Tones in "A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid
Tones in "A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid
The overall feeling the Jamaica Kincaid relays to the reader in A Small Place is very negative. All through out the book she bashes at the way-of-life on her native island Antigua by the politicians and tourists. I think that the two major tones in A Small Place are cynical and livid.
Cynical is described in the dictionary as “believing or showing the belief that people are motivated chiefly by base or selfish concerns; skeptical of the motives of others.” Kincaid talks cynically through out the book when speaking of the politicians and the drug lord that lives there. “Now they own a lot of Antigua, they regularly lend money to the government, they build enormous (for Antigua), ugly (for Antigua), concrete buildings in Antigua’s capital, St. John’s , which the government then rents for huge suns of money…” (Kincaid 11). Kincaid says here that the Syrian family controls the government of Antigua and makes money off of the people. Nowhere in the book does she use any facts to back up her assumptions and accusations.
“Not far from this mansion is another mansion, the home of a drug smuggler” (Kincaid 11). This is another accusation where the only way she backs it up is with the statement “Everybody knows he’s a drug smuggler” (Kincaid 11). They final line the convinced me of her cynical mind is when she said “It is not a secret that a minister is involved in drug trafficking” (Kincaid 59).
Livid is described as being “Extremely angry; furious.” I think that almost any line out of this novel that is said by Kincaid can be described as livid. “You murdered people. You imprisoned people. You robbed people. You opened your own banks and your put our money into them. The accounts were in your name.” (Kincaid 35). This is just part of one of the many ramblings Kincaid does in the book.
All she does is complain about the former British Empire and the government established after their independence. Sometimes she uses interesting ways of describing things to really bring home the point of her grievances. “The hospital in Antigua is so dirty, so run-down, that even if the best doctors and nurses in...