Mutual Dehumanization

Jordan Stanley

Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place, 23-37

Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place is the first-hand account of an Antiguan woman recalling her life in the small country and reflecting on both the past and the current states of the country. She describes in the second section her childhood, a time when Antigua was governed by the English. During this time, the Antiguans were treated very poorly by the “bad-minded” English (Kincaid 23). Under English rule, the Antiguans were dehumanized. They were sold and traded as slaves, forced to work, segregated from each other and the white men, and treated like animals. The Antiguans were dehumanized, and Kincaid believes that “actual death might have been better” (24). Because the Antiguans were dehumanized by the English, Jamaica Kincaid’s account of Antigua’s past, present, and future criticizes the English and actually dehumanizes them because this is a way of coping with the painful memories of English-ruled Antigua.

According to Kincaid, the English “hardly know what to do with themselves” when they are not governing “one quarter of the earth’s population” (23). They treated the Antiguans unfairly, and Kincaid says that “wrongs [were] committed” and “no natural disaster could equal the harm they did” (24). Kincaid goes on to describe the treatment of the native people, and her account illustrates that the Antiguans were dehumanized. They were “traded” as “only commodities” (26). They were not only treated inhumanely because they were made slaves but also because they were segregated, such as in the Mill Reef Club, which was “completely private” to white people (27). Thirdly and more obviously, they were dehumanized by the English because the Antiguans were treated like animals. Those who sought medical attention were inspected before they were admitted into the doctor’s presence (28). They could not have “dirt under [their] fingernails” and could not smell (28). Because the doctor refused to see them if they were not clean, according to his standards, they were dehumanized. Their identity was of no importance, and consideration was only given to their appearance. Kincaid’s mother believed that the doctor was afraid of germs, but he was actually being critical of their race.

Kincaid’s book criticizes the dehumanization of Antiguans by the English not only by describing it but also by dehumanizing the white people herself. She describes the members of the Mill Reef Club, all people from North America or Europe, as “pigs” (27). She says they behaved badly and had bad manners, “like pigs” (27). She believes that the Antiguans learned from the English “how to imprison and murder each other [and] how to govern badly” (34). Because Kincaid is so critical of the English people, grouping them all together and calling them “tyrants,” she is dehumanizing them and stripping them of individuality (34).

Kincaid does this intentionally, though, and not for the same reasons the English dehumanized the Antiguans. Kincaid dehumanizes the English as revenge. She is obviously critical of the treatment of her people by the English, so she does to them what they did to her: dehumanize.