A Small Place LitChart

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A Small Place
in 1981. Prime Minister Vere Cornwall Bird came to power in
INTR
INTRODUCTION
ODUCTION 1967 and led the country until 1994 with a brief period of
political and physical exile from 1971 to 1976 while George
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF JAMAICA KINCAID Walter and the Progressive Labour Movement controlled the
Jamaica Kincaid was born in the Antiguan capital of St. John’s government. Coming as it did in the early 1980s, Antiguan
while the country was still under colonial British rule. Despite independence fit into a decade of post-colonial and neo-
the relative poverty in which Kincaid grew up, she received a imperialist political shifts worldwide. These include the final
high-quality education from the island’s colonial British schools stages of the apartheid regime in South Africa, where a brutal
and from her mother, who was a well-read and intelligent system of institutionalized racial segregation that allowed the
woman. When Kincaid was nine years old, her mother and step- descendants of white colonizers to oppress and terrorize the
father had three sons in quick succession. After this Kincaid felt country’s Black citizens between the 1940s and the 1990s.
increasingly isolated and neglected by her family, especially her Closer to Antigua, the book invokes the situations of Grenada
mother. When she was 17, her parents withdrew her from and Haiti. In Haiti, decades of political and social upheaval
school and sent her to the United States to work as a nanny driven by the forces of imperialism gave way in the 1950s to
with the intention that she would send her paychecks back to the Duvalier Dynasty, in which one family seized and held
Antigua to support the family. Instead, Kincaid kept her own political power through the 1980s, oppressing Haitians and
pay and began taking classes at a community college. enriching themselves through their corrupt government.
Eventually, she found work in journalism, writing for teen
magazines, New York City’s alternative paper The Village Voice, RELATED LITERARY WORKS
and Ms. magazine before landing at the New Yorker. As she
began writing for publication, Kincaid adopted her pen name as A Small Place offers an extended narrative exploration of long-
a way to create a new, freer identity for herself. She married term effects of colonialism and slavery on former British colony
Allen Shawn, the son of the New Yorker’s chief editor, in 1979. Antigua. It also weaves some of Jamaica Kincaid’s own personal
The couple had two children before divorcing in 2002. Many of history into the broader narrative of her country’s past. In
her novels, including Annie John (1985) and Lucy (1990) draw these ways, it serves as a narrative nonfictional companion to
on events from Kincaid’s own life. Both her fiction and her novels Annie John (1985) and Lucy (1990). Annie John
nonfiction frequently explore themes of colonialism and describes the coming of age of its Antiguan protagonist,
imperialism, gender and sexuality, class and power, mother- intelligent and precocious Annie John, while Lucy follows a
daughter relationships, and gardening. In 1992, she was young woman from the West Indies whose departure from her
appointed professor in the Department of African and African homeland (strongly implied to be Antigua) gives her the critical
American Studies and the English Department at Harvard distance necessary to consider and understand her
University. She lives—and grows a luxurious garden—in relationship to her homeland, her family, and the historical
Vermont. forces of colonialism and racism. Kincaid’s work also fits into
broader imaginative and literary criticisms of colonialism,
especially in the West Indies. In particular, her extended
HISTORICAL CONTEXT musings on the ironies and challenges of critiquing the
Because it deals with Antigua—among the first Caribbean oppressor in the oppressor’s language foreshadow Santa
islands to be settled by European colonizers, A Small Place Lucian poet Derek Walcott’s prize-winning epic poem Omeros,
engages with a broad swath of history, dating back to which loosely borrows the plot of Homer’s Iliad and the poetic
Christopher Columbus’s arrival in 1493. Other key moments in style of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Walcott applies these to a
the island’s history include the arrival of the British in 1632, the Caribbean context to explore the burdens of colonialism and
British abolition of the trade in enslaved people in 1807 and the way that colonialism and the legacy of slavery fragment the
the emancipation of people formerly enslaved by the British in identities the descendants of enslaved and oppressed people.
1830. More recently, the Lesser Antilles Earthquake of Finally, Kincaid’s work connects with more recent Caribbean
October 1974 destroyed many buildings, including the diaspora writers publishing books like Marie-Elena John’s 2006
beautiful colonial library, in the Antiguan capital city. However, Unburnable, which traces the family history of Lillian Baptiste, a
more recent history animates much more of the book’s native-born Dominican who had emigrated to escape a
consideration of the long legacies of imperialism, colonialism, familial—and cultural—history of betrayal, murder, and
and slavery. Antigua became a Commonwealth state in 1967, vengeance.
and it was formally granted its independence from British rule
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KEY FACTS Kincaid claims, it’s because they learned from their oppressors
to steal, cheat, and repress dissent.
• Full Title: A Small Place
This leads Kincaid to ask whether Antigua was better off under
• When Written: 1980s
colonial rule than as an independent nation. She lists examples
• Where Written: The United States of corruption and disarray including the crumbling library, the
• When Published: 1988 poor quality of the education system, corruption among the
• Literary Period: Contemporary government ministers, an outsized influence in government
affairs by wealthy foreigners, and society-wide groveling to
• Genre: Narrative Nonfiction
tourists. This is because in a small place like Antigua, people are
• Setting: Antigua
prone to lose their perspective on history. Modern Antiguans
• Point of View: First Person and Second Person talk about slavery as a dead institution yet subjugate
themselves as workers in the tourism industry. And a history of
EXTRA CREDIT oppression has rendered them passive in the face of
Light Reading. Jamaica Kincaid’s mother taught her to read governmental corruption. They may complain about the state
before the age of four, not by starting with the alphabet but of things but lack the will to demand change from corrupt, self-
with a biography of the French microbiologist and chemist interested leaders like Vere Cornwall Bird.
Louis Pasteur. Then, for some time, the only other book she was Kincaid closes her essay on the “small place” of Antigua with an
allowed to read was the King James Bible. exploration of its almost impossible, jewel-like beauty. Its
permanence and isolation have frozen it in place and
Dry Land. In an interview with the Harvard student newspaper, imprisoned its inhabitants in a stasis from which they struggle
Jamaica Kincaid named a bag of sand she inadvertently to emerge.
collected in the Mojave Desert as one of her favorite objects.
The sand gathered in her pockets when, on a visit to the desert
in 2013, she climbed up and intentionally slid down some of the CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS
dunes.
Jamaica Kincaid – Jamaica Kincaid is the author and the
narrative voice of A Small Place. Three of the book’s four
PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY sections are written in the first person from Kincaid’s
perspective. Kincaid was born and raised in Antigua under
The author and narrative voice of A Small Place, Jamaica colonial rule, which profoundly influenced her worldview as a
Kincaid, asks readers to imagine themselves as a tourist landing child. She voraciously consumed the books in the colonial
in Antigua for vacation. The tourist takes a taxi to the hotel and library and internalized the language of the oppressor, which
passes by crumbling buildings, like the colonial library, which she uses uneasily to form her critiques of colonialism, slavery,
was destroyed in an earthquake over a decade ago. Having the corrupt Antiguan government, and the morally bankrupt
rhetorically delivered the tourist to their room, Kincaid tourism industry that supports the island’s economy. Kincaid
ruminates on how tourists—people privileged enough to left Antigua long ago, and she leverages her position as a native
escape their mundane lives and temporarily enjoy another and an outsider to generate the distance necessary to
place without having to experience its troubles—become formulate her critique. Throughout the book, Kincaid describes
examples of human ugliness. Antigua and its history with an alternating affection and
Transitioning into the first person, Kincaid describes growing aversion; her refusal or inability to resolve her conflicted
up in Antigua while it was still a British colony. The streets were feelings about her homeland, its people, and even her own
named after British naval officers, and British law governed vexed relationship with the colonialists who at one and the
daily life. Institutions like the Barclay’s Bank were created with same time disparaged her and gave her an outstanding
wealth that its founders had generated long ago by exploiting education illustrates the difficulty of untangling the threads of
enslaved people. And places like the exclusive Mill Reef Club history from the current moment. Throughout the book,
resort functioned almost as colonies within the colony, allowing Kincaid invites readers to look through her eyes both at the
white North Americans and Europeans to enjoy the island small island of Antigua and the broader world in which it exists,
while avoiding contact with native—that is to say, as well as to consider the ties that bind people and societies
Black—Antiguans. Native Antiguans faced overt racism while together across humanity’s messy history.
being made to honor the legacies of their colonizers and former The T
Tourist
ourist – The first section of A Small Place addresses the
enslavers. If the descendants of formerly enslaved and reader directly and casts them in the role of a tourist visiting
colonized people seem to tolerate corruption and abuse, Antigua. The tourist comes from a European or North

American country where they make a middle-class living. They Antigua in 1632, they began to establish sugarcane plantations.
make enough money to allow them the monetary and time By 1674, sugar was the island’s main crop. Due to the intense
resources to temporarily escape on vacation—but not enough labor required to produce sugar, colonial Antiguan planters
to insulate them from the pressures of modern life. The tourist began to use enslaved people to work the plantations.
is clearly meant to be a white person who is prone to forming White Supremacy – White supremacy is the belief that white
ill-informed judgments about the lives, countries, and people are innately superior to those of other races and thus
governments of non-white people in places like Antigua while have a natural right to dominate or oppress them. This political
ignoring the role of racism, colonialism, and slavery in world component—the right to rule over other races—distinguishes
history. This small-mindedness renders the tourist inhumane, white supremacy from racism. In many ways colonialism is the
selfish, and ugly. By offering the figure of the tourist as a sort of institutionalization of white supremacy, since it often involves a
mirror, Kincaid asks her readers—whom she assumes to be government in which a minority of white people control a
primarily privileged and white—to critically assess themselves territory populated by non-white people. In A Small Place,
and their roles in history without directly accusing them of the members of the Mill Reef Club display white supremacist
tourist’s faults. In this way, the tourist subtly softens the blow thinking in their assumed right to exert control over the fate of
of Kincaid’s critique to make it more palatable. the library, which belongs to the people of Antigua.
Vere Corn
Cornwall
wall Bird – Vere Cornwall Bird was the First Premier
and Prime Minister of Antigua, where he headed the
government with one brief interruption from 1967 to 1994. THEMES
Bird came to political prominence as a founding member and
In LitCharts literature guides, each theme gets its own color-
early leader of the Antiguan Trades and Labour Union, which
coded icon. These icons make it easy to track where the themes
later evolved into a political party. In A Small Place, Bird and his
occur most prominently throughout the work. If you don't have
leadership exemplify the rot and corruption that characterizes
a color printer, you can still use the icons to track themes in
the modern Antiguan government and which the book sees as
black and white.
the direct result of the lessons taught by the history of
northern European colonialism and slavery.
SLAVERY, COLONIALISM, AND
INDEPENDENCE
TERMS Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place paints a portrait of
Colonialism – Colonialism is the practice of attaining political Antigua shortly after it achieved independence
and economic control over another country or territory. and self-rule from Great Britain. For over three centuries, the
Usually, the colonizing government imposes its language, law, island existed as a British colony, and for more than half that
and political system on its colonial subjects. Colonialism has time, the English planter and traders exploited enslaved people.
existed for much of human history, but it entered a new, more A Small Place has little sympathy for Antigua’s former
intense phase in the 15th century as European countries raced colonizers, acidly pointing out the way colonizers commodified
to colonize the North and South American continents, Asia, and the human beings whom they enslaved, built massive amounts
Africa. The British founded a colony in Antigua in 1632 and of wealth on stolen land and labor, and systematically neglected
exploited the island to generate a great deal of wealth by the island’s infrastructure except when it benefitted the
participating in the slave trade and establishing sugar colonizers. But while the book celebrates emancipation and
plantations; they retained complete control of the island independence, it also expresses deep ambivalence about the
through 1967, when Antigua became a semi-independent corruption and failure of the nation’s self-ruled government.
Commonwealth State, and 1981, when it achieved full For example, Kincaid complains about the inferior education
independence from Britain. young Antiguans receive compared to those who grew up
under colonialism. Similarly, the library—a beautiful building
Racism – Racism is the belief that different groups of people
and institution built by the former colonial government that the
possess distinct physical characteristics, innate qualities, and
independent Antiguan democracy then allowed to crumble and
abilities. Hand in hand with these distinctions, racism usually
rot—seems to suggest a preference for the benefits of
involves antagonism or oppression toward racial groups to
colonialism, at least in terms of providing a sense of history and
which one does not belong, of which white supremacy is one
culture to the island nation.
example.
But as A Small Place deftly explores the connections between
Sla
Slavvery – Slavery is the practice of one person claiming
Antigua’s colonial past and its present, it shows how Antiguan
ownership over another as property, particularly in terms of
history renders the island and its people vulnerable to outside
their physical labor. After the British founded a colony on
exploitation. Slavery denied people control over even their own

