Paula Tyler

The Discovery of Self through History and Relationships

                Being someone with a Bachelor’s degree in English and now a high school English teacher, I felt I knew a good amount about the study of literature. Being a teacher, I understand the importance of knowing the history behind the literature in order to fully appreciate and understand the piece. However, I am not a “history buff” by any means and underestimated the amount of history able to be found in colonial and post-colonial literature. What usually starts as a literary analysis can quickly become a historical analysis paper in no time. I have learned that a person’s history, both colonial and post-colonial, can completely shape them as a person, their discovery of themselves, and their relationships with others, specifically in Jamaica Kincaid’s, A Small Place and Lucy, and Daniel Defoe’s, Robinson Crusoe.

                In Jamaica Kincaid’s, A Small Place, she speaks to the reader, making the book somewhat uncomfortable for the reader at times, while creating a very personal relationship between the author and reader. The reader at times feels responsible for the author’s feelings of the tourists that invade her homeland. Kincaid describes tourists as vile and deplorable creatures, making fun of their lack and ignorance of cultural experience in the world. “That the native does not like the tourist is not hard to explain… every native would like to find a way out…they are too poor to escape the reality of their lives…” (“Small Place” 18-19). Kincaid points out those tourists come to Antigua to “get away from it all,” but they never take the time to realize that Antigua just so happens to be someone’s home, someone who also would like to “get away from it all” at times, but is unable to due to lack of resources. The United States, as well as other settler colonies, cannot imagine being in the same situation at the narrator and other people in Antigua because they are on the opposite side of the situation, being the oppressor instead of the oppressed.

According to Kincaid, these tourists are “sitting somewhere, alone in that crowd, and that awful feeling of displacedness comes over  you, and really, as an ordinary person you are not well equipped to look too far inward and set yourself aright” (“Small Place” 16). The citizens described are in denial, for they see Antigua as a place to get away, but for these people in a small place, “every event is a domestic event; the people in a small place cannot see themselves in a larger picture, they cannot see that they might be part of a chain of something, anything” (“Small Place” 52). This reference is both to the tourists and the villagers. Many of the villagers approve of tourism, many make their livings from it, but Kincaid points out that Antigua and its inhabitants become a commodity of sorts. The United States is a super power and Americans travel to other countries to see how other people live and to appreciate the things they have, but they never stop to think how it makes the inhabitants feel. “The people in a small place cannot give an exact account, a complete account, of themselves” (“Small Place” 53) which in turn, creates a disillusionment of self, of the life a person lives, and their place in the world. Many of the Antiguan’s history is based on their colonizer’s rule and because of this, they are unaware truly of their complete history and culture. “It [Antigua] was settled by human rubbish from Europe to feel better about their own miserable existence, so that they could be less lonely and empty – a European disease. Eventually, the masters left, in a kind of way; eventually, the salves were freed, in a kind of way” (“Small Place” 80). Antiguans were never allowed to become what they once were because as generations came and went, they became more and more colonized. “To the people in a small place, the division of Time into the Past, the Present, and the Future does not exist,” (“Small Place” 54) instead, it is a continuum of self, or the lack there of. 

A very interesting sign described on the library in the beginning of the book perhaps sets the tone for the remainder of it. The library was destroyed and a “repairs pending” was hung on the outside. The sign stayed there for years and years and the repairs were never made. Much like the people of Antigua, who were destroyed, and also wear a “repairs pending” sign, forever on their lives.  Through this small sign, a cultural history of the people of Antigua is revealed. Kincaid helps instruct the reader’s knowledge of the history of Antigua, but it is still one dimensional. A few historic events and ideals are revealed, but there is no knowledge of the tourist’s internal thoughts or conflicts. Much like Crusoe, the narrator in A Small Place is very one sided. Even though the historicism becomes apparent, it is necessary to see both sides in order for the reader to see the importance of history being created in literature and literature creating history.

