A Small Place Response

As I began reading the first few pages of Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place, I instantly thought of the movies Eat Pray Love and The White Massai as examples of how white Western tourists often treat the ‘third world’ as their go-to place for adventure and self-discovery. In essence, the third world becomes re-colonized through the discursive centering of white people in the stories of everyday life in third world countries. However, through Kincaid’s exasperated prose, it’s clear that whites have positioned themselves at the center of Antiguan life for a long time. Kincaid describes her childhood as one that “revolved almost completely around England” and a world that she “met through England” and “wanted to meet” her through England as well (p.33).

I also believe A Small Place is a good example of how silence can operate in two ways: on one hand, the history and everyday experiences of the Antiguan people has been marginalized while the comfort of white tourists has been prioritized. This is the case with many tourism-dependent economies. On the other hand, the long-term effects of British colonialism on the social, economic, and political institutions in Antigua (such as anti-Blackness, poverty, and government corruption) have been ignored. I think the big takeaway from this text is that Westerners contribute to both forms of silencing through their mere presence in a country whose oppressive social, economic, and political institutions are maintained for their pleasure.