Jamaica Kincaid On Seeing England For The First Time

In the article “On Seeing England For the First Time” (1981), Jamaica Kincaid asserts that colonization and the act of erasing a nation’s identity is unacceptable and that the individuality of a country and each of its people must be preserved. She conveys her contempt for England by heavily satirizing and condemning the country for its impositions, illustrating using caricature, irony, strategic punctuation, juxtaposition, and sarcasm to explain how England indifferently pervaded every aspect of the author’s life, and to mock the English people and culture as well as herself and the Antiguans for succumbing to foreign pressures. Kincaid utilizes these strategies in order to demonstrate her disgust for and mistrust of England and the apathy of her own people when it comes to defending their identity. This article is geared mainly toward critics of England, but it also addresses the English people, because Kincaid’s criticisms and arguments against assimilationism and colonization reflect a rebellious, yet free-spirited tone meant to support and defend England’s critics and her own people, as well as a bitter, indignant
The author recounts this childhood experience to caricature her teacher for her devotion to England and to stress that the statement “Draw a map of England” was used to instill a feeling of inferiority in Kincaid and her people, to make them feel “small” and “in awe” of England, to make them want to be a part of this mysterious, all-powerful foreign entity that was everywhere at once (111). In doing so, the author criticizes England’s insertion into the lives of mere school children and its methods of self-glorification to ensure that the Antiguan people stay willing to conform to the English lifestyle and customs and accept