bodies, and the book sees echoes of this enforced relative wealth and privilege, they can distance themselves
powerlessness in the passive role modern Antiguans take in from the history that made places like North America and
their self-governance. Similarly, just as colonialism extracted Europe wealthy and powerful and places like Antigua poor and
wealth and resources from the island, the impoverished vulnerable to corruption. Becoming a tourist allows a person to
modern government welcomes outside investments that allow temporarily escape the boring, uncomfortable, or unglamorous
foreign nationals an outsized influence over the nation and its aspects of their normal lives for someplace beautiful. But the
affairs. The book thus claims that simply emancipating enslaved book’s detailed portrait of Antigua debunks the island’s
people or returning a government to its citizens—without the superficial beauty, showing the boring, painful, and
guidance of education, the repatriation of wealth, and the unglamorous aspects of its colonial history and current state of
support of the international community—cannot lead to the corruption and poverty.
development of a truly free, open, and democratic society. It Because the tourist doesn’t have a deep connection to a place,
neither blames the independent Antiguan government entirely they often feel free to criticize it or offer their allegedly
for its faults nor lets it off the hook for its failures. Instead, by enlightened ideas about how it could be fixed or run. In this
shining a light on these patterns, A Small Place shows how vein, members of the Mill Reef Club function as tourists in A
modern Antigua represents the logical outcome of its history Small Place; their love of Antigua extends only as far as the
and asks readers to consider how this history affects their beautiful beaches and warm climate—they stop short of
personal history and the histories of their countries of origin, recognizing the humanity of native Antiguans or attempting to
too. alleviate their struggles. Still, the book suggests, there is reason
to hope that things can change for the better. If
RACISM AND WHITE SUPREMACY readers—tourists of a sort, if only for the brief time they visit
Because Antigua existed for most of its history as a Antigua by reading A Small Place—can look inward and
British colony and as a site where planters and interrogate their role in systems of oppression, then they can
traders exploited the labor of enslaved people, it develop empathy for others. They can thus short circuit the
provides fertile ground to explore racial dynamics between the threat of the tourist, who is dangerous as long as he or she
descendants of enslaved people (the “native” Antiguans) and steps outside the web of human relationships. Developing
white people, including former colonial overlords, foreign empathic insight to the ethical issues that tourism poses, on the
nationals, and tourists. The book examines how slavery and other hand, can bolster a person’s humanity no matter where
colonialism shaped the national psyche of Antigua, instilling they go.
deference in its citizens toward those who hold power, even
when these people—for example, the Czech dentist who casts THE LOCAL AND THE GLOBAL
himself as a doctor, or the British headmistress of the girls’ A Small Place paints a detailed portrait of the tiny
school—behave in overtly dehumanizing and racist ways. But island nation of Antigua, which comprises a mere
white supremacy also instills in the (almost all white) members 108 square miles—an area roughly a third the size
of the Mill Reef Club an undeserved sense of ownership over of New York City. Because the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic
Antigua. This allows them to offer monetary support to the Ocean further isolate Antigua from other places, the book
library—but only if it is rebuilt according to their preferences. describes it as a veritable prison, enclosing its inhabitants
Moreover, because the Antiguan economy relies heavily on literally and through the weight of its long and difficult history.
tourism, many nameless, faceless, interchangeable tourists People trapped in a small place, the book claims, lose their
from North America and Europe casually take advantage of sense of perspective. They blow small events out of proportion
their native Antiguan hosts, nickel-and-diming them over yet fail to appreciate the meaning of major historical events.
inconsequential taxi fares, for example. By comparing the Likewise, tourists who escape their lives and countries for a
Antigua of the past with the Antigua of the book’s present, A short stay in Antigua all too often lose their global perspective
Small Place shows how racism and white supremacy outlived while on the island.
colonialism and the institution of slavery.
But small places have advantages, and the book leverages
Antigua as an example that unlocks important lessons about
TOURISM AND EMPATHY the long legacies of colonialism and slavery, the relation of
The first section of A Small Place speaks to the wealthy places like North America and Europe to less wealthy
reader as if they were a tourist visiting Antigua. nations in the global south (sometimes called the developing
When the tourist arrives at their resort, the book world), and the ways in which tourism and global travel bring
asks readers to confront the inherent ugliness of tourism, both economic opportunity and social threats. One key to
which it claims is harmful because it is inherently voyeuristic. understanding the relationship of the local and particular with
The tourist doesn’t belong to Antigua, and, because of their the global and universal lies in the way the book focuses on

even smaller places within Antigua, such as the Barclay’s Bank,
the Mill Reef Club, the library, to explore its themes. The Mill SYMBOLS
Reef Club residents isolate themselves from black Antiguans,
Symbols appear in teal text throughout the Summary and
demonstrating the perseverance of racism and white
Analysis sections of this LitChart.
supremacy. The Barclay’s bank allows the book to point out the
economic abuses of slavery in addition to its human
abuses—the founding brothers made their fortune on the ANTIGUA
stolen labor of enslaved people. And the library demonstrates
In A Small Place, Jamaica Kincaid offers the island
the ways in which the forced dehumanization of slavery
nation of Antigua as a microcosm—a small world
informs modern Antiguans’ passive approach to their
that provides lessons that one can apply to the larger world—in
government—upset at its abuses yet unwilling to hold it
which to examine the legacies of slavery, racism, and
accountable. Thus, the reader eventually realizes that the
colonialism throughout the world. Small, beautiful, and
events in Antigua are anything but small, both for the island
decidedly different from the North American and European
itself and in the broader context of world history. By focusing
countries from which its early colonizers and recent tourists
on the local and particular, then, the book draws attention to
hail, A Small Place describes Antigua as an island suspended in
the urgent lessons of history and economics in ways that can
place and time. This allows it to function fluidly throughout the
help the reader understand the broader world.
course of the book, becoming at one time or another a refuge
for tourists to escape their mundane lives, a prison locking in its
ROT AND CORRUPTION citizens, and a textbook example of how government
A Small Place describes both the beauty of Antigua corruption and mismanagement can continue the oppression of
and the rot and corruption that characterize its an allegedly free people.
government and society. Government ministers
engage in illegal activities and self-dealing, while racism and
LIBRARY
white supremacy poison relationships between native
Antiguans, tourists, and the foreign nationals who live at the The library in the Antiguan capital of St. John’s
Mill Reef Club or finance real estate developments elsewhere symbolizes Jamaica Kincaid’s ambivalent feelings
on the island. Early in the book, the narrative voice of Jamaica about colonialism in her native land of Antigua. The old,
Kincaid tells the reader, as a tourist, to not think about happens colonial library was a grand, peaceful, and beautiful place which
to the sewage that leaves the bathroom of their resort hotel, nurtured Kincaid’s love of reading when she was a child. In this
since Antigua lacks a sewage treatment plant. The wastewater way, the library seems to suggest her respect for the British or
flows, untreated, into the oceans, and the tourist is invited to a belief in the superiority of their culture. This is especially true
think about how their vast size will dilute the sewage down. in comparison to the current library which, under the auspices
Kincaid ironically suggests that little harm can be done to the of the independent Antiguan government, sits in an ugly
tourist if they can’t see the contamination. And indeed, the warehouse and doesn’t take proper care of its books. Yet, while
book gives multiple examples of the ways in which distraction Kincaid on one level seems to yearn for the order and culture of
and ignorance feed social rot and government corruption. This the colonial government, she traces the current disregard for
suggests that fixing the problems of society begins with looking the library and the educational and cultural values it suggests
at and grappling with the issues. And A Small Place does this to the lessons that native Antiguans learned from their colonial
looking and grappling, not only listing the dishonesty of the overlords. Thus, the library both allows Kincaid to acknowledge
Antiguan government, but tracing it to the lessons that slavery the culture that shaped her while also giving her the critical
and colonialism taught current Antiguans’ ancestors. Thus, by distance necessary to analyze the negative effects of
bringing Antigua’s rot and corruption to light, the book colonialism on herself, the Antiguan people, and other formerly
performs the crucial first step toward elimination corruption. enslaved and colonized people around the world.
And, because the whole modern world rests on a foundation of
colonial exploitation and chattel slavery, the book’s exploration MILL REEF CLUB
of Antigua’s example invites readers to open their eyes and look
at global patterns of rot and corruption—because once a The Mill Reef Club exemplifies the ways in which
person knows about the sewage in the seawater, they no longer racism and white supremacy continue to shape the
have the luxury of ignoring it. trajectory of independent Antigua, especially in relationship to
the tourist industry there. Founded by people who wanted to
own and enjoy a part of the island without having to mix with
the native (in other words, Black) Antiguans or face any of the
issues of corruption and mismanagement that influence life

there, the Mill Reef Club operates as a colony-within-a-colony,
a place cut off almost entirely from its host country of Antigua. communities they visit.
Money and privilege allow the Mill Reef Club residents to hold This passage points to both problems. First, the places from
themselves apart from Antiguans while residence on the island which the tourist may come have a long history of colonial
gives them a sense of ownership over its amenities—like the subjugation (Europe) or enthusiastic participation in the
library they want to restore—and citizens—at least the ones enslavement of human beings (the United States and, to a
that Mill Reef Club residents employ in their homes as lesser extent, Europe). The diverging fates of wealthy North
domestic workers or in their businesses as employees. American and European countries and poor nations like
Antigua argues that the legacy of colonialism and slavery
continues to benefit the oppressors at the expense of their
QUO
QUOTES
TES victims.
Note: all page numbers for the quotes below refer to the Second, the tourist visits for a short time and thus remains
Farrar, Straus and Giroux edition of A Small Place published in unaffected by the structural and ecological challenges of life
2000. in places like Antigua. In fact, the very things that would
make life livable for Antiguans—regular rainfall to support
crops and livestock—would in fact make the island less
Chapter 1 Quotes desirable for tourists. Structurally, the book points out
Antigua is […] more beautiful than any of the other islands Antigua’s problems, forcing the reader to acknowledge
you have seen […] but they were much too green, much too lush them, even while reminding the reader that their
with vegetation, which indicated to you, the tourist, that they character—the tourist—should or would remain ignorant of
got quite a bit of rainfall, and rain is the very thing that you, just them. Problems would, after all, ruin a vacation. This forces
now, do not want, for you are thinking of the hard and cold and readers—especially white readers from North America or
dark and long days you spent working in North America (or, Europe—to reckon with the ways their lives may be
worse, Europe), earning some money so that you could stay in implicated by the historical abuses A Small Place touches on.
this place (Antigua) where the sun always shines and where the
climate is deliciously hot and dry for the four to ten days you
are staying there; and since you are a tourist, the thought of
How do they afford such a car? And do they live in a
what it might be like for someone who had to live day in, day out
luxurious house to match such a car? Well, no. You will be
in a place that suffers constantly from drought […] must never
surprised, then, to see that most likely the person driving this
cross your mind.
brand-new car filled with the wrong gas lives in a house that […]
is far beneath the status of the car; and if you were to ask why
Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist you would be told that the banks are encouraged by the
government to make loans available for cars, but loans for
Related Themes: houses are not so easily available; and if you ask again why, you
will be told that the two main car dealerships in Antigua are
Related Symbols: owned in part or outright by ministers in government. […] You
pass a building sitting in a sea of dust and you think, It’s some
Page Number: 3-4 latrines for people just passing by, but [then] you see [it] has
written on it PIGOTT’S SCHOOL.
Explanation and Analysis
In the first section of A Small Place, the book casts the
reader into the role of a tourist visiting the island for the Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist
first time. In this passage, the reader/tourist catches a
Related Themes:
glimpse of the island from their landing airplane, and they
marvel at its beauty. However, the book immediately Page Number: 7
introduces problems with this attitude, since what makes
Antigua attractive as a tourist destination—its hot, arid Explanation and Analysis
climate—makes it a challenging place to live permanently. A Having landed the reader/tourist in Antigua, the book
Small Place argues that the moral corruption at the heart of places them into a taxicab and describes what they would
the tourism industry arises from tourism’s neocolonial see as they look out the window on their ride to their resort.
structure and the tourist’s lack of connection to the

The luxury Japanese cars make a horrendous noise because earthquake destroyed in 1974—14 years before the book’s
their Antiguan drivers can only fill them with leaded publication—and which has yet to be repaired and
gasoline, which ruins their modern engines (made to run reopened. Luckily, tourists won’t be needing the library
exclusively on healthier unleaded gasoline). since they brought their own books, including the one this
This passage describes the corruption that lies beneath the passage describes. A Small Place has already presented
oddly luxurious taxis. A government that had the best tourists with ample evidence that their quality of life far
interests of its citizens in mind, Kincaid implies, would be outstrips that of most Antiguans.
more focused on ensuring that people had good housing or The hypothetical book that Kincaid imagines tourists
tolerable schools. But because the government ministers bringing to Antigua allegedly explains why their North
focus on their own enrichment, the government prioritizes American or European country enjoys wealth and a high
things that will benefit them—like subsidizing car standard of living—but it does so in a way that absolves the
loans—rather than the population as a whole. descendants of colonialists and enslavers of the abuse and
At this point in the book, Kincaid hasn’t yet delved into the exploitation they perpetrated. Whitewashing history, it
sources of governmental corruption, but she still speaks to neatly skirts the issue of slavery—the theft of the labor and
her readers in the character of the tourist, who lacks the all too often lives of human beings—which dominated the
local perspective that would allow them to see the colonial economies in places like Antigua, where the British
connections between corruption, the car, and their established a sugar plantation and slave colony in the 17th
presence on the island. Thus, the book implies that tourism century. But A Small Place traces a direct line between
contributes to the problems on the island—or at the very American and European abuses and exploitation in the past
least does nothing to improve the lives of normal Antiguans. and their present wealth and global power. Slavery and
colonialism allowed small groups of people to gain an
unequal share of the world’s resources, wealth, and power.
Thus, Kincaid claims—in direct opposition to the tourist’s
You have brought your own books with you, and among book—that slavery founded the modern world order.
them is one of those new books about economic history
[…]explaining how the West […] got rich: the West got rich not She also connects it directly to the modern tourism
from the free (free—in this case meaning got-for-nothing) and industry. Even though the hypothetical tourist she
then undervalued labour, for generations, of the people like me constructs in this section clearly comes from a nation made
you see walking around you in Antigua but from the ingenuity wealthy by abusing enslaved people, the tourist chooses to
of small shopkeepers in Sheffield and Yorkshire and Lancashire, close their eyes to this truth. Recognition of the role of
or wherever; and what a great part the invention of the slavery in establishing the power of North America and
wristwatch played in it […] (isn’t that the last straw; for not only Europe would at the very least make it harder to enjoy the
did we have to suffer the unspeakableness of slavery, but the hospitality of people descended from kidnapped and
satisfaction to be had from “We made you bastards rich” is enslaved Africans brought into the colonial system for the
taken away too, and so you needn’t let that slightly funny sole purpose of making their masters wealthy.
feeling you have from time to time about exploitation,
oppression, domination develop into full-fledged unease,
discomfort; you could ruin your holiday. Overlooking the drug smuggler’s mansion is yet another
mansion, and leading up to it is the best paved road in all of
Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist Antigua—even better than the road that was paved for the
Queen’s visit in 1985 (when the Queen came, all the roads that
Related Themes: she would travel on were paved anew, so that the Queen might
have been left with the impression that riding in a car in
Related Symbols: Antigua was a pleasant experience.) In this mansion lives a
woman sophisticated people in Antigua call Evita. She is a
Page Number: 9-10 notorious woman. She’s young and beautiful and the girlfriend
of somebody very high up in the government. Evita is notorious
Explanation and Analysis because her relationship with this high government official has
On their taxi ride to the hotel, the tourist passes the old made her the owner of boutiques and property and given her a
colonial library in the Antiguan capital city, which an say in cabinet meetings, and all sorts of other privileges such a
relationship would bring a beautiful young woman.

Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist

Related Themes:
Related Themes:
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 12
Page Number: 13-14
As their taxi drives through the Antiguan capital on its way
to the resort, the tourist sees even more monuments to the The tourist finally arrives at their hotel room, where they
corruption and grift that characterize the Antiguan use the facilities and enjoy the view of the ocean that lies
government. Drug smugglers and the friends and family of outside their window. This passage offers readers a stark
powerful government ministers enjoy a lush life while reminder of just how small Antigua is. And in a small place, if
normal Antiguans suffer. The criminals’ houses that this something breaks or isn’t running well, it will affect
passage describes sit on a well-maintained modern road, everyone at some point. The tourist, as a temporary visitor
and this aligns them with the colonial authorities who to the island, can ignore its history of colonial exploitation or
formerly abused their Antiguan subjects. Living at the top of slavery, the government’s corruption, or the low standard of
a road that’s even nicer than the roads prepared for the living available to most Antiguans. But not knowing that
Queen of England, the minister’s girlfriend becomes a local, their toilet waste ends up in the ocean where they plan to
Antiguan queen. Her opulent lifestyle, made possible by swim in the morning doesn’t change the fact that the island
taking advantage of her fellow countrymen and women, lacks a functional wastewater treatment plant. The tourist’s
indicates that colonial attitudes are alive and well in ignorance offers a form of bliss—or at least the ability to
Antigua, even if they have been adopted by local avoid worry—but it doesn’t actually protect them from the
powerbrokers in the absence of the former colonial island’s conditions. And, without knowing the problem, the
authorities. tourist has no incentive to try to improve things for
themselves or others—yet again reminding readers that the
The fact that criminals enjoy roads made nice for the
tourist’s isolation from the local community contributes to
ultimate colonial authority—the Queen of
the tourist’s inability to ethically participate in the places
England—suggests the causal connection between the
they visit.
legacy of colonialism and slavery and the corruption of the
modern Antiguan government—a connection that Kincaid Superficially, Kincaid seems to try to soothe the tourist by
will explore in greater depth in later sections of the book. reminding them that the size of the oceans will dilute any
The minister’s girlfriend exploits her relative power and grossness washing off the island. But that doesn’t reduce
wealth to shift resources from fellow Antiguans to herself. readers’ sense of horror or disgust. Thus, this passage also
But the parallelism between the girlfriend and the colonial pushes back on the assumption that tourists can safely
authorities works the other way too, implying that all ignore small places can be safely ignored because of those
colonialists are to some degree criminals. places’ size. And if the thought of even minute amounts of
waste in the ocean (rightfully) horrifies readers, Kincaid
challenges them to feel the same discomfort and horror at
the ways—both big and small—in which readers’ histories
You must not wonder what exactly happened to the
entwine with the legacy of slavery and colonialism.
contents of your lavatory when you flushed it. You must
not wonder where your bathwater went when you pulled out
the stopper. You must not wonder what happened when you
brushed your teeth. Oh, it might all end up in the water you are
thinking of taking a swim in; the contents of your lavatory
might, just might, graze gently against your ankle as you wade
carefree in the water, for you see, in Antigua, there is no proper
sewage-disposal system. But the Caribbean Sea as very big and
the Atlantic Ocean is even bigger; it would amaze you to know
the number of black slaves this ocean has swallowed up.

An ugly thing, that is what you are when you become a That the native does not like the tourist is not hard to
tourist, an ugly, empty thing, a stupid thing, a piece of explain. […] Every native lives a life of overwhelming and
rubbish pausing here and there to gaze at this and taste that, crushing banality and boredom and desperation and
and it will never occur to you that the people who inhabit the depression, and every deed, good and bad, is an attempt to
place in which you have just paused cannot stand you […] They forget this. Every native would like to find a way out, every
do not like you. They do not like me! That thought never native would like a rest, every native would like a tour. But […]
actually occurs to you. Still, you feel a little uneasy. Still, you feel most natives in the world […] cannot go anywhere. They are too
a little foolish. Still, you feel a little out of place. But the banality poor […]to escape the reality of their lives; and they are too
of your own life is very real to you; it drove you to this extreme, poor to live properly in the place where they live, which is the
spending your days and nights in the company of people who very place you, the tourist, want to go—so when the natives see
despise you, people you do not like really, people you would not you, the tourist, they envy you, they envy your ability to leave
want to have as your actual neighbor. your own banality and boredom, they envy your ability to turn
their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for
yourself.
Related Themes: Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist
Related Symbols: Related Themes:
Page Number: 17-18 Related Symbols:

Explanation and Analysis Page Number: 18-19
As the tourist looks out their window, they see other
tourists on the beach, many of whom they judge to be Explanation and Analysis
physically ugly—fat and pale. But Kincaid pushes this idea In the final paragraph of the first section, Kincaid continues
farther, setting aside superficial appearances to get at what to muse on the relationship between locals and tourists. All
makes all tourists ugly: the moral emptiness of the entire tourists are locals somewhere, and all locals long to be
idea of tourism. She suggests that people leave their homes tourists. Privilege differentiates the two groups: locals with
and become tourists because they feel unfulfilled in their resources of time and money become tourists; locals
own lives. But instead of looking for—or creating—meaning without these resources remain locals. Tourists aren’t just
in their daily existence, they prefer to travel elsewhere morally vacuous because of this freedom, however; they
where they can voyeuristically enjoy the pain and suffering add insult to injury by using their freedom to
of other people. In this way, the tourist metaphorically travel—seemingly on purpose—to places where people have
becomes a piece of trash drifting on the currents of wind fewer resources and opportunities than themselves. The
and water and ruining the place where it lands. tourist thus becomes a voyeur, gaining pleasure from
The damaged infrastructure and simple lives of native observing—but not participating in—the strife and struggle
Antiguans can make the tourist appreciate their own life others experience in their inescapable daily lives. This
better; like the colonialist or the slaveholder, the tourist voyeuristic enjoyment, turning the banality and boredom of
benefits from the suffering and exploitation of others. In others, aligns directly with the legacy of slavery.
this way, the tourist becomes a direct parallel to the British The slaveholding planter derived wealth and value from the
colonialists who, Kincaid will claim in a subsequent passage, labor of enslaved people. His modern descendant, the
could only find pleasure in feeling superior to others. tourist, derives value and pleasure from the lives of the
Similarly, the tourist can only escape the pain of their small enslaved people’s descendants. Thus, in this passage,
life by comparing it to the lives of people whom they look Kincaid directly connects tourism to slavery and
down on. And indeed, in the final pages of the book, Kincaid colonialism, suggesting that tourism is a neocolonialist
confirms this connection when she brands slaveholder and activity. Tourists can enjoy themselves only insofar as they
colonialists “human rubbish.” can ignore the history of exploitation and abuse, and
Kincaid’s book aims to draw readers’ attention to this
history in an inescapable way.

Chapter 2 Quotes
equal participation in society, especially British colonial
The Barclay brothers, who started Barclays Bank, were authorities ruled the island. Thus, Black Antiguans provided
slave traders. That is how they made their money. When the capital to the bank in the form of their free labor under
English outlawed the slave trade, the Barclay brothers went slavery and then in the form of interest payments on loans
into banking. It made them even richer. It’s possible that when after emancipation. But they were not allowed, until quite
they saw how rich banking made them, they gave themselves a recently, to make money off the bank—that seems to have
good beating for opposing an end to slave trading (for surely been the provenance of its white owners, directors, and
they would have opposed that), but then again, they may have employees.
been visionaries and agitated for an end to slavery, for look at
how rich they became with their bank borrowing from (through
their savings) the descendants of the slaves and then lending
back to them. But people just a little older than I am can recite We thought these people were so ill-mannered and we
the name and the day the first black person was hired as a were so surprised by this […] We thought they were un-
cashier at this very same Barclays Bank in Antigua. Do you ever Christian-like; we thought they were small-minded; we thought
wonder why some people blow things up? they were like animals, a bit below human standards as we
understood those standards to be. We felt superior to all these
people; we thought that perhaps the English among them who
Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist behaved this way weren’t English after all, for the English were
supposed to be civilized, and this behaviour was so much like
Related Themes: that of an animal, the thing we were before the English rescued
us, that maybe they weren’t from the real England […] We felt
Page Number: 25-26
superior, for we were so much better behaved […] (Of course, I
Explanation and Analysis now see that good behaviour is the proper posture of the weak,
of children.)
In the second chapter, Jamaica Kincaid describes the
Antigua in which she grew up, with special emphasis on how
the Antigua that tourists—or, for that matter, Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker)
locals—experience today diverges from it. This entails
clearly drawing the connections between the island’s Related Themes:
history—especially as it relates to colonialism and
slavery—and its present. This passage describes how the Page Number: 29-30
Barclay Brothers, who founded the bank that served Explanation and Analysis
Antigua in Kincaid’s youth, made their money. Kincaid’s
clarity stands in direct contrast to the passage in the Describing the Antigua of her childhood, Jamaica Kincaid
economic history book she imagined her tourist bringing to lists a few examples of the types of overt racism she and
Antigua on vacation. That account ignored the key role others historically experienced, including a Czechoslovakian
slavery played in generating the wealth and power of emigree who escaped Hitler’s European genocides only to
modern European and North American countries. disparage Black Antiguans as dirty and a school
headmistress who frequently talked labeled her students
As the descendant of people who were enslaved and primitive monkeys.
subjected to colonial authority, however, Kincaid, sees this
history from a different vantage point. She Despite the obvious animus of these behaviors, however,
straightforwardly points out that the Barclays not only Kincaid claims that most Antiguans didn’t consider them
made their initial fortune from the labor of enslaved people, racist. Instead, they seem to have gone out of their way to
but they also continued to benefit from the legacy of slavery find other excuses or explanations for the abuse they
even after emancipation occurred; rather than returning suffered—and their chief reaction seems to have been
their stolen wealth, they instead loaned this wealth to their surprise. Colonial powers often claimed the right to
victims’ and their victims’ families, continuing to benefit subjugate and rule their colonies based on their allegedly
from slavery even after the British government outlawed it. superior civilization and morals. So, when the actions of the
colonial authorities and other white people failed to live up
This passage also introduces the idea of racism and white to the standards Antiguans expected from the very people
supremacy in modern Antigua, where the emancipation of who claimed a right to exploit others through their superior
formerly enslaved people did not grant Black Antiguans societies, the locals confusedly concluded that, perhaps

these rude people are the exception to the rule. Except, as against American anglophiles (people who have a
Kincaid makes painfully clear throughout the text, racism is fascination with or love for Britain and its culture). Her
the rule, not the exception. anger suggests that mostly—or only—white people can feel
It's important to note that, just before this passage, Kincaid untainted appreciation for British culture. Their privilege
criticized a British school headmistress for comparing her shields them from the trauma that non-white British
Antiguan students to primitive monkeys. Now, just a few colonial subjects have suffered. But she puts these traumas
pages later, she’s putting similar sentiments into the mouths on vivid display for readers of A Small Place, asking them to
of Antiguans who find the colonial authorities and other extrapolate from the small and specific Antiguan experience
white newcomers to the island falling short of human to the broader experience of colonial subjects everywhere.
standards. It sounds like the islanders—through Kincaid’s Despite their altruistic narrative, the British Empire
words—make the exact kind of statements that she decimated societies, deprived people of their language and
criticizes others for making. And while it’s possible that she culture, and generally abused its colonial subjects in order
means to insult and degrade people like the Czech doctor to enrich itself. Even in the present, 20th-century moment,
and British headmistress, her diatribe also arises out of a Kincaid feels this abuse as a visceral attack. She debates the
long history of justifying colonialism and slavery under the British assertion that their subjects needed to learn
guise of enlightened, civilized white people improving the language and culture, arguing that the British took away
lives of the subjects by teaching them civilized manners and their colonial subjects’ language and culture. The language
behavior. And in this context, the white outsiders fail of the criminal can never express the full damage of
repeatedly to live up to their own stated standards since criminal’s deed because the very fact that the victim must
they abuse and exploit their colonial subjects rather than use it points to the ways in the history of colonialism
help them. irreparably shapes former subjects’ modern consciousness
and life experience. Without their original language, they
lack the full autonomy of their colonizers, according to
But what I see is the millions of people, of whom I am just Kincaid’s formulation.
one, made orphans: no motherland, no fatherland, no gods,
no mounds of earth for holy ground […] and worst and most
painful of all, no tongue. (For isn’t it odd that the only language I Have you ever wondered to yourself why it is that all
have in which to speak of this crime is the language of the people like me seem to have learned from you is how to
criminal who committed the crime? And what can that really imprison and murder each other, how to govern badly, and how
mean? For the language of the criminal can contain only the to take the wealth of our country and place it in Swiss bank
goodness of the criminal’s deed. The language of the criminal accounts? Have you ever wondered why it is that all we seem to
can explain and express the deed only from the criminal’s point have learned from you is how to corrupt our societies and how
of view. It cannot contain the horror of the deed, the injustice of to be tyrants? You will have to accept that it is mostly your fault.
the deed, the agony, the humiliation inflicted upon me. Let me just show you how things looked to us. You came. You
took things that were not yours, and you did not even, for
appearances’ sake, ask first […] You murdered people. You
Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker)
imprisoned people. You robbed people. You opened your own
Related Themes: banks and put our money in them. The accounts were in your
name. The banks were in your name.
Page Number: 31-32
Explanation and Analysis Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist
Jamaica Kincaid explains how Antiguans celebrated the Related Themes:

birthday of Queen Victoria, who ruled Britain and its
colonial holdings from 1837—1901. Other British subjects Related Symbols:
traditionally celebrated the date of her death; Kincaid
exploits the fact that Antiguan celebrations gave Victoria a Page Number: 35
kind of immortality (by neglecting to acknowledge her
death) to show how the legacy of colonialism long outlives Explanation and Analysis
its active practice. From there, she launches into a diatribe By the second chapter, Kincaid no longer addresses readers

