Language

The language of Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place is vivid and often dramatic. The tone is generally angry, expressing the narrator’s criticism of the tourism industry and the Antiguan government. Kincaid frequently conveys this tone using humor and sarcasm:

You look closely at the car; you see that it's a model of a Japanese car that you might hesitate to buy; it's a model that's very expensive; it's a model that's quite impractical for a person who has to work as hard as you do and who watches every penny you earn so that you can afford this holiday you are on. (p. 182, ll. 10-14)

Here, Kincaid draws attention to how Western tourists believe that they are not well-off or that they work hard compared to people living in poverty. She implicitly contrasts Western wealth with the...