                Kincaid presents the feelings of the colonized in her narrator in A Small Place, but in Lucy, Kincaid presents the life of a young girl in the third wave of transnational migration. In the beginning of the novel, Lucy wants to get as far away from her mother as she can, but begins to have some home sickness. She starts out by describing the newness of her surroundings. “I was reminded how uncomfortable the new can make you feel” (“Lucy” 4). She was disappointed and came to the harsh reality that things are not always better on the other side of the ocean. As a teenager, completely uprooting herself was hard, but something she knew she had to do to find herself, even when she “longed to be back in the place that she came from” (“Lucy” 6). The family she lives with describes Lucy as a poor visitor because she acts like a stranger to them, even when they say she should act like a part of the family. Lucy is too afraid to love because she has always been disappointed by the people who are closest to her, so much so that she says, “I didn’t want to love one more thing in my life” (“Lucy” 23).

                Lucy desperately wanted to be her own person, not an echo of her mother and at times, despised Mariah because she reminded her of her mother. Lucy was full of conflictions between her love of her mother and her homeland, and her detest of her mother and her homeland. Lucy finds a similarity in Hugh when he says, “Isn’t it the most blissful thing in the world to be away from everything you have ever known – to be so far away that you don’t even know yourself anymore and you’re not sure you ever want to come back to all the things you’re a part of?” (“Lucy” 66). This is exactly how Lucy felt, but she still did not know who she was even after moving across the ocean.  Even though Lucy states, “for even I could see that I was too young for real bitterness, real regret, real hard-heartedness,” (“Lucy” 23) that was exactly how she felt. She was unhappy and alone and tried to find her happiness with men, but even that was only short lived. She feels she is alone in the world and has not been happy for a long time. Unfortunately, Lucy does not realize that a change in location does not change the feelings within someone, instead, they followed her. “I used to think that just a change in venue would banish forever from my life the things I most despised” (“Lucy” 90).

Lucy thought she “understood finding the place you are born in an unbearable prison and wanting something completely different from what you are familiar with,” (“Lucy” 95) but she “began to feel like a dog on a leash, a long leash but a leash all the same” (“Lucy” 110). Lucy found a few people that were a lot like her, but not because they did not come from the same places or experiences she did. “On their way to freedom, some people find riches, some people find death” (“Lucy” 129). Lucy did not exactly find death, but she never found life either. Her old life never died, but her new life never lived. Lucy lived in a conflicted half life between the colonized and the colonizer. In the end, all she wanted was to find herself. The end of the novel reveals sensitivity in Lucy that was never seen. She cries and says, “I wish I could love someone so much that I would die from it” (“Lucy” 164). The reader feels sorry for Lucy because everyone deserves to be happy and everyone needs someone to be there for them, like her mother never was. Lucy never becomes post-modern because she is still holding on to the unhappiness of her past and her upbringing.

                The intertextuality between Crusoe and Lucy create a dialogue between the colonizer and the colonized, but in dialogue with Lucy, Robinson Crusoe represents the other side of the coin, the colonizer trying to find his place in life. Here is where the cultural clash between the old and new world begin. Crusoe, being the same age as Lucy, wants to get out from under the wing of his parents, but he comes from a completely different way of life. Unlike Lucy, who is very poor and from an impoverished world, Crusoe knows his life would be great where he is living, but also wants to find his own way in the world. His father encourages him to stay at home, reiterates that he will be well taken care of, but he “resolved to run quite away from him” (Defoe 11).

