Jamaica Kincaids essay On Seeing England for the first Time

Jamaica Kincaids essay On Seeing England for the first Time Its shit being Scottish! Were the scum of the fucking earth! Some people hate the English. I dont. Theyre just wankers. Were the ones what were colonised by wankers. We couldnt even pick a decent bunch of people to be colonised by. -Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting The cultural ties to empire are not so easy to efface as the political ones. This is perhaps one of the most important lessons the world has learned from the mass movement towards independence on the part of European colonies in the past half-century. Even we Americans, more than two hundred years after having rejected the British monarchy and all it stands for, are forever poking our noses in the†¦show more content†¦Yet an explicit affirmation of this hatred is not necessary; the reader is quick to appreciate the irony and utter absurdity of her situation and that of Antigua. Kincaid makes us want to condemn the imperialistic attitudes which fostered this indoctrination of English values and also the supposition that this culture was somehow inherently superior to any other. By putting her readers in her own position, and by appealing to their sense of the absurd, Kincaid is very effectively able to elicit sympathy. Kincaid was never prepared for England as it is; all she had to go on was the idea of England that was presented to her as a child. She never had a single real tie to England: No one I knew had ever been and returned to tell me about it. All the people I knew who had gone to England had stayed there (356). In England she is conscious of the fact that she is an outsider. She is made to feel this way by the difference she perceives between the English and herself: Their skins were so pale, it made them look so fragile, so weak, so ugly . . . they didnt like me, and it occurred to me that their dislike for me was one of the few things they agreed upon (357). The racial difference breeds a mutual distrust. She is made to feel she can never truly be English because of her race, ancestry, and the history ofShow MoreRelatedSeeing England For the First Time786 Words   |  4 Pagesï » ¿ On Seeing England for the First Time The effect of imperialism on small colonies is sometimes intrusive and constrained. Jamaica Kincaid devotes her essay, Seeing England for the First Time, to her profound mysticism she has towards England as she grows up on the island of Antigua before it becomes an independent country. With descriptive language, Kincaid reveals her frustration for England within the classroom and at her home through use of imagery and satire. The earliest memoriesRead MoreSimilarities Between Imperialism And Post Colonialism1606 Words   |  7 PagesImperialism, colonialism, and post colonialism are all a very important part of history. Each of these are present in the writings for the topic of the essay. The three writings that will be discussed are Clarice Lispectors The Smallest Woman In The World, Jamaica Kincaids On Seeing England For The First Time, and Civil Peace by Chinua Achebe. Each of these writings give great examples of imperialism, colonialism, and post colonialism through different perspectives and from different parts of