Jordan Patton

11/2/2012

Communications-Mark Neumann

A Small Place Essay

Reality is how we perceive the world and that reality can be changed to circumstances and through communication. The reality can be altered to fit a certain group of people so that they will only ever see the beauty in the place that they are visiting. In A Small Place they expose this factor in the so called beautiful place of Antigua, but in actuality Antigua is disguised by beauty to hide the poverty and the corrupt government that has morphed these natives into something that they never should have been. The culture altered into some hybrid that would be pleasing to the upper class and to the tourists that would come to visit.

The setting of Antigua is almost standing still, things seem the same day to day to the villagers when it is described in A Small Place. But it real reality the government is in control, they speak English instead of their native tongue or its horrible slang described by Kincaid. The schooling is horribly lacking mostly shown by a library that has been damaged and needs to be rebuilt for the last ten years. The sign that is posted on the library refers to the colonial period of Antigua, which is before the time that the English took over with their ways. This is something that is not normally seen to tourists, they see a laid back way of life with simple people. But the people themselves did not choose this style, they did not wish for the education to be denied to them or their cultures to be lost. With the placement of the wealthy English, ways were forced upon them and the newer generations see it as the way things always were. They do not know any different because this is the way that the culture that was morphed around has brought them up.

Hyper reality is something that we see in almost every tourist attraction. We as a people do not to face the harsh truth of history. So we create these places that distract us from what is really going on. Our reality is morphed to believe something that is much more family and pleasant. If you think about how the English run everything in Antigua, it has been made beautiful to hide the poverty and the lack of education. Tourists do not want to see those types of things, they go on vacations to see new cultures and go to exotic destinations. Even though they do not know that they are not even experiencing the real culture of the area that they are in. It has been created for them just so the more wealthy people of Antigua can make money on tourism. Tourists are an ugly thing to the locals, because the local natives know that these people are not actually experiencing their culture, it is all an illusion. They see the tourists as rude and garish. Kincaid also talks about the tourists romanticize the poverty around them. Tourists like to believe that this is a humble way of living, something that Kincaid described their thinking of it as close to nature. But what these people do not realize is the weather problems that cause a shortage of fresh water and the lack of actual plumbing. They make themselves believe that these people have no problems and take the natives of Antigua for granted and exploit them in their reality that sees this place as a place of true beauty.

Instead of keeping the culture the way it was when the English colonized, they culture has become mainstream and ignorant like it is in America. Kincaid wishes that the children had the education when she was young, which focused on more classic literature and more important knowledge, instead of created this impoverished mainstream culture and education that exists there now. The wealthy part of Antigua does not care about these things. In the book Kincaid discusses how she tried to petition to raise money to repair the decade old damage that happened to the library. She had hopped with these repairs they would be able to bring back some of her childhood education and hopped that her people would grow from it. Even though the wealthy did donate money, it was for the wrong reasons. They like the ignorant nature of the people; they want to maintain that part of their reality. The English did it only on the hopes to make the area look more presentable to the tourists. How bad would it look to the tourists if they see a dilapidated library that has been sitting there for over a decade?

Reality is always made and perceived by the people, whether it is good is on how you look at it. That is just how human nature works; each individual person will look at things differently depending on their environment, parents, and the ruling government of the area. It is what makes the world go round. It is a sad aspect of life that we can be so influenced so much, because it will never be fully true. Antigua was made into a reality only mad for tourists, keeping the real people down and not able to rise up in their own culture and environment. It shows that how the influence of new people can impose a brand new culture and have it be accepted over time and with maintaining of new knowledge the old one can be forgotten all together. This is the governing factor that changed the people of Antigua and why Kincaid misses the way it used to be in her childhood. The culture has been changed and in its place it has become merely a tourist attraction that will always be seen as a place of beauty with no consequences to the people.