Jamaica Kincaid explores themes of artificial beauty in her book, A Small Place. She recognizes the outward, physical beauty of her home island, Antigua, but puts the reader into the perspective of an ignorant tourist who fails to see the reality that natives Antiguans face. This reality includes poverty, racism, government corruption, and living in unsuitable conditions. Her own people have not been able to create their own culture due to British colonization and corruption of the government which forces Antiguans into a life of servitude towards tourists. There is not much opportunity to escape the island hope of a better life. But in pictures, outsiders see Antigua as a heavenly island with unrealistic waters and sand- picture perfect things that they don’t have in their own homes- so they flock to the island in order to escape their own boring, daily routines, without recognizing how the islands’ natives will never be able to leave. This relates to America in a way because this country is painted as the land of the free, meaning we are able to practice our own religions, have freedom of speech, have democracy, etc., but the reality of this country’s dark secrets and pasts is that like Antigua, it was built on the backs of slaves and forces many people to live under the federal poverty line.
When one thinks of America, it’s easy to think of the glitz and glamor of New York City and Los Angeles, the quaint, prairie houses of the South, and other American things such as state fairs and great nature. But America has underlying issues that deeply affect the society, even in today’s world, such as racism and bigotry found in our neighbors and even in our government. A lot of Americans live in fear of racists or homophobes or business tycoons who don’t care about anyone who isn’t the perfect American image. There are mass shootings in America, such as the most recent one in Vegas, states that are left in shambles after natural disasters and not much help being provided to them, proud racists and Neo-Nazis who parade campuses wearing KKK cloaks and painting the Nazi symbol all over them, people of the LGBTQA+ community being harassed and murdered by people who can’t accept them.
America is far from a perfect place. What outsiders see in Hollywood of this place for dreams and opportunity holds some truth to it in comparison to countries who have none at all, but Hollywood doesn’t uncover much of the horror that is within the States. Like Antigua, many real citizens are unrecognized in order to bring more attention to the wealthy and powerful. The country has been built by mass murder of its Native Americans, the severe torture of black slaves, the corruption of government officials and business owners, racism that has made whites superior, and total degradation of American citizens who are struggling to make an honest, suitable living for themselves and their families. But on the outside, we see movies of America being the best country in the world.