in the role of the tourist. Instead, the “you” she talks to has Page Number: 36-37
become a much more diffuse, global identity loosely
associated with white, privileged, and relatively wealthy Explanation and Analysis
citizens of the United States or wealthy European In this passage, Jamaica Kincaid continues to explain to her
countries. However, she still demands that readers open reader—portrayed as a mostly well-meaning but clueless
their eyes to the damage wrought by colonialism, slavery, white person from North America or Europe—the long
and white supremacy as the first step toward imagining a legacies of colonialism, racism, and slavery. She commits
way to heal some of the wounds that readers’ ancestors herself to this work out of a profound sense that problems
delt. This passage takes the form of a series of rhetorical can’t be addressed until they’re seen and acknowledged,
questions Kincaid poses. and a sense that people must take personal responsibility
Kincaid presents a direct counternarrative to the story of and ownership for their part in their communities and in
Western domination by cultural superiority. Colonialists history.
and enslavers left their European countries and sailed Yet, Kincaid doesn’t pull any punches, reminding readers in
around the world over the course of several centuries, using brutally clear and simple prose that, for centuries, people
their (in many cases superior) military technology to like her (mostly Black people) were forced into slavery and
overwhelm and overthrow societies and servitude for people like her readers—or at least the clearly
civilizations—especially in parts of the world with valuable white “you” she addresses throughout A Small Place. And in
natural resources. These actions belie any claims to cultural light of the horrific abuses that enslavers and colonizers
superiority that colonizers made. enacted, Kincaid would prefer to be completely uncivilized
Kincaid’s historical sweep also points toward the vast than subject to the hypocrisy and cruelty that colonial rule
disparities in wealth and power that exist in the modern and the institution of slavery wrought.
world. While white-supremacist thinking looks at political Slavery wasn’t just evil while it was happening; the
and social failures in places like Antigua and takes this as institution helped countries like the United States to
evidence for the inability of people deemed less advanced accumulate the wealth and power that still gives it a prime
(usually Black people) to take care of themselves, Kincaid position in the world order. The very foundations of
suggests that North Americans and Europeans need to look American society, most importantly its free enterprise
in the mirror instead, since the actions of their ancestors set capitalism system, grow out of the legacy of slavery and the
the model for others to follow. And once again, she uses the unpaid labor of generations of slaves. This is why, Kincaid
small example of Antigua’s history and Antigua’s fate to claims, white people shouldn’t be shocked when Black
extrapolate lessons for the broader world, since Europeans people distrust them or the systems, like capitalism, that
colonized places all around the globe over the course of they invented. It’s that the descendants of enslaved people
centuries. failed to learn the lessons of their slave masters and colonial
overlords—it’s that they learned too well that the color of
their skin and their access to wealth and power—not their
Do you know why people like me are shy about being humanity—determined their value. Kincaid thus claims that
capitalists? Well, it’s because we, for as long as we have she and the descendants of formerly enslaved people have a
known you, were capital, like bales of cotton and sacks of sugar, clearer perspective on North American and European
and you were the commanding, cruel capitalists, and the society than its own members.
memory of this is so strong, the experience so recent, that we
can’t quite bring ourselves to embrace this idea that you think
so much of. As for what we were like before we met you, I no
longer care. No periods of time over which my ancestors held
sway, no documentation of complex civilisations, is any comfort
to me. Even if I really came from people who were living like
monkeys in trees, it was better to be that than what happened
to me, what I became after I met you.
Related Themes:

Chapter 3 Quotes
relationship to colonial rule can never be fully resolved
But if you saw the old library, situated as it was, in a big, old because the answer is contrafactual: Antigua would be
wooden building painted a shade of yellow that is beautiful to better off if neither colonialism nor slavery nor racism and
people like me, with its wide verandah, its big, always open white supremacy had ever happened there. But because we
windows, its rows and rows of shelves filled with books, its cannot erase history, everyone—the descendants and
beautiful wooden tables and chairs for sitting and reading, […] benefactors of the oppressors and colonialists as well as the
the beauty of us sitting there like communicants at an altar, descendants of their victims—must grapple with the
taking in, again and again, the fairy tale of how we met you, your complicated inheritance of the past.
right to do the things you did, how beautiful you were, are, and
always will be; if you could see all of that in just one glimpse,
you would see why my heart would break at the dung heap that
now passes for a library in Antigua. (In Antigua today, most young people seem almost
illiterate. On the airwaves where they work as news
personalities, they speak English as if it were their sixth
Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist language. Once, I attended an event at carnival time called a
“Teenage Pageant.” In this event, teenagers […] paraded around
Related Themes: on a stadium stage singing pop songs […], reciting poems they
had written about slavery […], and generally making asses of
Related Symbols: themselves. What surprised me most about them was […] how
stupid they seemed, how unable they were to answer in a
Page Number: 42-43 straightforward way, and in their native tongue of English,
Explanation and Analysis simple questions about themselves. In my generation, they
would not have been allowed on the school stage, much less
Jamaica Kincaid opens the third chapter of A Small Place by before an audience in a stadium.)
asking herself whether independent, self-ruled Antigua is
better off than colonial Antigua was. This isn’t an easy
question to answer, and this passage, which describes the Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist
beauty of the old colonial library, helps to show why. Clearly,
the library meant a great deal to Kincaid, and she misses its Related Themes:
grand beauty and spiritual quietness.
Related Symbols:
Yet, as a colonial institution, the library played an important
role in British cultural indoctrination, since it housed books
Page Number: 43-44
in English that addressed the stories the British wanted told
and in ways that favored their version of history. The Explanation and Analysis
content of these stories, which Kincaid hints at when she Musing on the fate of the library, Jamaica Kincaid wonders
describes the “fairy tales” of white beauty and the moral if its young librarians cannot find books in their collection
imperative of British imperialism, helps to contribute to a because the lack of a proper library building forces them to
belief in white supremacy among the colonial authorities keep much of the collection in cardboard boxes or because
and white tourists and foreign nationals like the residents of the librarians lack a good education. This leads her to a
the Mill Reef Club. Being exposed to these stories in lengthy aside about Antiguan youths and what she sees as
childhood also may offer another piece of the puzzle when it massive faults in their knowledge and ability to express
comes to explaining why modern Antiguans passively themselves. This passage forms a part of that aside. Earlier
tolerate corruption in their government, since these stories in the book, Kincaid complained about the injustice of
taught them to be submissive to those in power. having only English—the language of her ancestors’ and her
Yet for all its faults, the colonial library offered Antiguans an oppressors—to express herself with. Yet, as A Small Place
oasis of peace and beauty on an otherwise challenging testifies, her colonial education and native intelligence
island. For this reason, the library, as both an institution and together give her a stunning command of this language,
as a symbol, illustrates the complicated nature of Kincaid’s despite its limitations. Because reading and writing form a
(and Antigua’s) relationship to colonial rule—a vexed core part of Kincaid’s self-perception and self-presentation
relationship that Kincaid never fully resolves. In part this in this book—as demonstrated by her loving tribute to the
ambiguity seems to suggest that the question of Antigua’s library—she notes the declining quality of Antiguan

education in how poorly she feels the younger generations Dismayed by the state of the library, Jamaica Kincaid tries
express themselves verbally and in writing. to use whatever small influence she has (by the time the
It’s worth noting that her critique of the teenagers and book was published, she was already a fairly well-known
twenty-somethings described in this passage come writer in America) to see if she can’t help the library
perilously close to some of the behaviors she decries in restoration project along. Several of the Mill Reef Club
colonialists elsewhere—Kincaid returns to Antigua and residents seem to share Kincaid’s conviction about the
immediately seems to set about judging the people who live importance of this project, so she tries to encourage their
there in ways that imply she knows more or better than support. But this meeting quickly reveals how thin their
they do. Throughout the book, Kincaid leverages her support for the library as a site of cultural and educational
position as an Antiguan who left the island to claim a opportunity for Antiguans really is.
narrative point of view that looks at Antigua from a critical The Mill Reef Club residents remain so wedded to their own
outside distance (the better to examine its faults) while image of Antigua (and so addicted to the power their wealth
maintaining affection and sympathy for the island and its gives them) that they would prefer to hold up the whole
people. project by insisting that the original building be restored
A generous reading of this passage sees it demonstrating than contribute funds to build a new library. And the woman
the inherent difficulty of overcoming colonialist and white with whom Kincaid talks in this passage displays the casual
supremacist thinking—even if one realizes the degree to racism that Kincaid claims as a hallmark of colonialists and
which these institutions and beliefs have wreaked havoc on their modern-day counterparts—tourists and foreign
a global scale. A less generous interpretation would see nationalists—when she refers to her adult employees as
Kincaid devolving here to a role uncomfortably close to that “girls,” patronizingly encouraging them to use the library as
of the tourist in the first chapter, who comes to Antigua if it wouldn’t occur to them otherwise.
from afar and can leave whenever they want to, yet still feel In this vignette, Kincaid dramatizes the outsider, tourist
comfortable passing judgment on the locals who lack the attitude she descried in the first chapter, which looks on the
resources or the desire to leave. Both interpretations likely dysfunctional government of a place like Antigua and
have some element of truth to them. incorrectly concludes that its chaos and disorder arise from
letting non-white people run a country. Instead, as Kincaid
maintains elsewhere in the book, political chaos and
disorder seem to be the natural result of colonialists and
I then went to see a woman whose family had helped to
enslavers occupying territories and overthrowing
establish the Mill Reef Club […] who was very active in
civilizations for their own benefit. And this white woman
getting the old library restored […] After I mentioned the
who refers to Antiguans as if they were all children doesn’t
library to her, the first thing she told me was that she always
seem aware of her own hypocrisy; when she complains that
encouraged her girls and her girls’ children to use the library,
anyone with enough money can buy influence with the
and by her girls she meant grownup Antiguan women (not
government, even “outsiders,” she clearly doesn’t count the
unlike me) who work in her gift shop as seamstresses and
influence that she, her family, and the other Mill Reef Club
saleswomen. She said to me then what everybody in Antigua
residents have exercised in Antigua.
says sooner or later: The government is for sale; anybody from
anywhere can come to Antigua and for a sum of money can get
what he wants […] I could see the pleasure she took in pointing
out to me the gutter into which a self- Countries with Ministers of Culture must be like countries
governing—black—Antigua had placed itself. with Liberty Weekend. Do you remember Liberty
Weekend? In the week before Liberty Weekend, the United
States Supreme Court ruled that ordinary grown-up people
could not do as they pleased behind the locked doors of their
Related Themes: own bedroom. I would have thought, then, that the people
whose idea it was to have the Liberty Weekend business would
have been so ashamed at such a repudiation of liberty that they
Related Symbols:
would have cancelled the whole thing. But not at all; and so in a
Page Number: 47 country that had less liberty than it used to have, Liberty
Weekend was celebrated.

Once there was a scandal about stamps issued for
Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker) Redonda. A lot of money was made on these stamps, but
no one seems to know who got the money or where the stamps
Related Themes: actually ended up. Where do all these stamps, in all their
colourfulness, where do they come from? I mean, whose idea is
Related Symbols: it? I mean, Antigua has no stamp designer on the government
payroll; there is no building that houses the dyes and the paper
Page Number: 49 on which the stamps are printed; there is no Department of
Printing. So who decides to print stamps celebrating the Queen
of England’s birthday? Who decides to celebrate Mickey
After trying and failing to receive support from the Mill Reef Mouse’s birthday? Who decides that stamps from this part of
Club residents, Jamaica Kincaid briefly considers making a the world should be colourful and bright and not sedate and
case for the library to the Minister of Culture. She can’t subdued, like, say, a stamp from Canada?
because he’s abroad—and she doesn’t believe he would help
out anyway. Given that the Minister of Culture largely
seems concerned with sports and that most of Antiguan Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker)
culture seems to derive from the tutelage of British
colonizers, Kincaid thus concludes that the only reason Related Themes:
Antigua has Minister of Culture is to give outsiders the
impression that Antigua has a culture to begin with. At this Related Symbols:
point, in an aside that includes this passage, she makes a
rare break from her focus on Antigua to turn her eye to Page Number: 51-52
corruption in the United States. Explanation and Analysis
Making the case that hypocrisy, corruption, and While considering her plan to speak to the Minister of
government overreach aren’t a problem only in so-called Culture about the library restoration project, Jamaica
“developing” nations but also in the wealthiest and most Kincaid concludes that she’s better off leaving him alone;
powerful countries, she calls attention to Liberty Weekend her mother once picked on him for his involvement with the
and a 1986 Supreme Court ruling (Bowers v. Hardwick) Redondan stamp scheme. This draws Kincaid into an aside
that denied same-sex couples the right to private, about these stamps and the island of Redonda itself, from
consensual sex. The “Liberty Weekend” Kincaid describes which this passage comes.
was a multi-day celebration in 1986, on the hundredth
In general, this passage considers the ridiculousness of life
anniversary of dedication of the Statue of Liberty. Yet, at the
for people under colonial authority, in large part because
same time the American government professed its
people who lived very far away didn’t fully understand the
dedication to the principles of liberty and democracy with a
situation were making decisions about colonial subjects’
flashy public spectacle, its government denied freedoms to
lives. These distances—for example, the more than 4,000
its citizens. Thus, Kincaid equates the Antiguan
miles of ocean between Antigua and England—foster
government’s insistence that they have a culture despite
insufficient understanding of or concern for local needs.
evidence to the contrary with the American government’s
And this lack of concern leads to islands being lumped
insistence that it has liberty and justice for its citizens even
together into awkward countries (in the colonial past) and
at times when it denied rights to large swaths of its
to stamps being issued for uninhabited islands (in the
population.
present).
In addition, the distance destroys transparency for current
and former colonial subjects. Just as no one in Antigua
seems to have been consulted about including Redonda and
Barbuda in the nation, so too does someone make the
decision to design, print, and issue stamps without seeming
to consult any of the locals. And this aligns with a general
lack of concern on the part of colonial authorities for the
needs, concerns, or culture of their subjects. The colonizers
set the agenda and decide the national holidays—which
always reflect the culture, history, and even aesthetics of

