A response essay to Kincaid’s article According to Jamaica Kincaid’s article, seeing things or going to new places for the first time can be exciting. But Kincaid gives us a view on personal opinions and thoughts on the reality of England. Also her purpose in writing this piece was to inform us how the people of England made them feel superior to the settlers in British colonies. Ever her tone has been criticized and angry.…
England, lying gently on a map, seemed like a jewel to Jamaica Kincaid. By using rhetorical strategies and figurative language throughout her essay, she explains why and how she is overcome by England's greatness. With Kincaid's choice of details, figurative language, and creation of tone, she conveys an attitude of awe toward England.…
Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” and Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” is two fabulous short stories made in the 20th century. It shows how the relationship between young and adult is seen at that moment. There is the mother who mainly gives advice to help her daughter and there is the grandma who traveled a long distance to get help for her grandchild. The relationship’s quality between young and adult are oppositely inverse .The following essay will show the communication, the motivation and the perseveration.…
The book, The English-American, is the personal account of the journey of Thomas Gage in Spanish America. The primary source available for my analysis is Gage’s original work edited by J. Eric S. Thompson, who provides an insightful introduction that supplements a more complete understanding of Gage’s character. The persona of Thomas Gage is relatively easy to understand and contemplate upon because of the tone of his work’s narrative, and how it vividly recreates his emotions of the time. Gage is obviously not a professional novelist; however he is extremely observant, making him a good travel writer. In addition, it seems that Gage is quite accurate in his descriptions and one can assume that he is relatively honest. Gage’s book was first published in 1648 and presented to Cromwell and company to persuade the English to invade the Spanish Americas. This presents an interesting conundrum: When did Gage decide to publish his work as an outline for an English invasion, and was he a spy for the entirety of…
Their behavior and their disregard for her country anger her. As a country, Antigua has wrestled to find its identity. Tourism and banking have become Antigua’s primary industries. Banham Richardson, a scholar of Caribbean geography, blames the Antiguan government, as other Caribbean governments for promoting tourism as national industries. Kincaid dislikes tourists because they use her country as a relief for their boredom. They do not contribute any benefits to the country. Kincaid condemns the manner in which Antigua is depicted to tourists. The natives do not exist in their promotion. The ‘Antigua’ that Kincaid knows and grew up in is not the one shown or described to tourists. In Antigua and Barbuda’s website it states “Welcome to Antigua and Barbuda”. It goes on to say “In 1784 the legendary Admiral Horatio Nelson sailed to Antigua and established Great Britain’s most important Caribbean base. Little did he know that over 200 years later, the same unique characteristics that attracted the Royal Navy would transform Antigua and Barbuda into one the Caribbean’s premier tourist destinations.” This is stated on the Antigua and Barbuda homepage. It is because of depictions like this, that Antigua is becoming a tourism capitol. Which is why Kincaid expresses her anger in “The Ugly…
After reading Jamaica Kincaid’s “On Seeing England for the First Time” it’s evident that Kincaid’s life revolved around the English. Jamaica Kincaid grew up like one of the English from eating huge portions for breakfast, to her father buying the same hat that was “Made in England”, but what really stood out was Kincaid’s street name: John Hawkins. Kincaid’s grew up in St.Johns Antigua, Ovals where there were five streets “each of them named after a famous English seaman…” her street was John Hawkins. John Hawkins was a terrible man who is notably known for opening the slave trade. “Every single person living on Hawkins street was descended from a slave.” When Kincaid mentioned John Hawkins the tone of the essay quickly shifted from gloomy…
And today in the wide world of Literature, well maybe just short stories, we will be going over Rick Moody's "Boys" and Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" and discerning the way in which Moody chose to make his story very quick paced to the reader and in a way difficult to read, but with a purpose. Also how that affects the way the reader may read, perceive, or understand the story in a different way. And comparing how the similar writing style of Kincaid compares to Moody's use.…
