In An Interview By Jamaica Kincaid

Our past is what shapes us into the person we are today and what we experience is subjective based upon our surroundings, being positive or negative. To put this another way, Chinua Achebe puts forth that the writer's duty is to teach the current generation about the dignity of the past, so that the same mistakes aren’t repeated in the future and so that the stories of the numerous people that are being oppressed are getting heard. The wrongs being done to an individual, for example, Malala Yousafzai and how she fought against the Taliban’s for her education is an exemplary experience of a personal story being told to spread awareness and to teach others about atrocities being carried out in different societies other than our own. Nevertheless,

In this interview, it is mentioned that, “... I can’t believe I ever had such clarity of vision, that seems so absolutely true...that was the first thing I wrote in which I began to understand that there was a certain truth, and however upsetting it would be to other people that I needed to say it.” This quote expresses, the upsetting truth that Jamaica Kincaid needs to say that is; everything she mentions in the story is all honestly written with exactly what the colonizers had done to them. In addition, “People would say to me ‘Everything you said is true, but did you have to say it?’” This quote displays, people of Antigua do not like to hear the truth because it reminds them of how weak they were and how hard they had fallen against the colonizers. Since they were powerless to tell their story, they had been dehumanized by the colonizers resulting in them not being able to express their involvement or placement in the situation. Lastly, Jamaica Kincaid mentions that if the story isn’t told from the primary source it’s not as effective, it could be a lie or the story could be changed seeing as words could be switched or details could be added and left out especially if the stories being passed along. Thus, If the story is not true then

Her point of view on this unjust act is being expressed throughout her writing. In an excerpt from “A Small Place,” Kincaid argues,“You murdered, imprisoned, robbed, opened banks in your name, with accounts in your name and put our money in them. And when you were murdered in turn in a bungalow that wasn’t yours ever, you imagine that you were more than these things (that you were aware of the Age of Enlightenment thought it had done you very little good). That you built schools and libraries where you distorted our history and taught your own...Whatever we were before we met you, it was better than this.” This portrays, The dreadful emotions and feelings Kincaid expresses on Antigua getting harshfully colonized. Kincaid's writing, “A Small Place” spreads the story of a group of people that had been oppressed, her piece can teach the future about how harshly Antigua had been