Antigua By Jamaica Kincaid

Improved Essays
Jamaica Kincaid, author of a small place, wrote this book examining the impact British colonialism in the post-colonial era had on Antigua. Kincaid offers a unique viewpoint as a local who was born there, using her individual examples to create an authentic dialogue. Yet Kincaid chose to write the novel in second person employing the perspective of a tourist, to show how tourist can appreciate the beauty of the island but be completely ignorant to their social and political conditions that the tourism industry reinforces. Some misconstrue Kincaid`s tone in the story as hostile but this work is meant to be an act of emotional truthfulness. This passion comes through her anger concerning colonialism, slavery and Antigua`s broken identity that …show more content…
"Through West Indian Eyes"). On November 1st, 1981 Antigua gained its independence from Great Britain but face harsh turmoil post-colonialism. In 1990 their prime minster at that time Vere Bird, his was removed from office for arms trafficking and was dealing with problems of money laundering. In 2009, the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged their biggest investor, Sir Allen Stanford with investment fraud and this caused Antigua to lose its main source of money ("Timeline: Antigua and Barbuda." BBC News. BBC). The island also relies heavily on tourism but suffered massive damage after Hurricane Luis 1995 and Hurricane Georges 1999, and lack of tourism after the murder of a British couple. Showing why Jamaica Kincaid`s novel is best described as anti-colonialism because she brings up the issue of dependency on tourism and government corruption, which both because prevalent after colonialism was abolished. Kincaid criticizes Antigua`s dependence on tourism for its economy. The hurricanes caused excessive damage and this can also be seen in the novel when she describes how great the library was before, but how the library was completely destroyed and left in rubles after the hurricane. It damaged and destroyed many buildings that were never renovated like Kincaid explains in the novel. Kincaid explains how many people in office were charged with all forms of corruption. Antigua was never able to recover to become what it used to be under the British

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