"A Small Place"

Behind the Scenes of a small place

The essay "A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid explores the faults in a government system through the experiences of a tourist on the island of Antigua. The author uses satire as a mechanism to provide background information to all the things a new comer would see and experience (enjoy) but at the same time trying to highlight all the historical content a new comer is never mindful of.

The focus of the piece is to acknowledge all the contributing factors of a corrupted government which has led to the state which the country has been left in. She explains that every Antiguan knows that the country is doomed and the politicians knows it, where in her introduction she writes "wonder why a Prime Minister would want an airport named after him-why not a school," (Kincaid,3). She elaborates on the fact that the people of Antigua receives no support from their leaders but that their only aim is to gain profit from them. The schools are not treated as facilities that could eventually better the country, instead all the countries resources are poured into the tourism industry. The government encourages car loans for "brand new cars driven by people who nay or may not have really passed their driving test" in order to set up a stable transportation system for tourists (Kincaid,7). More example of this backwards government system was evident on page eight where she writes "when the Minister of Health himself doesn't feel well e takes the first plane to New York to see a real doctor" but at the same time these ministers refuse to recruit fitting and able doctors for its country.

In "A Small Place" after exposing the history behind each experience that a tourist would have in Antigua, Kincaid writes "but you are just a tourists" giving the impression that outsiders do not really care to know the history behind suffrage nor do they often get a chance at acknowledging it but in fact they only care about how good of a vacation this tropical destination will yield. I think the relativity of her diction was to show that in her country tourists get to experience "paradise" but are not very mindful of all the factors needed to enable this experiences. She also wants to show that there is always a story behind whatever you see even though you might not be aware.