Importance of Relationships in A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid Essay Example

Relationships are impactful in everyone’s lives whether positive or negative. In a small country named Antigua and their relationship with tourists will avail relationships importance. Tourist and Native, Man and Woman, Mother and daughter, Post-slaves and Colonizers. The Marxist, Gender, and Post-colonial lens will open eyes to this truth.

People who are disparate from you will judge. The natives of Antigua are different from you (a tourist). “That behind their closed doors, they laugh at your strangeness”(Kincaid 17). Every native Antiguan’s animosity towards tourists. Their customs are contrary. A person will stick out for not following the “norm”. People’s instinct is to point and laugh. In addition, Kincaid also wrote, “you are on holiday; you are a tourist”( Kincaid 6). Kincaid makes it clear she does not like tourists, many other Antiguan’s have the same opinion. No doubt that Antiguans abominate tourists, how the tourists act when they visit Antigua is ill-mannered. “We thought they were un-Christian-like, we thought they were small-minded; we thought they were like animals, a bit below human standards as we understand those standards to be. We felt superior to all these people” (Kincaid 29). Kincaid is focusing on European tourists (who Antiguans were colonized by) as a whole. People are not whom they seem or how they set themselves to be. Antiguans went off stories and stereotypes of Europeans, but when Europeans become tourists, they are not who they are in stories. In an essay written by Keith Byerman, he writes that Kincaid, by characterizing the audience, can easily offend (Byerman 2). The audience is tourists. At the beginning of A Small Place Kincaid is denigrating tourists because of who they are when they become tourists. quotation? Natives have grown to loathe tourists, how they act when they are in a new place. A Small Place was made for tourists so they can see their actions and how they affect natives in any country.

In any society, gender roles will play a big part in everyday life. What men should do, what women should not do. In Antigua the government is run by men, “...He was the one who had first brought them into government schemes”(Kincaid 65). Whenever Kincaid talks about the government, it is with he/him pronouns. All over the world, the government is majority men. Making men superior. Growing up, young women were told what to do and when to do it. On Sunday be a “lady”, don’t act like a slut (Malcolm 327).  Regardless of gender, nothing should be a complication. Your gender doesn’t tell you who to be. Even older women tell other women what to do. A mother tells her daughter how/when to do chores, and female behaviors (Hirsch and Schweitzer 478). This happens all over the world. Women are expected to do certain chores and act certain ways. They get taught this growing up. How society wants a certain gender to act a certain way. Although isn’t society men and women? Kincaid stated she almost always writes about her relationship with her mother even if it is with different characters’ (Metzger 1165).  How the mother takes the initiative or teaches life lessons will lay down footprints for the daughter’s life. It seems to be that men are condescending. And women are told what to do. Gender is how one identifies, not something that tells you what to be.

Everyone deserves to be treated with altruism. Byerman divulged that even though Antiguans have independence nothing has changed(Byerman 3). Antiguans still think of themselves as slaves. They still cant escape Europeans powering over them even though they have independence. Byerman also writes “the islanders have no civilization except a second hand one”(Byerman 5). What they have as a culture is from Europeans. The people who mistreated them. The troublesome people. Europeans are compared to criminals, they owned Antiguans as slaves, they were colonizers. What Antiguans have as a culture is from criminals, “For isn’t it odd that the only language I have in which to speak at this crime is the language of the criminal who committed the crime?” (Kincaid 51). Antiguans speak English, which they learned from Europeans. The people who think they are superior and have treated them appallingly. It seems that no matter if it was in the past or the present Antiguans are still losing to colonizers. Even if they are not slaves anymore, “Once they are no longer slaves, once they are free, they are no longer noble and exalted; they are just human beings”(Kincaid 81). Antiguans are now “just human beings” although they still feel as if they are slaves to Europeans. By European tourists coming to Antigua with no manners, or respect to the natives is showing Europe’s superiority to smaller countries. Antigua and many other small countries are treated discourteously by colonists, which is unethical.

As a final observation, Antiguans relationships with any group of people are both positive and negative. A Small Place was written for tourists, to see what smaller countries are in reality. With each relationship, everyone goes through lays down footprint for their future. The Marxist, Gender, and Post-Colonol lens back up the importance of relationships with others.