural imperialism as one “culture of a large and powerful country, organization, etc. having a great influence on other less powerful country.”
Steven Gregory’s book entitled The Devil Behind The Mirror is an ethnographical study of the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is in the Caribbean, it occupies the Western half of an island, while Haiti makes up the Eastern portion. Gregory attempts to study and analyze the political, social and cultural aspects of this nation by interviewing and observing both the tourists and locals of two towns Boca Chica and Andres. Gregory’s research centers on globalization and the transnational processes which affect the political and socio-economics of the Dominican Republic. He focuses on the social culture, gender roles, economy, individual and nation identity, also authority and power relations. Several of the major relevant issues facing Dominican society include racism, sexism, and discrimination, economy of resort tourism, sex tourism and the informal economy. The objective of Gregory’s ethnographic research is to decipher exclusionary practices incorporated by resort tourism, how it has affected locals by division of class, gender, and race, increasing poverty and reliance on an informal economy.
In the short story, "Girl," by Jamaica Kincaid, the character of the mother can be seen as tyrannical. This oppressive trait of hers is reiterated several times throughout this story. It is first displayed in her initial remarks, rather than asking her daughter to do things, she lists things in a robotic manner, "Wash the white clothes on Monday, wash the colored clothes on Tuesday." Not only is she robotic, but she appears to believe that she has been sent to save her daughter from promiscuity. Her narcissistic viewpoint of being a savior is one that is consistent with that of a tyrant. This perspective is evident through commands such as "try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming." She abuses her parental power
In the essays “The Ugly Tourist” written by Jamaica Kincaid, she postulates that when people are surrounded by others who are similar they are comfortable and normal. She further illustrates and emphasis that once you leave your ordinary life to visit others as a tourist you become an “ugly” person. Shooting an Elephant” written by George by Orwell, is about a man who works for the British empire and is against the oppression of Indians and he witness imperialism first hand that ultimately comprises he morals to protect the interest the British empire. Two ways to belong to America is about two immigrant sisters’ perspectives on adapting to America. White supremacy is when white people think it is there constitutionally elaborated right to treat people who are different in culture and class unfairly. White privilege create barriers between culture, class, and races that sometimes they are unaware of.
... the plight of the Antiguan. At times she appears to revile Antigua, but she disproves any doubts about her true loyalty as she alludes to the hidden beauty of the country. At other times it seems as though Kincaid agrees with the treatment of the Antiguan natives, but she is doing so only in an attempt to point out the racism that is so embedded into Antiguan culture. So the answer to the question “is Kincaid an Antiguan or a tourist” is quite simply both.
The biggest aspect of Kincaid's argument that makes it flawed is her anger. That is not to say that there aren't times where anger is justified. At the same time, the harsh language that Kincaid uses to discuss tourists is only based on her perspective. In other words, when Kincaid calls the tourists “ugly” because of how they treat a vacation, it makes Kincaid seem like she is placing blame on the tourists for not being proactive in making sure that the workers in the tourism sector are not better appreciated. Another quote that indicates a lack of consideration for the tourists was “they (the natives) envy your (the tourists) ability to turn their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for yourself” (pg 18-19). The words “banality” and “boredom” indicate that Kincaid believes that the tourists’ lives are based on the rare time that they can go to another place to escape the monotony of their lives. Kincaid’s belief is flawed because it does not consider the fact that people are going on vacation in Antigua, because they heard that it is a tremendous place to go on vacation. More to the point, the language that Kincaid uses shows an unjustified anger at people w...
In part fictional and part autobiographical novel “A Small Place” published in 1988, Jamaica Kincaid offers a commentary on how the tenets of white superiority and ignorance seem to emerge naturally from white tourists. She establishes this by using the nameless “you” depicted in the story to elucidate the thoughts they have when visiting such formerly colonized islands. This inner mentality of the white tourists reveals how tourism is still a form of oppression for the natives of such formerly colonized tourists as it continues to exploit them. I will be focusing primarily on page 10 of the text to illustrate this.
Dean MacCannell explores the concept of “authenticity,” a quality of genuineness that many people spend time searching for. Throughout the chapter “Staged Authenticity” of The Tourist, there are points that explore this common desire for wholesome experience in new places. In the societal structure of today, however, it is becoming more and more difficult to find authenticity, as we get further and further “mystified” looking for a true and sincere reality. MacCannell makes statements regarding how difficult it is to find realness in the modern world, but never makes a claim that clearly defines authenticity. Instead, MacCannell’s use of paradoxical phrases, visual examples that are relevant to readers, and self-contradiction around the ideas of mystification and reality strengthen his point that there is no concrete definition of authenticity.
2. Kincaid’s work is directed towards colonizers, specifically the English. She would like them to know the permanent marks England has left on her, because of colonization. Additionally, she aims to open their eyes to the difficulties of being colonized.
In Alain de Botton’s collection of philosophical essays, The Art of Travel and Tim Winton’s short story ‘Neighbours’, the representation of people and landscapes leads us to a greater awareness of the complexity of human attitudes and behaviours. This is explored through the idea that changes in one’s receptivity to the landscape can determine their perspective of it and thus influence their behaviour and attitude towards those people in the landscape. The desire for a new landscape is due to the non-receptivity to the old landscape, this is explored in de Botton’s first essay, ‘On Anticipation’ with his experience of Barbados. The representation presented to him by the travel brochure was a severe abbreviation of reality, and thus his expectations of Barbados were overtly influenced by the misleading representation given to him.
There are many similarities between the tourism described by Walsh in Ankarana and the tourism in Sri Lanka. For example, in his discussion on tourism, he describes how various perspectives are interested in Madagascar’s tourist industry, including the government which promotes its (Walsh, 2012). He further adds that for the tour operators and workers in tourism, it is a business and they are not concerned with any negative effects on the local people or environment (Walsh, 2012). This is very similar to the situation in Sri Lanka where the government supports elephant riding while those who suffer (the elephants) and the voices of protesters are ignored. Another similarity between Ankarana and Sri Lanka is that tourists tour largely because they can, which reminds us of the fundamental economic differences between (rich) tourists and (poor) locals (Walsh, 2012). Furthermore, Walsh describes the paradox of how tourists place great value both in ‘real’ sapphires and ‘exotic’ wildlife that share the quality of being “commodities that embody ‘naturalness’” while at the same time they are fairly common (Walsh, 2012, p.84). This resonates with the notion of elephants in Sri Lanka being both “unique and irreproducible” while being “fairly generic and interchangeable” (Walsh, 2012, p.92). In other words, one elephant or one sapphire is as good as another, so it is the cultural sensibility of experiencing a ‘natural wonder’ that makes the experience worth having for
In the accidental tourist Anne Tyler depicts the views each character has on the world. In the sharpest focus throughout the novel is Macon's view, based on the need for control, the fear of change, distrust of others. In his view the world is worse than alien, it is dangerous. His destabilising childhood experiences, his vocation, the trauma of Ethan's death all conspire to justify his fight from the world. As Sarah put so poignantly, when she confesses to the view that people are basically evil', what makes him intolerable is that he always believed that anyway.
The. Chambers, Donna, Daye, Marcella, Roberts, and Sherma Roberts. The “Introduction” is the “Introduction”. New Perspectives on Caribbean Tourism. Ed. New York: Routledge, 2008.