In the satirical article, “On Seeing England for the First Time” (1991), Jamaica Kincaid, a proud Antiguan-American writer, condemns England’s unacceptable acts of erasure upon a nation’s culture. She remarks that England has unrightfully censured the death of the Caribbean culture and the people's long-held nationalism for Antigua; and yet although Antigua had freed itself from England's chokehold, the nation has already been constructed in such a way that it had become economically dependent on the English. Kincaid illustrates this impassioned resentment towards England by her usage of ironic imagery and sarcastic repetition within her childhood anecdotes of conformity. She criticizes England’s unjust authority in order to present the condemning …show more content…
Demonstratively, her memories of when she was still a young and impressionable schoolgirl reverts back to the time where she was first awestricken by the offbeat mystique of the map of England then later appalled by the inevitable truth that it was still the same country that tried to strip away her cultural identity. The map of England, as she describes it, looks similar to that of a lump of meat with “squiggly veins of red” to accentuate its unappealing features and essentially correspond that back to the English people’s blindness to see its own vain behavior (10-11). Virtually, it is similar to asking: how can a nation too obsessed with its worldly appearance be competent enough to operate itself-- much less another country? Additionally, in an almost nonchalant manner, the author pokes fun of the “leg of mutton,” also known as England, to further depict her lack of respect for the nation (8). Her lack of respect is once again demonstrated when she starts to set up the scenery of the map. In comparison, the background of the map details itself as an effortless beauty with its “bed of sky blue” while England is given disgusting hues of yellow, pink and green (4,5,9). By illustrating England’s immense regions with