In Jamaica Kincaid’s article “On seeing England for the First Time”, she demonstrates the how her opinion, filled with bitterness and hate for England, was shaped by an oppressive and influential culture. Although she expresses a hint of reverence towards England early on in her essay, she consistently shows signs of bitterness and resentment towards England throughout the article using parallelism, a sarcastic tone, and strong diction. Even in instances where she tries to make England sound appealing, she ceaselessly succeeds at working in her own current opinion to make these statements sound insincere.…
Kincaid begins her essay comparing her homeland, Antigua, and how the food, clothing, manners, and standards are different. England was her “sense of myth and the source from which she got her sense of reality, her sense of what was meaningful, her sense of what was meaningless” (101). She puts England on such a high pedestal that it was destined to disappoint her. She goes on to describe her processions that were made in England, and even committed a large piece of England history to memory. She even compares the climates between her homeland and England. She was so obsessed with everything about England that she was swept into an idea of England and not the reality of it. When Kincaid actually visits England she meets her greatest disappointment. She says that she “finds England ugly, I hate England; the weather is like a jail…
In Jamaica Kincaid's book A Small Place, she uses strong conviction and passion for the island which she grew up on. Although, the reader may view this strong affection very offensive, Kinkaid generalizes tourists and how they abuse the use of Antiguan workers in hotels and tourism while on vacations, seems like she is trying to leave the reader understanding and empathetic.…
“All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.” These words of Flannery O’Connor perfectly depicts the events that the grandmother of “A good man is hard to find”, Hulga of “Good country people”, and the mother of “Everything that rises must converge” undergo that ultimately changes their viewpoints and forces them to accept the reality that they are not who they think they are. In the three short stories O’Connor uses symbolism and irony to establish a satiric tone as the characters that are viewed as superior fall from grace.…
Jamaica Kincaids Girl is based on therough relationship she had with her own mother. The short story shows the way amothers attitude and language can affect her daughter. The storyalso shows how the way a child is treated shapes their future. In Girl,Kincaid shows the world how she remembers being treated while she was growing upand how much it affected her.…
She acknowledges England’s successful imperialism and nationalism in the Caribbean Island of Antigua. England managed to mold the people of Antigua into proud English subjects, including Kincaid at the time, who had “long ago been conquered” (107). Upon recognizing these realizations, Kincaid considers it a “blessing” (115) that she couldn’t reproduce a map of England correctly, for bearing this ability symbolized submission to England’s reign and assent to its importance and “greatness” (32). This “greatness” (32) is undermined as Kincaid weaves in subtle sprinkles of sarcasm and rebellion to portray her growing resentment towards England as she matured. The imagery of Kincaid eating with her “bare hands” (97) against the “English way” (91) when her mother “wasn’t looking” (98) emphasizes her resentment towards English rule.…
“You needn’t let that slightly funny feeling you have from time to time about exploitation, oppression, domination develop into full-fledged unease and discomfort; you could ruin your vacation” (Kincaid 10). In A Small Place, Jamaica Kincaid wrote about the repercussions of British rule in her country, Antigua. Antigua was controlled by the British until 1981 when they gained their independence. Due to Jamaica Kincaid’s experience in Antigua during its period of being under British colonial rule, she was able to explain Antigua and the effects of colonialism from the perspective of an Antiguan. When viewed through the Biographical, Postcolonial, and New Criticism Lenses, Jamaica Kincaid’s essay A Small Place revealed the consequences of colonization…
Jamaica Kincaid relates the relationship between a mother and daughter in her poem, “Girl”. The poem is about how a mother prepares her daughter to become a woman. She gives her a litany of valuable lessons to shape her behavior and character according to what is acceptable to their culture. Kincaid cleverly dropped hints throughout her poem suggesting that the culture being referred to is the Afro-Carribean culture. The Afro-Carribean culture is a blend of music, dance and cuisine mostly conducted in traditional lifestyle; and all these elements are represented in the poem. One of the most lucid hints is the fact that the mother teaches her daughter how to catch a fish, which describes their primary industry: fishing. Essentially, the mother is teaching her daughter a livelihood practiced in their community. The entire poem is both advice and reprimand to prepare a girl become a woman defined by her ability to perform all the household chores, behavior, and values.…