the colonizers and their friends rather than the aesthetics, this may be a protective gesture, since it shields Antiguans
culture, or history of their subjects. from the traumatic histories of enslavement and
colonialism. But, Kincaid insists, this long-term failure to
look at history has serious consequences—most
importantly, Antiguans’ failure to see the through lines
The people in a small place cannot give an exact account, a
complete account, of themselves. This cannot be held between the events of the past and the corruptions of the
against them; an exact account, a complete account, of present.
anything, anywhere, is not possible. (The hour in the day, the
day of the year some ships set sail is a small, small detail in any
picture, any story; but the picture itself, the story itself depend [A]n institution that is often celebrated in Antigua is the
on things that can never, ever be pinned down.) The people in a Hotel Training School, a school that teaches Antiguans
small place can have no interest in the exact, or in how to be good servants, how to be a good nobody, which is
completeness, for that would demand a careful weighing, what a servant is. In Antigua, people cannot see a relationship
careful consideration, careful judging, careful questioning. It between their obsession with slavery and emancipation and
would demand the invention of a silence, inside of which these their celebration of the Hotel Training School [… or] between
things could be done. It would demand a reconsideration, an their obsession with slavery and emancipation and the fact that
adjustment in the way they understand the existence of Time. they are governed by corrupt men, or that these corrupt men
To the people in a small place, the division of Time into the Past, have given their country away to corrupt foreigners […]. In
the Present, and the Future does not exist. accounts of the capture and enslavement of black people
almost no slave ever mentions who captured and delivered him
or her to the European master. In accounts of their corrupt
government, Antiguans neglect to say that in twenty years of
Related Themes: one form of self-government or another, they have, with one
five-year exception, placed power in the present government.
Related Symbols:
Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The
Page Number: 52-53 Tourist, Vere Cornwall Bird
Explanation and Analysis Related Themes:
In A Small Place, Jamaica Kincaid examines the history of
Antigua as a means of understanding its current situation Related Symbols:
and attempting to answer the question of whether Antigua
was better off under colonial rule than as an independent, Page Number: 55-56
self-governed nation. The relationship of Antiguans to time
and history forms the crux of both questions. This passage Explanation and Analysis
offers Kincaid’s best understanding of what keeps Having posited her thesis that modern Antiguans, trapped
Antiguans stuck in cycles of corruption and poverty. Some in a small place with a traumatic history, cannot fully
of this lies outside of their control: as Kincaid says, it’s contextualize themselves either in history or in the world,
pretty much impossible for finite and fallible humans to give Kincaid proceeds to offer some examples to support this
a full explanation of anything. And a history of enslavement claim. This passage examines one example—the Hotel
and colonial oppression further disadvantages Antiguans Training School. In the colonial past and the years before the
when it comes to contextualizing their history. After all, so British formally outlawed the slave trade (otherwise known
many of the individual stories and histories of the enslaved as emancipation), colonial authorities, traders, and
people kidnapped and forced to labor in colonies like sugarcane planters enslaved the ancestors of modern
Antigua have been lost in the sheer, oceanic scale of the Antiguans. And, as Kincaid points out elsewhere, modern
Transatlantic Slave Trade. This comingling of lives and Antiguans rightly speak of this exploitation with horror and
stories, Kincaid suggests, makes it harder to grasp the full celebrate the granting of their freedom.
picture. Yet, despite their horror of slavery, modern Antiguans seem
Yet, Kincaid also charges her fellow Antiguans with a failure incapable, at least in Kincaid’s eyes, of connecting the
to create the space to carefully assess their past. In part, historical institution of slavery—in which Black Antiguans

were forced to provide free labor to ease the lives of white against corruption in their country share the culpability.
people who came to the island from faraway places—with Moreover, as she points out, offshore banking represents
the modern tourism industry, in which Black Antiguans yet another model that Antiguans borrow directly from
provide undervalued and underpaid labor to ease the lives western European countries—the same countries that have
of (predominantly white) tourists who come to the island oppressed and abused them and their ancestors for
from faraway places. While the Hotel Training School centuries. She insinuates that Europeans who profit off the
certainly lacks the coercion and horror of slavery, other bad actions of others become complicit in those bad actions
vignettes in the book have clearly shown how the attitudes by association. If the Swiss have a high and desirable
that support slavery (that Black people are less intelligent standard of living but that standard of living comes at the
or more childlike than white people) persist among the cost of crimes perpetrated against the vulnerable in other
tourists and outsiders whom graduates of the Hotel parts of the world (the citizens of the corrupt dictators, for
Training School prepare to care for. instance), then their standard of living isn’t worth it in a
moral sense.
These offshore banks are popular in the West Indies. Only

tourism itself is more important. Every government wants The papers of the slave-trading family from Barbuda (the
these banks, which are modelled on the banks in Switzerland. I Condringtons), the records of their traffic in human lives,
have a friend who just came back from Switzerland. What a were being auctioned. The government of Antigua made a bid
wonderful time she had. She had never seen cleaner streets for them. Someone else made a larger bid. He was the
anywhere, or more wonderful people anywhere. She was in foreigner. His bid was the successful bid. He then made a gift of
such a rhapsodic state about the Swiss, and the superior life these papers to the people of Antigua. And what does it mean?
they lead, that it was hard for me not to bring up how they must The records of one set of enemies, bought by another enemy,
pay for this superior life they lead. For […] not a day goes by given to the people who have been their victims as a gift.
that I don’t hear about […] some dictator, […] some criminal
kingpin who has a secret Swiss bank account. But maybe there
is no connection between the wonderful life that the Swiss lead Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist
and the ill-gotten money resting in Swiss bank vaults; maybe it’s
just a coincidence. Related Themes:
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 67-68
Related Themes:
Related Symbols: The Condrington family, who arrived soon after the British
founded their colony in Antigua and who founded the first
Page Number: 59-60 British settlement on the nearby island of Barbuda, are an
important (if painful) part of Antiguan history. Kincaid has
claimed elsewhere that modern Antiguans’ poor grasp of
As Kincaid lists a cornucopia of Antiguan government how their lives fit into broader historical narratives
ministers’ abuses of power and unethical practices, she contributes to their ongoing disenfranchisement and abuse
arrives at offshore banking. This problematic practice—in at the hands of tourists, outside investors, and even their
which people store money in countries other than the one own independent government, and so it would seem to be
they live in, usually to avoid local regulations or of utmost importance that Antigua possess the
taxes—tends to attract money from bad actors like criminals Condringtons’ papers. The papers, after all, provide an
and corrupt politicians. Thus, while offshore banking (like important source of historical contextualization. And while
tourism) brings much-needed money into the Antiguan the government does try to buy these papers, outsider
economy, Kincaid suggests that the moral liability isn’t outbids them and then presents them the papers as a gift.
worth the economic reward. Even if most of the benefits
Although this outsider gives the papers to the Antiguan
flow to well-connected government ministers and wealthy
government, Kincaid asks readers to think about what his
bankers, normal Antiguans who refuse to take a stand

motives may have been—this is the thrust of her questions of their situations, at least in minor ways. But the abuse that
about what this odd circumstance “means.” And it seems Prime Minister Bird and his government have perpetrated
that self-interest primarily motivates him—things he wishes is on such a vast scale that one can only understand it by
to do or the influence he wishes to have in Antigua. In this looking at historical precedents.
way, he sounds a lot like the colonialists (and people like the Perhaps more importantly for Kincaid’s primarily white,
Condringtons) who covered their selfish exploitation of North American and European audience, powerful
other people and faraway lands in the language of helping, countries like the United States aid and abet the situation in
civilizing, or improving people they considered less civilized Antigua by supporting corrupt government ministers. In
or less human. other words, places like the United States, while prone to
judging harshly the Antiguans’ evident failure of self-
governance, simultaneously enable the very corruption they
The people who go into running the government were not criticize by enabling crooked government ministers to
always such big thieves; nor have they always been so thrive. And notably, the government ministers’ possession
corrupt. They took things, but it was on a small scale. For of green cards—and their tendency to flee to America to
instance, if the government built some new housing to be sold access services like healthcare or to escape accountability
to people, then a minister or two would get a few of the houses for their actions at home—aligns government ministers far
for themselves […] Everybody knew about this. Some of the more closely with the isolated and morally corrupt tourists
ministers were honest. One of them, a famous one in Antigua, a than with the rest of the Antiguan population.
leader of the Trade and Labour Union movement, even died a
pauper. Another minister, when his party lost power, had to
drive a taxi. It is he, the taxi-driving ex-minister who taught the And so they anchor the merchant-importer’s books being
other ministers a lesson […] All the ministers have “green burned to the event of the original, honest leaders of the
cards”—a document that makes them legal residents of the Antigua Trades and Labour Union being maneuvered out of the
United States of America. union they founded and dishonest people taking their place;
and they anchor that to the decline of one sort of colonialism
Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The and its debasement and its own sort of corruption; and they
Tourist, Vere Cornwall Bird anchor that to this man, this Prime Minister, who from time to
time had seemed like a good man, so well could he spell out the
Related Themes: predicament that average Antiguans found themselves in.
Related Symbols: Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), Vere

Cornwall Bird
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis Related Themes:
Jamaica Kincaid has spent much of this chapter detailing the

Related Symbols:
corruption that infects the modern Antiguan government.
To address the (unhelpful and frequently demeaning) Page Number: 71
contention that outside observers have offered—that this
state of affairs seems to offer proof that Antiguans (and, by Explanation and Analysis
implication, Black people and former colonial subjects While Jamaica Kincaid places much of the responsibility for
generally) cannot govern themselves—Kincaid carefully the broken system of government in Antigua—and, by
traced the connections between the actions of colonialists extension, other former colonies—on the exploitative and
and slaveholders in the past with Antigua’s current morally corrupt institutions of colonialism and slavery, she
situation. doesn’t let her fellow Antiguans completely off the hook,
In this passage, she offers some proof that corruption and either. While claiming that their inability to contextualize
chaos aren’t necessarily the natural state of affairs in the their country and its history may render them more prone
Antiguan government. Of course, humans being what they to exploitation, Kincaid also tries to break through their
are, Antiguan government ministers and other powerful sense of apathy and victimhood by showing the ways in
people on the island have always sought to take advantage which they have become complicit in the political mess.

The prime example that Kincaid offers is Antiguans’ ongoing who live in the places they visit is a sign of the tourist’s
support—or at least tolerance—of Vere Cromwell Bird, privilege. Tourists have resources that allow them to travel,
longtime Prime Minister of Antigua. This passage shows and so they choose to make their lives feel more tolerable
how he came to power through underhanded means. by voyeuristically consuming the lives of trapped locals.
Nevertheless, Antiguans elected him and have kept him in And, lest readers forget, Kincaid invokes the ways in which
office for decades. Kincaid claims that Antiguans tell the timelessness and changelessness of Antigua forces its
themselves a story about how somehow bad people inhabitants to exist in a kind of timeless stasis outside of
corrupted a good institution as a way to avoid responsibility history. Unfortunately, this doesn’t exempt Antiguans from
for their role in that corruption. And then, by linking this the historical currents that have washed over their island;
corruption to the evil of colonialism, they suggest a sort of instead, it traps them in a state where the historical
inevitability to the current state of affairs that allows them institutions of colonialism and slavery continue to exercise
to complain but not fix things. In this context, Kincaid offers powerful influence over current affairs. And by reminding
A Small Place to her fellow Antiguans as a mirror that she readers of Antigua’s smallness, Kincaid invites them one last
hopes will break through their shallow and timeless sense of time to think about how the example of Antigua illuminates
victimization and allow them to regain the agency they were broader global trends.
denied for so many centuries.
Kincaid also reminds readers that one of the things that
makes it hard for tourists to maintain their sense of ethics
and morality—to avoid taking advantage of the people who
Chapter 4 Quotes
live in the places they visit—is precisely the temporary
Antigua is too beautiful. Sometimes the beauty of it seems nature of their stay. A temporary visitor may find Antigua
unreal. Sometimes the beauty of it seems as if it sets a stage for almost too beautiful and strange to be real, but this
a play, for no real sunset could look like that; no real seawater unreality will fade as soon as they leave. In contrast, most
could strike that many shades of blue at once; no real sky could Antiguans are too poor to leave the island and don’t have
be that shade of blue […] and no real cloud could be that white this option. They instead must grapple with the facts of their
and float just that way in the sky […] And what might it do to history and the related corruption of their current
ordinary people to live in this way every day? What might it do situation—if they don’t, they have no other options, for they
to them to live in such heightened, intense surroundings day have no places they can go to temporarily feel better about
after day? They have nothing to compare this incredible their constrained lives.
constant with, no big historical moment to compare the way
they are now with the way they used to be […] Nothing, then,
natural or unnatural, to leave a mark on their character. It is just
([A]ll masters of every stripe are rubbish, and all slaves of
a little island.
every stripe are noble and exalted; there can be no
question about this) to satisfy their desire for wealth and
Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist power […]. Eventually, the masters left in a kind of way;
eventually, the slaves were freed, in a kind of way. The people in
Related Themes: Antigua now, the people who really think of themselves as
Antiguans […] are descendants of those noble and exalted
Related Symbols: people, the slaves. Of course, the whole thing is, once you cease
to be a master, once you throw off your master’s yoke, you are
Page Number: 79-80 no longer human rubbish, you are just a human being, and all
the things that adds up to. Once they are no longer slaves, once
they are free, they are no longer noble and exalted; they are
As the book nears an end, Jamaica Kincaid muses on the just human beings.
beauty of her island homeland. This passage explores the
possibility that the very beauty and uniqueness of Antigua
contributes to its exploitation; if the place seems too Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist
beautiful to be real, then it’s easy to see how visitors
Related Themes:
wouldn’t fully recognize the humanity of the people who live
there. But Kincaid reminds readers that the tourist’s
inability to recognize and value the humanity in the people Related Symbols:

Page Number: 80-81 tourists Kincaid criticizes throughout the book—have the
capacity to move through the world taking responsibility for
Explanation and Analysis the legacy of their ancestors and making better choices for
Jamaica Kincaid closes A Small Place with a fast and furious themselves.
survey and summation of Antiguan history, beginning when But, yet again, the same logic applies to the descendants of
Christopher Columbus charted the island for his European enslaved Antiguans. Despite the fact that the long legacies
patrons in 1943. Shortly thereafter, the British founded a of colonialism and slavery continue to have an outsized
colony in Antigua with the explicit purpose of profiting from effect on modern Antigua, Kincaid doesn’t let her fellow
the slave trade and the sugarcane cultivation made possible Antiguans avoid responsibility for the state of their country.
by exploiting the labor of enslaved people. Kincaid takes the When Antiguans were emancipated, they became
immoral depravity of the slaveholders—“human rubbish”—as responsible for their own fate. The helplessness and
a given. And if slaveholders are wicked by definition, then passivity they adopted as survival techniques in the context
this same logic would suggest that slaveholders’ victims are of slavery no longer serve them, even though they cling to
inherently noble. these patterns of behavior. Just as the example of Antigua
Kincaid’s narrative serves to restore a sense of humanity to transcends the local, pointing to global histories and
the enslaved people while also criticizing their masters—in patterns, the exemplary groups of “masters” and “slaves”
the past. But time passes on. In the present moment, the dissolve into individuals, each responsible for looking at the
former colonizers and enslavers have assumed a new world, taking history into account, and forging their own
humanity; this suggests that their descendants—even the path forward.

