A Smallplace

Rough Draft Attending the University of Georgia is a dream for many students. After several months, the city of Athens, Georgia becomes a new home for thousands of new incoming freshman. For me, I take great honor in saying that I live in the Classic City. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of “campus tour” busses and tour groups around campus, looking and observing the area and its inhabitants. I remember just last year when I took campus tours to help guide my decision of which college I wanted to attend after high school from an outsider’s view. But, now that I am on the inside, it seems extraordinarily odd to have people observing you and your hometown. However, without this sort of tourism, I would have not been able to benefit from being able to decide where I wanted to spend the next four years of my life. In reading A Small Place, Kincaid explains her dislike for tourists in Antigua. Though she makes several valid points, it seems as if tourism is more beneficial than harmful. Many people take vacations to tropical islands to witness first-hand the beauty of the island. But, Kincaid expresses that tourism shelters the harsh reality of what daily life is for its inhabitants. In A Small Place, Kincaid explains, “[A]nd so you needn’t let that slightly funny feeling you have from time to time about exploitation, oppression, domination develop into full-fledged unease, discomfort; you could ruin your holiday.” Here, she attempts to pull at the reader’s conscience. She believes that when tourists travel to what they believe to be beautiful, tropical islands that the tourist tries not to think about things such as poverty or dictatorship in order to not feel guilty and fully enjoy their vacation. However, tourism is a source of revenue and can help improve the economic status of a country. Once a country’s economic level improves, that country can begin to broaden its sources of economic revenue, so that it will not become dependent on