A Small Place Chapter #1 and 2 by Jamaica Kincaid

   

        Antigua is a small island located on the Caribbean region. Their economy depends on the tourism, that's why they have so many hotels around the coastline.It was a territory of England until its independence in 1981; becoming the nation of Antigua and Bermuda. Now it forms part of the Commonwealth of Nations and its a constitutional monarchy were Queen Elizabeth II is the queen.

 "The thing you have always suspected about yourself the minute you become a tourist is true: A tourist is an ugly human being. Your not an ugly person all the time; you are not an ugly person ordinarily; you are not an ugly person day to day. From day to day you are a nice person..." page 14 Chapter #1 

     What the author explains in the first chapter is how when people come to Antigua they expect a relaxed vacation without even thinking of the people that live there. She also complains about the situation of the people and how even the cars are more new that the hospitals. She exposed how one of the streets built for the Queens visit many years ago is the only completed and clean they have. Kincaid tries to let the readers know about why is it that a tropical paradise doesn't care about education because one of the libraries they have is still under construction after many years.  Her main worry is that they're so focused in the tourism that all of the other stuff will lose value, like the essence of Antigua.

   "I met the world through England, and if the world wanted to meet me it would have to do so through England"page 33 Chapter # 1.  What she's trying to argue with these lines is that the old Antigua, the one that she grew in is no longer the same. Since England started to build in Antigua an all of the tourists came, their presence and the construction have destroyed the essence of the Antigua that was pure. It's no longer the same that's what she means because people will only see the commercialized version of Antigua and not the original one.

      I felt so identified with her writing because in Puerto Rico I think it happens the same with the old San Juan. People only come here to see something that was built so many years ago and they also pretend that we have to know English (I'm not saying it's a bad thing). When the tourist come, they only see the commercialized San Juan, they don't see the essence of PR in places like Rio Piedras that the poverty is at its peek.  So the tourist only see paradise that they called "The Jewel of the Carribean" where the sun is always set and everything is pink. They should know that in Puerto Rico there are a lot of murders and also that although our island is beautiful the people don't take care of it.

    As the author says: "Being a tourist makes us bad persons".It's not us, is the reality and what the society has created. But this can be changed by when  visiting a new place simply say: Is this the real city? I want to see the essence of it! So walk a little further and experience the joys and dissapointments of a new place.