SUMMARY AND ANAL

ANALYSIS
YSIS
The color-coded icons under each analysis entry make it easy to track where the themes occur most prominently throughout the
work. Each icon corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.
CHAPTER 1
The book addresses the reader directly, casting them as a The book spends a lot of time considering the moral emptiness of
tourist and describing an imaginary trip to Antigua. As the the tourism industry, so it’s disconcerting for readers to be cast into
tourist, you arrive at an airport named after the Antiguan Prime the role of “the tourist” in the first section. The contrast between the
Minister at the time of the book’s publication, Vere Cornwall tourist’s freedom to travel and hints about the rot and corruption
Bird. You might feel surprised that he would choose to put his that characterize the island’s political system creates a distinct
name on an airport instead of a school or hospital, but only sense of unease.
because you haven’t yet seen the state of Antiguan schools,
hospitals, or other public services.
From the air, you, the tourist, might consider Antigua beautiful. The dry, warm climate that makes Antigua attractive to tourists
Tourists like you chose to come here from Europe or America makes it inhospitable for residents. The moral bankruptcy of
to enjoy the sunshine, since it hardly ever rains. You will leave tourism arises in part from the fact that tourists stay in a place for
soon, so you don’t worry about what it might be like to live here such a short time that they can ignore (or not realize) the difficulties
permanently, in a land surrounded by oceans yet parched for a place’s climate, politics, or history creates for its inhabitants.
useable fresh water, because it almost never rains.
When the plane lands, you, the tourist, disembark. You pass As the tourist takes a taxi to the resort, the book draws a
through customs seamlessly, unlike the native Antiguans comparison between the ways that white colonizers and
returning from abroad with boxes of cheap clothes to give to slaveowners took advantage of Black people in the past and the
their relatives. As you step outside, you feel cleansed and ways that modern white tourists continue to extract an unfair
purified by the hot, dry air. You hail a taxi to take you to your bargain from Black workers in the tourism industry. The contrast
hotel, and when he quotes a ridiculously high price, you show between the terrible roads and the fancy Japanese cars points
your travel savvy by asking for the official price list and refusing toward the corruption and rot that characterize the government
to pay a cent more. On the ride to your hotel, you notice the and its officers. And the privileges accorded to white travelers over
difference between the terrible state of the road, the taxi Black citizens show how white supremacy continues to operate in
driver’s erratic and dangerous driving, and the taxi itself—a Antigua despite its independence from its former colonizers.
new, high-end Japanese car. Its engine makes a terrible noise,
however; despite being designed for unleaded fuel, only leaded
gasoline is available on Antigua.
In fact, most of the cars are new and expensive, although their Pretty much everything the tourist encounters on the taxi ride
engines make a terrible grinding sound. You, the tourist, don’t points toward the rot and corruption of the government, which
realize that the government makes loans for cars accessible seems to exist more to improve the lives of government ministers at
because government ministers own most of the island’s car the expense of normal Antiguans. The tourist’s focus on escaping
dealerships. And it won’t occur to you to wonder about this, their mundane life blinds them to the implications of the strange
really, because you are on holiday. You drive past what looks juxtapositions they notice, such as nice cars with bad engines or
like a public bathroom, only to notice a sign identifying it as a schools that look like outhouses. The tourist’s ignorance and lack of
school; you drive thoughtlessly past the hospital. You should concern recalls colonizers’ callous attitude toward their subjects
know that Antiguans don’t trust the hospital and avoid it at and highlights the ugly selfishness of tourism.
nearly all costs; those who can afford to travel to the United
States for healthcare—including the Minister of Health and
almost all other government officials—do so. But you don’t.
©2023 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 21

Luckily, you, the tourist, brought your own books to read, since The fact that enriching themselves takes higher priority than
an earthquake—referred to by native Antiguans including repairing the library points toward Antiguan government ministers’
Jamaica Kincaid as “The Earthquake”—hit in 1974, destroying corruption. But the tourist ignores this truth and instead observes a
the splendid, graceful, colonial library that used to grace the quaint and less-civilized approach to time among the island’s
Antiguan capital. Soon afterward, someone put up a sign natives that drips with racist condescension. Notably, at this point
promising repair. But you pass it nearly a decade later and no Jamaica Kincaid’s narrative voice first identifies itself as an
repairs have been made. The sign seems quaint to you, as if the Antiguan native—asserting its separation from the tourist/reader.
islanders can’t distinguish between 12 minutes, 12 days, and
12 years.
Soon after “The Earthquake,” Antigua gained independence The destruction of the library—a colonial icon—reminds readers
from Great Britain. A national holiday marks the date, during that the island has achieved independence from its former masters.
which Antiguans go to church and thank a British God for this Yet, the failure of the independent government to repair an
blessing. But you, the tourist, should not worry about this irony important cultural and educational institution lays the foundation
or the permanently damaged library. You have your own books for Kincaid’s later argument that some of its failures are worse than
to read, including an economic history describing how the West its fate under colonialism. The fact that the loss of the library
got rich by economic ingenuity and inventing wristwatches, not doesn’t affect the tourist negatively reminds readers that traveling
by exploiting the free and undervalued labor of enslaved and through but remaining unaffected by a place’s troubles makes
marginalized people. You shouldn’t ruin your holiday by letting tourists morally bankrupt and ugly. Finally, the book that Kincaid
any uncomfortable feelings about oppression or exploitation imagines the tourist reading shows how white supremacist beliefs
blossom now. gloss over the fact that the societies in the global north—North
American and Europe—benefitted from colonialism and slavery but
fail to acknowledge or atone for this. As such, Antigua stands as a
representative example for all former colonies, colonial subjects, and
enslaved people.
As you, the tourist, pass the Government House, the Prime Colonialism and white supremacy have many points of connection.
Minister’s Office, the Parliament Building, and the American The tourist’s pride in their culture’s contribution to Antiguan society,
Embassy, you feel some pride for your people’s role in helping like democracy, overlooks the island’s brutal history of slavery and
the Antiguans achieve these modern institutions. Then you oppression. Like the streets improved for the Queen’s visit, these
pass mansions belonging to immigrants who have enriched “benefits” are all too often superficial and incomplete. The
themselves by leasing property to the government, drug slaveholders and colonialism of the past have a modern counterpart
smugglers, and the mistresses of government officials. You in foreigners who use their superior monetary wealth to come from
notice that the roads improve in this part of town; the the outside and gain control over aspects of Antiguan society and
government repaved them for Queen of England’s 1985 visit. politics.
By now you, the tourist, feel tired and anxious to get to your The natural beauty that makes Antigua attractive to tourists
hotel. Through the windows in your room, you can see the contrasts sharply with the decay and corruption the tourist
breathtakingly blue waters of the ocean, the soft white sand of observed on their way to the hotel. Yet this decay remains
the beaches, and the fat, pastry-fleshed tourists walking there. inescapable: the rot and corruption remain even if the tourist
You imagine the rest of your vacation: basking in the sun, cannot or will not see the sewage in the seawater. Looking out the
walking on the beach, meeting new people, and eating delicious window at the resort beaches also forces the tourist (and readers) to
local foods. Just don’t think about where the sewage confront the ugliness of the tourism industry. It requires massive
wastewater goes. Antigua lacks a functioning sewage-disposal resources (for example, importing delicious foods from elsewhere)
system other than the vastness of the Caribbean Sea and the that benefit only a few people.
Atlantic Ocean. And don’t think about how the delicious “local”
food mostly comes from the United States via plane.

You, the tourist, may suspect that tourists are ugly. It’s true; At this point, the book states one of its main claims: the corruption
they are. This doesn’t mean you’re always ugly. In your normal, and moral emptiness of tourism makes tourists into ugly people.
day-to-day life, you are nice, appreciated, loved, and others While the narrative voice of the book, Jamaica Kincaid, draws this
think you’re important. You feel comfortable in your own skin, conclusion, she forces readers to reckon with it by casting it as the
you enjoy your house with its nice backyard, and you tourist’s—and readers’—realization. Several things contribute to the
participate in your local communities. But being ordinary in this tourist’s ugliness, including white supremacy (which causes the
way requires great effort, so when a feeling of displacement white tourist to believe that their privilege comes not from their
comes over you, you can’t look into yourself to discover its ancestors’ oppressing and enslaving Black people but from their
source. Instead, you decide to escape to another place where natural superiority), a lack of connection to the local community,
you can lie on a warm beach, marveling at the colorful, exotic, and the voyeuristic enjoyment of quaint—by implication, inferior if
and ingenious practices of people living in some distant place. not backward—local practices.
And there, you become ugly when you consider these people
inferior because their ancestors weren’t as clever as yours.
On some level, you, the tourist, realize that the people who live Tourists exist outside the bounds of community relationships. This
in this place where you come to visit don’t like you. It becomes sense of freedom makes travel attractive to the tourist. But it also
so exhausting to have to figure out whether the things they tell renders tourists untrustworthy in the eyes of locals, who remain
you are true or lies that you will need to recover from your stint bound to their local context. And because tourism requires privilege
as a tourist when you get home. But it is easy to understand in the form of excesses financial and time resources, it reinforces the
why natives hate tourists: the life of a native is banal and disparity between the largely impoverished and stuck native
boring. Everyone would like to escape it. But the natives of Antiguans (who descend from enslaved people and colonial
most parts of the world lack the resources necessary to do so; subjects) and tourists (who mostly descend from the enslavers and
too poor to live properly in their native country and too poor to colonizers).
escape it, they envy you, the tourist, for your ability to leave
and for deriving pleasure and diversion from their banal,
inescapable lives.
CHAPTER 2
Jamaica Kincaid grew up in an Antigua that no longer exists, so Kincaid grew up under colonial rule—Antigua achieved
you, the tourist, wouldn’t recognize it. In part, the changes arise independence from Britain in a peaceful transfer of power in 1981.
from the passage of time, but they also result from the specific To former colonial subjects like Kincaid, colonialism telegraphs
event of Antiguan independence from Great Britain. Kincaid colonialists’ moral vacancy to the rest of the world. The fact that the
sees the English, who used to rule Antigua, as a “pitiful lot” English—former colonizers of not just Antigua but many parts of the
because they don’t seem to understand the grave immorality of world—don’t understand their colonial project as inherently
their imperial project. Instead of repenting it, they fret about immoral and still seem surprised that the people they formerly
what went wrong for them. Any formerly colonized person oppressed remain upset over the oppression points to their sense of
could explain that the error lay in leaving England. And their racial and cultural superiority.
pain comes from the irony that they chose to leave England but
tried to make the rest of the world English. It seems only having
a sense of superiority over others gives the English any
happiness.

Kincaid describes the thoroughly colonial Antigua of her Kincaid identifies Horatio Nelson—a naval officer known as a hero
childhood: she lived on a street named after “English maritime in England for his service during the late 18th- and early 19th-
criminal” Horatio Nelson in a neighborhood where all the century Napoleonic Wars between England and France—as a
streets were named after English naval officers. Government maritime criminal because in his early career, he acted as a
House, where the Queen’s representative lived, stood behind a privateer. Essentially ordered by the crown to capture and loot the
high white wall that no one dared to deface with graffiti. vessels of the British Empire’s enemies (often, rival colonial powers
like the Spanish and French), Nelson became rich on others’
suffering. And, as a friend of many colonial planters and traders
living in Antigua in the 18th century, he espoused pro-slavery views.
The different perspectives from which the former colonial subjects
and British people view figures like Nelson betray a nearly
unbridgeable gulf between the two groups. And Antiguans’ inability
to even imagine making a statement against the colonial powers
suggests the degree to which their history of colonial subjugation
and forced servitude has deprived generations of Antiguans of
political autonomy and empowerment.
High Street housed the library, treasury, post office, the court Under colonial rule, Antigua ran like a tiny replica of England;
where local magistrates applied British Law, and Barclays Bank. English law and custom held sway over any other customs or forms
The Barclay brothers were slave traders who turned to banking of government that native Antiguans might have claimed. Although
when England outlawed slavery. They grew their fortune by by the time Kincaid was born slavery had long since been outlawed,
lending money to the descendants of the people they enslaved. its long legacy persists in the generational wealth it provided people
It feels unfair to Kincaid that both the Barclay brothers and like the Barclay brothers and the institutions they founded.
their victims died without any justice being served for the
brothers’ abuses; in her mind, eternal punishment or reward
cannot sufficiently balance the scales.
The Mill Reef Club also represents the Antigua of Kincaid’s The Mill Reef Club operates almost like a colony within colonial
childhood. North Americans founded the members-only, Antigua, a place made to insulate white tourists from Black
invitation-only club because they wanted to live in Antigua but Antiguans. The Mill Reef Club shows how tourism functions as a
keep themselves apart from the locals. Antiguans (in other form of neocolonial exploitation. Black Antiguans provide the
words, Black people) could only go there to work as servants. necessary labor to make it comfortable, but the Mill Reef Club’s
Club members made it so hard for native Antiguans to enter founders barred from using the place’s amenities for many years.
that practically everyone remembers the date and identity of The fact that small events—a person playing a round of golf or
the first Black person to eat at the clubhouse or play a round on eating a sandwich—become momentous points toward the
the golf course. As a child, Kincaid and the people around her stranglehold that colonial attitudes and racism had (and still have)
considered Mill Reef Club residents unmannered pigs, on Antigua.
strangers who refused to acknowledge the humanity of their
hosts even while occupying part of their home (Antigua itself).

