A Small Place

Background Information Archeology dates back to 2400BC, unfortunately, there’s no recorded Antiguan history until 1493, when Christopher Columbus “discovered” the island. Since 1493, Antigua was under occupation under 1981 when they finally gained independence. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1202 625.stm Questions Significance in the fact that the first link for an Antiguan timeline is from the British Broadcast Channel?

Language “For isn’t it odd that the only language I have in which to speak of this crime is the language of the criminal who committed the crime?” (pg 31) “There was a law against using abusive language…” (pg 25) For the answer on every Antiguan’s lips to the question “What is going on here now?” is “The government is corrupt. Them are their, them are big thief.” “IF YOU GO to Antigua…” (pg 1)  Second person  Moves from addressing “you” to a more personal dialect Questions  What’s the significance of switching tones?  What is the affect of using the “criminal’s” language?  Does it mean anything that Antiguan’s have lost their own language and in a sense, their culture?  How does language define her class?

European Disease Tourism  “A tourist is an ugly human being” (pg. 14)  “… it would ruin your holiday” (Section 1)  “They do not like me!” (Pg 17)  “They envy your ability to leave your own banality and boredom, they envy your ability to turn their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for yourself” (Pg 19)  “They are too poor to escape the reality of their lives” Colonization  “…they should have never left their home, their precious English, a place they loved so much, a place they loved so much, a place they had to leave but could never forget. And so everywhere they went they turned it into England, and everybody they met they turned English.” (Pg 24)  Economic Colonization  Foreign Presence (Syrian nationals, Japanese Cars, Swiss Bank accounts, United States tourists and gambling)  “New Colonization”, they have no interest in Antiguan culture but what the culture seems to be. Using their resources for pleasure.  “An institution that is often celebrated in Antigua is the Hotel Training School…” (Pg. 55)

“I met the world through England…” “When the Queen came, all the roads that she would travel on were paved anew, so that the Queen might have been left with the impression that riding in a car in Antigua was a pleasant experience” (Pg. 12) “In Antigua today, most young people seem almost illiterate.” (Pg. 43) “You loved knowledge, and wherever you went you made sure to build a school, a library (yes, and in both of these places you distorted or erased my history and glorified your own).” (Pg 36) Some ministers in government have opened their own businesses; the main customer for these businesses is the government itself” (Pg 59) Questions What’s the connection between knowledge and physical institutions? Why did Antiguan’s gain a knowledge of corruption but not of progressiveness? Does government corruption keep Antigua in the third world?

“You could ruin your holiday…” “We felt superior, for we were so much better behaved and we were full of grace, and these people were so badly behaved and they were so empty of grace” (Pg 30) You must not wonder what exactly happened to the contents of your lavatory when you flushed it…” (Pg. 14) “How well I remember that all of Antigua turned out to see this Princess person…” (Pg 33) “I look at this place (Antigua), I look at these people (Antiguans)…” (Pg. 57) “An army, then, that can only lend legitimacy to illegitimate acts…” (Pg. 72) Questions How does her class/education distance her from Antigua Why are foreigners made to believe what’s hidden behind gold? Jamaica Kincaid was actually born as Elaine Potter Richardson, does the way she alters her identity also alter the way we look at the text?

“The beauty seems unreal…” “To the people in a small place, the division of Time into the Past, the Present, and the Future does not exist?” (Pg. 54) “ And might not knowing why they are the way they are, what they do the things they do, why they live the way they live and in the place they live, why the things that happened to them happened, lead these people to a different relationship with the world, a more demanding relationship…” (Pg. 56) “Sometimes the beauty of it seems as if it were stage sets for a play, for no real sunset could look like that…” (Pg. 77) “As for what we were like before we met you, I no longer care…” (Pg. 37) Questions How does Kincaid discus time and connect it to a larger idea of history? Does Kincaid’s perception of Antigua’s emptiness connect to the physical emptiness? (lack of infrastructure and education) Kincaid seems so interested in Antiguan history and what’s presently occurring but does the future have a place in Antigua? Is it possible to reverse the effects of colonization?

Postmodernism in a Postcolonial novel “I’m living rather an idea life. I think I want to live a long life in which I attempt to be free. Perhaps we all want that. It’s a paradox because the freedom only comes when you can no longer think, which is in death” (J.K. Interview) “Once you throw off your master’s yoke, you are no longer human rubbish, you are just a human being, and all the things that adds up to.” (pg. 81) Questions Clearly the effects of colonization have lasted, so will Antiguan’s forever be slaves to their past? For Kincaid, there’s an experience between the “decolonized”, and modern society so where is the reality? What’s the significance of race, and lack there of, throughout the novel? (“not racist!”)