A Small Place Response
Ciarra Leocadio
ENGL 102W
1/14/15
Response Paper
The Queen is Dead Jamaica Kincaid’s critical novel, A Small Place, highlights the adverse effects of imperialism on her birthplace Antigua. Antigua became a sovereign state in 1981. However according to Kincaid, its yield to its colonizer, England, has yet to cease. Kincaid provides clear evidence of the natives’ high regard for everything that is English through national celebrations of the Queen’s birthday and royal visits, the education system, and the English named streets. Nonetheless, it is through these very examples that we receive Kincaid’s critique of post-colonial Antigua and thus, slavery. Kincaid strengthens her argument of resentment by providing a recurring symbol, the dilapidated library. The library just like many of the other remnants of colonialism represents the struggle between colonialism and emancipation on this “small place.” It is through these examples that Kincaid is able to establish a relationship between imperialism and its unfavorable repercussions on the island of Antigua. At the onset of the novel, Kincaid introduces her first symbol of the dilapidated library and the earthquake, which destroyed it in 1974. Shortly after the library was destroyed, a sign was put up that said, “This building was destroyed in the earthquake of 1974. Repairs are pending” (Kincaid 9). Soon after, Antigua gained its independence and yet the colonial sign is still up, more than a decade after when the book was written. The earthquake comes at a time when a change in leadership from the colonial England to a representative democracy was in progress, but just as the sign of repairs on the library still stands, the traces of English colonialism remain. Antiguans praise God for their independence from the British rule; however even in this they are praising a “British God.” It is evident that Kincaid believes that although the English no longer rule over the Antiguans, their culture has not been erased. In
ENGL 102W
1/14/15
Response Paper
The Queen is Dead Jamaica Kincaid’s critical novel, A Small Place, highlights the adverse effects of imperialism on her birthplace Antigua. Antigua became a sovereign state in 1981. However according to Kincaid, its yield to its colonizer, England, has yet to cease. Kincaid provides clear evidence of the natives’ high regard for everything that is English through national celebrations of the Queen’s birthday and royal visits, the education system, and the English named streets. Nonetheless, it is through these very examples that we receive Kincaid’s critique of post-colonial Antigua and thus, slavery. Kincaid strengthens her argument of resentment by providing a recurring symbol, the dilapidated library. The library just like many of the other remnants of colonialism represents the struggle between colonialism and emancipation on this “small place.” It is through these examples that Kincaid is able to establish a relationship between imperialism and its unfavorable repercussions on the island of Antigua. At the onset of the novel, Kincaid introduces her first symbol of the dilapidated library and the earthquake, which destroyed it in 1974. Shortly after the library was destroyed, a sign was put up that said, “This building was destroyed in the earthquake of 1974. Repairs are pending” (Kincaid 9). Soon after, Antigua gained its independence and yet the colonial sign is still up, more than a decade after when the book was written. The earthquake comes at a time when a change in leadership from the colonial England to a representative democracy was in progress, but just as the sign of repairs on the library still stands, the traces of English colonialism remain. Antiguans praise God for their independence from the British rule; however even in this they are praising a “British God.” It is evident that Kincaid believes that although the English no longer rule over the Antiguans, their culture has not been erased. In
Cited: Kincaid, Jamaica. A Small Place. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1988. Print.