In Kincaid’s mind, the kinds of people the Mill Reef Club Kincaid’s tone, as she coolly discusses examples of overt racism,
represents seemed to enjoy behaving in inhuman ways. She suggests the commonplace nature of events like these, implying that
remembers a Czechoslovakian refugee who fled to Antigua racism and colonial superiority went unquestioned. Notably, the
from Europe to escape Hitler. Although he was just a dentist, he school’s headmistress comes from Northern Ireland—not only
set himself up as a doctor on the island. He would make his wife another colony of Britain, but also one of its earliest and most
inspect any patients to make sure that they were clean enough enduring. Still, the headmistress has a sense of superiority based on
to enter his presence for exams. Kincaid’s mother innocently of her British citizenship and her white skin. The fact that local
assumed that this “doctor” feared germs, just like she did. Antiguans interpret gross acts of racism as poor manners points
Similarly, a Northern Irish headmistress sent by the colonial toward the gap between the colonialists’ claims to cultural
authorities to run a local girls’ school constantly characterized superiority and their actions. And it suggests the degree to which
her students as “monkeys just out of trees.” Local Antiguans generations of oppression taught Antiguans to passively accept
interpreted these as examples of shockingly bad manners, being victims of abuse and exploitation.
betraying outsiders as small-minded, un-Christian, or
animalistic. The word racism never occurred to them. In fact,
the Antiguans felt superior to these allegedly civilized
outsiders.
Kincaid remembers celebrating Queen Victoria’s birthday as a Kincaid’s negative attitude toward Great Britain (as a former
national holiday. She (and others) appreciated the holiday and colonial subject) puts her at odds not only with British people but
never questioned why they continued to celebrate an also with a surprising number of the Americans among whom she
“extremely unappealing person” who had been dead for lives. She suggests that only people personally unaffected by racism
decades. Later in her life, Kincaid mentioned this celebration to and oppression can unquestioningly appreciate British heritage. By
an Englishman, who replied that his school celebrated the day extension, she implies that if readers find themselves among the
that she died. Kincaid bitterly replied that at least they knew appreciators of British culture, they need to pay more attention to
she had died. These kinds of memories inspire anger in Kincaid history. This kind of appreciation can only grow from willful
when she hears North Americans waxing lyrical about how blindness to the pain and suffering the British colonial project
they love England and its beautiful traditions. They don’t see caused worldwide—of which Antigua provides just one small
the millions of people the British made into orphans by stealing example.
their motherland, traditions, religion, and language and
replacing them with English rule, traditions, religion, and
language.
The imposition of English—the language of the Kincaid considers the loss of a native language the most harrowing
oppressor—particularly bothers Kincaid. The criminal’s of all the abuses perpetrated by British colonizers. Because she can
language inherently privileges the criminal and silences the only critique the colonial project in the exact same language and
agony and humiliation the criminal inflicts on victims. If she terms with which others praise it, her words have little power. And
calls something “wrong” or “bad,” the criminal hears his own expressing pro- and anti-colonial or pro- and anti-slavery arguments
concerns, not hers. Therefore, he cannot understand why she in identical language creates a false sense of equivalence between
feels such rage or why he gets angry when she tries to make his the stories of the oppressors and the stories of the oppressed.
life uncomfortable. She does this because nothing can erase the
rage she feels except the impossible—somehow preventing
what happened from happening.

Kincaid learned to speak English at a school that an English The fact that the native Antiguans couldn’t imagine racism
princess dedicated. Later, she learned that the royal family animating the abuses and oppression they experienced suggests
dispatched this princess on a tour that included Antigua to get how deeply they had internalized colonial belief systems about their
over a failed romance. The contrast between this mundane, cultural, political, and social inferiority to their colonial rulers. This
everyday heartbreak and the lengths Antigua went to to disconnect arises from their willingness to take the British at their
entertain the princess—repairing and repainting buildings, word—to believe that the colonialists possessed a better form of
making public beaches private—shows how the Antigua of government or more advanced cultural standards. But taking the
Kincaid’s childhood revolved entirely around England. Kincaid British at their word only highlights the extent to which lies about
anticipates criticism of her argument—all these terrible things cultural superiority support colonial power.
happened long ago; her ancestors would have done the same if
they’d had the opportunity; everyone behaves badly. But she
points out how the Antiguans couldn’t understand this kind of
behavior. They refused to see racism where they could blame
bad manners.
Kincaid asks the reader if they have wondered where people In the closing lines of the second section, Kincaid directly attacks
like her—formerly colonized and enslaved people—learned to the hypocrisy underlying colonialism, slavery, and white supremacy.
murder, steal, and govern poorly. Their oppressors taught them Believing in the superiority and advanced state of their culture,
these lessons by coming and taking what they wanted without white outsiders from North America and Europe tend to look down
even pretending to ask politely first. They murdered those who on places like Antigua, taking their corrupt governments and low
stood up to them. They put stolen wealth into their own bank standards of living as proof that formerly colonized people cannot
accounts. Only after their victims resort to enough violence do govern themselves. That’s why, according to this line of thinking,
they pull up stakes and leave. And then, from afar, they watch Antiguans were liable to colonization or enslavement in the first
the dysfunction of the government returned to its own citizens place. Kincaid exposes the lie at the heart of this argument.
and take this as proof that formerly colonized and oppressed Colonialists, in taking land, resources, and autonomy from colonized
people will never be able to command themselves. They never people, taught uncivilized behavior like lying, theft, and murder.
acknowledge how their policies, bureaucracies, and laws have Claiming to have a superior civilization cannot cover up the
interfered in their victims’ societies. And the victims cannot uncivilized actions that colonizers perpetrated—at least as long as
remember how they did things before the colonialists came. people (and readers) willingly face the truth of their actions and
their history.

CHAPTER 3
One day while visiting Antigua, Kincaid stands in the street in At the beginning of the third section, Kincaid uncovers the impetus
and looks around herself and asks if Antigua is better off under for the book itself: she visits Antigua, sees signs of the rot and
self-rule than colonialism. The very fact that she asks this corruption that have taken root since the end of colonial rule in the
question indicates the situation’s direness: the government is fate of the library, and decides to investigate why this has happened.
corrupt, and its ministers are thieves. The library crystalizes Downshifting from the global questions about tourism and
this question for her, because after years, the government has colonialism in the first two sections to the very specific example of
not repaired or replaced it. The current library sits on the the public library in the Antiguan capital may feel like a radical shift
second floor of a run-down storefront. The old library, in in tone. But in doing so, Kincaid asks readers to think about how the
contrast, was extremely beautiful, with its yellow walls, its wide morally corrupt tourist industry in the present grows out of the
porch, its windows open to admit the fresh smell of the sea, and colonialism of the past. Because Antigua has shifted from colony to
its rows and rows of quiet, orderly bookshelves. independent nation relatively recently—and within Kincaid’s
lifetime—it becomes a rich site in which to explore these links. And
within the already-small place of Antigua itself, the fate of the
library focuses these threads of commentary and exploration into
one burning focal point. Kincaid hints at the colonialist perspective,
which would likely interpret the beauty of the old, colonial library as
representing the order and peace of colonial rule, especially
compared to current social and political disorder. But her own
relationship to the library remains far more complex. The old library
also represents the cultural domination of the colonizers, who
exercised control in part through imposing their language onto
Antiguans. In a way, then, Kincaid’s use of the library as a symbol for
the devolution of Antigua enacts her complaint about her inability
to explore her people’s oppression except in English. She loves the
library for giving her the foundation of knowledge and language to
explore the fate of Antigua in writing. But at the same time, the
library also represents the limitations that colonizers have placed on
the expression, culture, and freedom of their colonial subjects.
The librarians in the new library often can’t locate the books If the old library suggests the colonial authorities’ power and control
patrons want, either because inadequate storage space forces of Antiguans, the new library perfectly captures the chaos and
them to store many books in cardboard boxes or because the dysfunction of the independent government—especially its lack of
quality of Antiguans’ education seems to have declined since concern for services that benefit the public. Since this doesn’t enrich
the country achieved independence. Kincaid notes that young any government ministers, Kincaid implies, none of them care about
people seem to speak English “as if it were their sixth language,” its fate. The lack of regard for the library itself mirrors government
and she feels embarrassed watching youths in a “Teenage ministers’ lack of investment in education. Kincaid’s complaints
Pageant” unable to answer simple questions about themselves about the improper language of the youth points toward her vexed
in cogent language. relationship with the English language—although she rails against
being constrained to use the language of her oppressors in earlier
sections, she also clings to the power of language as a means of
looking at (and possibly changing) the world. Therefore, she worries
about the declining skills of younger generations.

Like the library itself, the head librarian has changed over the The librarian shows how the end of colonialism didn’t necessarily
years. Kincaid remembers her as “imperious and stuck up,” but free Antigua—instead, it made it dependent on a different set of
now she appears apologetic and desperate. The people from outsiders and their wealth. The nominal control she had over the
the Mill Reef Club will contribute money for repairing the old library under the colonial system disappeared after “The
library—but not to make the new one more useable. The Mill Earthquake,” and now she must beg for funding from tourists.
Reef residents love the old Antigua, just like Kincaid—but they Remember that the Mill Reef Club was founded by white tourists
have very different “old” Antiguas in mind. who wanted to enjoy Antigua without having to mix with local
(Black) Antiguans socially, and so their involvement always carries a
hint of racism and potential white supremacy. Their ability to hold
up the project carries a subtle reminder of their influential wealth,
especially compared to the Antiguan government—let alone average
Antiguan citizens.
Kincaid remembers spending time at the library. She would go Kincaid’s history with the library suggests the power that language
on Saturday afternoons to sit, read, and to feel sorry for herself and literature have over her personally and helps readers to
in a child-like way. She had finished the book in the children’s understand her rage over being forced to use English (the language
section by the age of nine. She remembers the librarian of her oppressors) to communicate both her love for and
watching her carefully to make sure she didn’t steal books or disappointment in Antigua, as well as her hatred for (but
take out more than her allowance. Kincaid’s deeply personal dependence upon) the lessons of the people who subjugated,
connection with the old library explains why looking at the colonized, and enslaved her ancestors. Colonialism has a long
crumbling façade of the building—which now houses a carnival legacy, even after independence, and the effects of racism are
troupe—inspires her to consider the state of post- difficult to root out of a place.
independence Antigua and ask why Mill Reef Club residents
should have such a say over the library’s future.
Kincaid visits the daughter of the Mill Reef Club’s founder. Kincaid represents this woman as a prototypical example of the Mill
This woman has a vested interest in restoring the old Reef residents as neo-colonizers. The woman’s casual dismissal of
library—but also a reputation for disliking Antiguans who her employees as her “girls” smacks of the history of slavery, in
aren’t her servants or employees. She tells Kincaid that she which white people claimed the right to own other (Black) human
always encourages her “girls”—the grown-up women who work beings. And it points toward the casual assumption of cultural
for her in her various tourist businesses—to use the library. supremacy on the part of colonizers and enslavers, since the Mill
And she complains about government corruption: anyone can Reef woman thinks of and presumably treats her adult employees
come from anywhere with enough money and get what they like children. She also exemplifies the (white) outsider’s perspective
want from it. Kincaid senses that this woman takes pleasure in on Antigua that Kincaid has invoked throughout the book when she
pointing out to a Black woman and native Antiguan how poorly claims that the native (Black) Antiguans lack the sophistication to
the native, Black Antiguan government runs the country. And run their country as effectively as their former colonizers did.
anyway, while she wants to help restore the library, she’s not
sure if it’s possible. Someone might be about to redevelop that
part of town.

Kincaid considers trying to talk to the Minister of Culture. But Redonda points to the past and the present moment in Antigua. In
he’s out of town, and anyway, she suspects that this meeting the past, it shows the often cavalier attitudes of colonizers toward
would have been fruitless. Her mother gained some notoriety their subjects, as it doesn’t make social or political sense to lump
on the island for her strong political convictions and once Redonda with Antigua. If there was a reason, Kincaid implies, it
insulted him for stealing stamps from Redonda. Kincaid isn’t must have had to do with the interest of slaveholders like the
quite sure what this meant; Redonda is a distant, barren island Condringtons. In the present, a lack of clarity and oversight in the
that the English included in the colony—and then nation—of government of Redonda allows for grift and abuse of power. The
Antigua along with Barbuda. The Condrington family, which English enriching themselves by claiming control over tiny islands in
exploited and sold enslaved persons, originally settled Barbuda. the Caribbean Sea sets the example for government ministers to sell
But back to Kincaid’s mother and her insult. Once, the Redondan stamps to enrich themselves.
government issued stamps for Redonda. Someone made a lot
of money from this, but no one knows who. The government
and its decisions—what stamps to print, what they look like,
what events to celebrate as national holidays—are opaque.
In a small place like Antigua, Kincaid explains, even small In Kincaid’s eyes, Antigua’s small physical size and location in the
events become larger than life, oppressive and overly vast blue ocean contribute to making it a “small place.” So too does
determinant of the direction of society. People from a small the way in which its history has taken autonomy from its people.
place struggle to understand themselves in the context of a The “native” Antiguans primarily descend from formerly enslaved
larger picture while at the same time resisting the exact, people; according to Kincaid, their communal history of subjugation
complete account of the events that shape their society and and exploitation makes it hard for them both to take an active role
lives. A complete account requires considering, questioning, in their society and to reflect upon the reasons why they struggle to
and judging events. And a division of time into “the Past, the do so. They thus exist in a sort of timeless limbo.
Present, and the Future,” which the inhabitants of a small place
seem to lack. The feel past events more vividly than present
ones; they undertake actions in the present without
consideration of the future.
Kincaid sees this absence of the bigger picture and fluid sense Lacking the perspective to understand the weight of history or fully
of time in the way Antiguans talk about slavery as a series of see how it affects their present lives doesn’t mean that Antiguans do
bad things that ended with emancipation. They talk about not know the facts of their history; everyone on the island
emancipation so frequently that it seems like a current event, understands the role that colonialism and slavery played in the
rather than a historical event. And even while they celebrate foundation of their country and in the lives of their ancestors. But
emancipation, Antiguans hold the Hotel Training School, where without a global perspective (like the one Kincaid feels she gained
locals learn to be modern-day servants in the tourist sector, in by leaving the island), modern Antiguans don’t seem to see the
high regard. Kincaid thinks no one can see the relationship direct connections between the colonialism of the past and the
between the historical institution of slavery and the modern tourism industry of the present—both of which grant outsized
institution of the Hotel Training School or between the privilege and power to outsiders—or between slavery and the
historical institution of slavery and their corrupt government. tourism industry, which continues to exploit the undervalued labor
In slave narratives, almost no one names their captor. And in of Black Antiguan workers. And while the foundational sins of
Antigua, complaints about the corrupt government colonialism, racism and slavery play an important role in laying the
conveniently omit the fact that Antiguans have allowed one foundation for these modern problems, the learned passivity of
government to retain power for 15 of the last 20 years of Antiguans, who permit a corrupt government to remain in power,
independence. contributes as well.