After sailing the seas, Crusoe lands on an island and begins to make a fortress for himself. The title of this chapter alone tells a lot about Crusoe as a person. He wants to protect himself and his idea of what his life should be. He says “I Build MY Fortress,” something he owns and no one else. This ownership begins to build Crusoe’s character and gives him a feeling of ownership and importance. Through all of Crusoe’s journeys and adventures, he rarely discusses his self-awareness, but instead, describes everything and everyone he owns, almost as if bragging about his accomplishments. He is trying to prove to himself that he is successful and is making a way for himself outside of his father. “It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy this life I now led was, with all its miserable circumstances, than the wicked, cursed, abominable life I led all the past part of my days” (Defoe 113). Crusoe however, was never happy where he was, he was never satisfied. He leaves his island he created, but wants to go back to his kingdom. “Now I looked back upon my desolate solitary island as the most pleasant place in the world, and all the happiness my heart could wish for was to be there again” (Defoe 138). After being back Crusoe realizes, “From this moment I began to conclude in my mind that it was possible for me to be more happy in this forsaken, solitary condition than it was probable I should have ever been in any other particular state in the world” (Defoe 114). Crusoe being fickle is repetitive of the settler colonies never being satisfied with the amount of colonization imposed. Instead, countries tried to colonize country after country, much like Crusoe traveled from place to place without every being satisfied.

Crusoe is very proud of the place he’s created, unlike Lucy who is never happy in her new apartment, describing it, “I did not think of it as home, only as the place where I now lived” (“Lucy” 156). Crusoe loved being the king of his castle. “My island was now peopled, and I thought myself very rich in subjects; and it a very merry reflection, how like a king I looked… I had an undoubted right of dominion. I was absolute lord and lawgiver” (Defoe 236). The colonizer is very often seen as a villain, as in A Small Place, but Crusoe perhaps is less concerned with colonizing others as gaining material and discovering himself and own place in life. Crusoe hopes that by creating his own little world he will finally feel complete, but how does that affect the people living in his kingdom? The reader never knows exactly how all the slaves feel, nor do we get an in-depth analysis of Friday’s thoughts or anyone else that travels with Crusoe. One of the downfalls of Defoe’s novel is that it is very one dimensional, just like A Small Place.  The idea of colonial and post-colonial literature probably did not exist in Defoe’s time, but it would have made for an interesting comparison to hear the thoughts of the colonizer and colonized in the novel. It is not revealed one way or the other if Friday feels dehumanized, it is simply up to the interpretation of the reader. The juxtaposition between the characters is apparent, but never a direct comparison.

Even though Crusoe is proud of his accomplishments, it still is not enough for him. He wants to go back to England, but when he gets there he says, “When I came to England, I was as perfect a stranger to all the world as if I had never been known there” (Defoe272) so then decides “after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my life, and how little way this would go towards settling me in the world, I resolved to go to Lisbon” (Defoe 272). Perhaps the most ironic thing Crusoe says about his circumstances is, “So little do we see before us in the world, and so much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the great Maker of the world” (Defoe 247) because he never depends on the Creator, instead, he keeps moving around until he “thinks” he finds himself.  Crusoe thinks that the more land he owns, the bigger his kingdom is, the more money he has, the happier he will be, but in the end, he is just as disappointed as Lucy, trying to find their selves in the world, but never quite being fulfilled.

I am not a well traveled person by any means, but when I was in my undergrad I traveled to Spain for a cultural dialogue conference. There were people my age from all over the world and the only way I could describe myself while there is ignorant. Many of the other participants in the conference spoke two, three, four or more languages. They were aware of other culture’s experiences, traditions, and basic way of life. As an American, I felt completely in the dark. I was extremely ashamed of myself and my thoughts about the rest of the world. Multicultural literature classes and dialogue about the subject in general is very important to the development of students and educators alike. This is the first time I’ve taken a literature course in graduate school and learning about colonial and post-colonial literature is an eye opening experience to me. I always amaze myself in thinking I am an extremely open-minded person who prides themselves on cultural awareness, but this class has opened my eyes to an entirely new development in my studies. History and ancestry truly has a huge impact on a person’s life as well as future generations. Having compared Lucy and Robinson Crusoe as the colonized and colonizer respectively was interesting in itself, but seeing everything fall in place together in A Small Place was even more eye opening. I am very excited for the second semester and being able to see all of the ideas and theories in colonial and post-colonial literature really come together.

Works Cited

Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. New York: New American Library, 1960. Print.

Kincaid, Jamaica. Lucy. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1990. Print.