Antiguans don’t just domesticate world-changing events into Lack of perspective goes in both directions, and Kincaid suggests
the everyday. They also blow mundane happenings into events, that Antiguans’ struggle to contextualize their experiences with the
like an argument springing up at the market which turns into an history of their island and its people arises in part from their
enduring feud. In this small place, the event and the everyday inordinate attention on minor events and happenings. These
exist in a state of constant flux, and this makes it hard for the distract them from seeing the truly important connections. And
people who live there to make sense of their history, their because this disconnect between past and present is so
society, and the way they live. Kincaid looks at Antigua and disconcerting, Kincaid can’t decide whether it arises from genuine
wonders if Antiguans’ confusion of past and present and confusion or extreme denial.
conflation of the trivial with the important make them naïve,
sublime performance artists, or lunatics.
Kincaid sees naivete, performed astonishment, and lunacy in Much of the government’s corruption happens in the open, where
Antiguans’ complaints about the corruption in the government, everyone can see it, and Kincaid lists a myriad of moderate and
including increasingly privatized beaches; a Syrian national extreme examples. Some of these reflect concerns about
owning the largest car dealership; government ministers colonialism, like the wealth and influence of people born outside of
benefiting financially from the sale of Japanese luxury cars; the Antigua—some of whom are now naturalized citizens and others of
fact that Vere Cromwell Bird’s son owns a cable television whom remain foreign nationals transferring huge amounts of
company and adds his lines to public utility poles free of charge; wealth out of Antigua. Yet, in the face of these abuses, no one seems
government ministers owning many of the businesses to take a stand for political morality.
patronized by the government; the Prime Minister’s friends
openly running a brothel and other ministers trafficking drugs;
and that Antiguan banks host dirty money from abroad (and
these banks also often enrich government ministers).
The Antiguan banks borrow from the Swiss model, and this Yet again, Kincaid points out how many of the ills and abuses in
reminds Kincaid of a friend who recently traveled to modern Antigua mirror those in other places. No one complains
Switzerland and came back impressed with Switzerland’s about Swiss corruption, even though their world-renowned banks
cleanliness and superiority. But she neglects to ask how the often shelter criminals’ ill-gotten wealth. Because the Swiss have a
Swiss pay for their superior life, although it’s common high standard of living (and, Kincaid implies, are white), people
knowledge that dictators, tyrants, and criminal kingpins make a usually ignore potential corruption in their system. In contrast, a
habit of depositing their ill-gotten gains in Swiss bank accounts. history of racism and white supremacy predisposes people to
People revere the Swiss for their banks, their watches, and condemn Antigua for trying out the same tactics—albeit less
their neutrality; money and time are both neutral commodities. successfully.
Kincaid notes the way the government accepts bribes to allow Kincaid refuses to let American readers off the hook for their
American mobsters to run casinos on Antigua, since all West country’s role in Antigua. And government ministers who can run off
Indian countries seem to want casinos. The government helped to America when the need arises sound much more like tourists and
circumvent the United Nations’ embargo on ammunition for the despised foreign nationals whose lack of true social and cultural
the apartheid government of South Africa. It sold irradiated ties to Antigua renders them unconcerned about the lives and fates
meat. It borrows large sums from rich Antiguans and foreign of those too poor and disenfranchised to escape. And this
nationals. Foreign nationals own large plots of land and callousness extends to the fate of other former colonial subjects.
buildings, which they lease to the Antiguan government at The UN embargo Antigua circumvented was designed to keep
exorbitant prices. Native Antiguans despise them as certain weapons out of the hands of the white minority government
“foreigners,” and even though many of them have Antiguan of South Africa, which brutally repressed Black Africans through
citizenship, they haven’t cultivated a true presence on the political disenfranchisement and outright violence between the
island with any cultural institutions. 1940s and the 1990s.

Murders go unsolved in Antigua. A government minister Kincaid’s list continues, and she forces her readers to look at the
investigating his colleagues for financial mismanagement died, mess of modern Antigua. Earlier, she said that the only way her rage
electrocuted trying to open his refrigerator door. One year, two over the history of colonialism, racism, subjugation, and exploitation
Acting Governor Generals died in quick succession; one was could dissipate would be for colonialism, racism, subjugation, and
electrocuted at the home of a foreign national. The other exploitation never to have happened. As her list of corruption
became publicly ill at a funeral. And although the doctors said continues, she forces readers to acknowledge the truly astonishing
he died due to heart failure, everyone suspects poison. An $11 degree of dysfunction in Antigua. And she offers continual
million grant from France vanished without a trace. reminders of the ways this dysfunction grows directly out of
Government ministers own all the media outlets and never colonialism and slavery. Even the colonial authorities cannot escape
allow airtime to opposition parties. The government built a the chaos that their selfish and immoral drive to rule the world has
failed oil refinery, enriching a foreigner who did “bad things” in created. And even when foreigners try to help, they do so in ways
the process. This same foreigner now wants to gift Antigua a that infantilize Antiguans and deprive them of control over the
museum and library. Another foreigner outbid the government narrative of their own history.
for important historical documents, then made a big show of
presenting them to the government as a gift. Most government
ministers have American green cards.
Not everyone in the government is corrupt, or at least not on If a history of exploitation and abuse provides the long-term
this scale. But honesty reaps the reward of poverty. Honest explanation for Antiguan political and social dysfunction, a more
government ministers have to make a living driving taxis when immediate cause lies in the simple fact that honesty and plain
their party loses power, or they die as paupers. The scale of dealing tend to lead to poverty. The situation has become so
government corruption becomes a monument to rottenness entrenched that Antiguans treat corruption like an act of nature
that Antiguans point out almost as if it is a tourist attraction. which, like The Earthquake, wreaks unavoidable and irreparable
damage.
Kincaid relates an important event in the history of Antigua, Another proximate cause of Antiguan corruption lies in the
the founding of the Antigua Trades and Labour Union in 1939. character of the man that Antiguans chose to head their
Eventually, it became a political party that demanded the right government. Antiguans’ mixed feelings about Bird—whom they see
to vote, returning the ownership of Antiguan land to Antiguans as alternately a savior and a criminal—mirror Kincaid’s vexed sense
and demanding self-rule. The president of this union eventually of anger and nostalgia for aspects of colonial rule. Moreover, while
became Premier and then Prime Minister; he has headed the Antigua’s present corruption grows from past abuses—especially
government for 25 of the 30 years that Antiguans have had colonialism and slavery—Antiguans know this history and could,
some form of self-rule. Sometimes Vere Cornwall Bird seems potentially, make different choices in the present. They remain
like a new George Washington; at other times he seems like the accountable to some extent for their current situation, even if the
disgraced head of an American union imprisoned for greater share belongs to the colonialists and slaveholders who
embezzling its funds. An opposition Prime Minister interrupted exploited their ancestors and trained them to be passive.
Bird’s rule for one five-year term before losing his reelection
bid. Once back in power, Bird had him arrested, charged, and
jailed for profiting from his government office.

Prime Minister Bird started out as a bookkeeper for a Although people knew about Bird’s corrupt character before he
merchant-importer and banker. Eventually, his boss became came to political power, Kincaid suggests that most Antiguans want
suspicious because Bird seemed more prosperous than his to avoid responsibility for allowing him to hold office for so long.
salary would warrant. And when the merchant-importer asked And, after so many years of avoiding accountability, Bird treats the
to see the books, Bird grabbed them, ran to a nearby bakery, government like a family business and the country like his personal
and tossed them into the oven to be consumed by flames. possession.
People in Antigua connect this event to his elbowing out the
original, honest leaders of the Antigua Trades and Labour
Union and the eventual debasement of the free Antiguan
government. Bird treats the government like his own personal
business and seems to expect his family to profit from it; two of
his sons run the Treasury, Tourism and Public Works
departments. It seems that a family so tied to the
government—and in charge of what little military force this
island has—might not relinquish their power willingly.
A similar scenario—a political family running the government The nepotism (when those in power show favor toward their
like a family business—played out in Haiti, where Françios relations and friends) in the Antiguan government mirrors that in
“Papa Doc” Duvalier seized control of the government and other former colonies—other small places. Kincaid invokes two
lived an opulent, corrupt life of power before he died and his examples of strongman leaders that show how narrow Antiguans’
son, “Baby Doc,” succeeded him. But perhaps Antigua will be political imaginations have become. In Haiti, “Papa Doc” Duvalier
spared this event, Antiguans say—one of Bird’s sons has no came to power in an open election but then turned into a dictator.
apparent desire to rule while the other one has a terminal Haiti thus traded autocratic rule by colonial authorities for
illness. Instead, they imagine (or hope) someone like Maurice autocratic rule from within. In Grenada, Maurice Bishop seized
Bishop—a political revolutionary from Grenada—will control of the government with aims including Black liberation and
materialize in Antigua. improving the lives of the common people. Yet, his grip on power
alarmed others in Grenada leading to his arrest and execution.
These examples suggest that as long as Antiguans remain content to
take a passive role in their country and its politics, their hopes for a
stable, functional government remain slim.
CHAPTER 4
Antigua’s exceptional beauty seems impossible. No real Antigua’s beauty explains part of its attraction to colonialists in the
sunsets could be that beautiful; no real sea or sky could be that past and tourists in the present. But, as Kincaid has detailed
blue; no real sand so soft or pink or white; no real flowers, throughout the book, the experience of living in Antigua as a citizen
fruits, vegetables, houses, or clothing so vibrantly hued; no is very different from the temporary pleasantness of visiting there
days could be so sunny or nights so black; no real cows so for a few days at a time. She muses that this unreal beauty might
scrawny or real grass so desiccated. This makes the country contribute to the cavalier and exploitative attitudes that outsiders
seem more like a soundstage than a place. This impossible, have taken toward Antigua and its people. If the place doesn’t seem
unreal beauty starts to feel like a prison, trapping everyone real, then the people who live—or are trapped—there don’t seem
involved inside and everyone else outside. Kincaid asks readers fully real. And people denied their full humanity become far easier
to consider what it might do to a person to live in such a to exploit and abuse.
beautiful, timeless prison. So little seems to change the
character of the island’s people or the trajectory of its history.
It’s just as fantastically beautiful now that its residents are free
as it was when they were enslaved.

Antigua is a small place, just nine miles wide by twelve miles Lest Antiguans take Kincaid’s denunciation of colonialism, slavery,
long. Christopher Columbus stumbled on it in 1493; soon after, racism, white supremacy, and tourism as providing absolution for
“human rubbish from Europe” occupied it, using “enslaved but their role in their own current subjugation to a corrupt government
noble and exalted human beings” to enrich themselves. and the control of outsiders, Kincaid reminds them—and her
Eventually, the masters left (in a way) and freed the enslaved readers—that everyone, from the most inhumane slaveowner to the
people (in a way). Modern Antiguans descend from those noble most noble enslaved person, is ultimately human. And human
and exalted human beings. But once the masters cease being beings are all responsible for their actions. For the descendants of
masters, they cease being human rubbish. And once the colonialists and slaveholders, this means understanding the
enslaved become free, they cease being noble and exalted; privilege that their race has conferred on them. It also means
former masters and former enslaved people all become just recognizing that their wealthy societies were built on stolen labor.
human beings once again. For the descendants of enslaved people, this means taking
ownership for their lives and societies now, unlearning the passivity
and subjugation that slavery taught them, and forging a path in the
world on their own terms.

To cite any of the quotes from A Small Place covered in the Quotes
HOW T
TO
O CITE section of this LitChart:
To cite this LitChart: MLA
MLA Kincaid, Jamaica. A Small Place. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2000.
Duprey, Annalese. "A Small Place." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 10 Apr CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
2023. Web. 10 Apr 2023.
Kincaid, Jamaica. A Small Place. New York: Farrar, Straus and
CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL Giroux. 2000.
Duprey, Annalese. "A Small Place." LitCharts LLC, April 10, 2023.
Retrieved April 10, 2023. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/a-small-
place.

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Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist

Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist

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Related Themes: Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), The Tourist

Related Symbols: Related Themes:

Page Number: 17-18 Related Symbols:

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Jamaica Kincaid explains how Antiguans celebrated the Related Themes:

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Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker)

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These offshore banks are popular in the West Indies. Only

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Related Symbols: Related Characters: Jamaica Kincaid (speaker), Vere

Explanation and Analysis Related Themes:

Jamaica Kincaid has spent much of this chapter detailing the

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SUMMARY AND ANAL

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