Preview

Kincaid essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
782 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Kincaid essay
Kincaid’s Viewpoint of England
In Jamaica Kincaid’s essay “On Seeing England for the First Time”, Kincaid expresses her viewpoint on England’s authority over her homeland, the Caribbean island of Antigua. Kincaid has strong resentment towards England. She sees England as a dictator in her life. Through the use of emotional arguments and social appeal the author, Kincaid, gets the feeling across that she was a victim of England. At an early age she started to realize that the English had taken over her culture. Kincaid conveys her resentment toward England in her essay through tone, anaphora, and figurative language.
Tone is a writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward a subject, character, or audience. In Kincaid’s essay “On Seeing England for the First Time”, the tone is one of sarcasm. When Kincaid views the map of England presented to the class by the teacher, she makes a sarcastic comment, “at the time I saw this map - seeing England for the first time - I did not say to myself “Ah, so that’s what it looks like.” Her teacher views the map with awe. Through this statement it is evident of Kincaid’s perspective of England. She shows much less enthusiasm because she feels a loss of her Antiguan culture with an over emphasis on the English way. Another example of sarcasm used by Kincaid is when she tells of the realization that nearly everything on her island comes from England. She states that the food, clothing, accessories and cars all seem to have been “Made in England.” Kincaid explains to draw a map of England would result in her erasure, not physical erasure, but her erasure all the same.
Anaphora of the word, “England” or the phrase of “Made in England” is used extensively throughout Kincaid’s “On Seeing England for the First Time.” Anaphora is the repetition of a word or words for emphasis. The word “England” or a derivative of England such as “English” is found repeatedly in the essay. Kincaid cites examples of alienation in her childhood through

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    A response essay to Kincaid’s article According to Jamaica Kincaid’s article, seeing things or going to new places for the first time can be exciting. But Kincaid gives us a view on personal opinions and thoughts on the reality of England. Also her purpose in writing this piece was to inform us how the people of England made them feel superior to the settlers in British colonies. Ever her tone has been criticized and angry.…

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jamaica Kincaid

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages

    After reading Jamaica Kincaid’s “On Seeing England for the First Time” it’s evident that Kincaid’s life revolved around the English. Jamaica Kincaid grew up like one of the English from eating huge portions for breakfast, to her father buying the same hat that was “Made in England”, but what really stood out was Kincaid’s street name: John Hawkins. Kincaid’s grew up in St.Johns Antigua, Ovals where there were five streets “each of them named after a famous English seaman…” her street was John Hawkins. John Hawkins was a terrible man who is notably known for opening the slave trade. “Every single person living on Hawkins street was descended from a slave.” When Kincaid mentioned John Hawkins the tone of the essay quickly shifted from gloomy…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kincaid uses repetition in many instances throughout her essay. In particular, lines 38-73 demonstrate a perfect example of the rhetorical strategy. She sets up the idea of her eating an English breakfast, and eventually starts listing things individually. By naming an abundant amount of items, and following them by "Made in England," she contributes to her attitude of awe. When specifically saying each…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hot Zone anylasis

    • 772 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Tone: The attitude of the speaker or writer as revealed in the choice of vocabulary.…

    • 772 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ehrenreich Tones

    • 781 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Using tone in writing is really important because it convey a message that the author want to express to the reader. The tone Barbara Ehrenreich uses in the book “Nickel and Dimed” is changing rapidly because she wants her reader to really see the realistic of what she has to face. She put herself into the life of a minimum wage circumstance to see if she can survive or not. She go to different location in the country but they all have the same point that the job she take is all minimum wage jobs. Her tones factually show the challenges and struggles that she face with the job. She doesn’t show judgment but in her writing, her tone sounds sympathetic, a little anger and sarcastic to the reader.…

    • 781 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dave Pelzer

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In literature, tone is the attitude the author takes toward the works central theme or subject. By using the tone of a child throughout the novel, rather a more mature voice, Pelzer allows you…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tone is a tool, frequently used in literature that helps a speaker connect the audience to an argument effectively. To fully display a tone within a written piece the speaker needs to use a mixture of literature styles such as diction, language, and syntax. In the essays “The Joy or Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie, “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X, and “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglas, the authors use a plethora of writing styles to prove how effective their tone is.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dog Rhetorical Analysis

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Tone: can be characterized as the author’s attitude toward the reader or toward the topic.…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Established and weathered authors use certain literary techniques to further enhance the reader’s experience. Tone is one of these techniques, and is easily described as the general character or attitude of a piece of writing. Tim O’Brien’s combat experience in Vietnam led him to suffer from PTSD, and this condition led him to establish a hopeless tone in the first chapter of The Things They Carried.…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Black People and Tone

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Tone is the attitude a writer has about a topic. For example, a tone might be serious, sarcastic, respectful, or unsympathetic. A writer establishes tone through choice of words and details.…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Josh Kincaid had been the apple of his family's eye, and expected to make his mark on the world. Lone child of a Physician Father, and Nurse Mother, it had been presumed the young Josh would follow in the Patriarch's footsteps, and pursue the field of medicine. The teenage boy, with bright intelligence, had breezed through high-school, encountering a little trouble here and there - he'd always possessed wild streak, something his parents put down to boredom, due to the classwork not being challenging enough -, but nothing major. Disrupting classes, smoking cigarettes, and partaking in illicit substances from time to time.…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jamaica Kincaid Girl

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages

    An important influence on Kincaid’s writing is the era she was living in when she composed her stories. At that time, Antigua and Barbuda was colonized by England, so that the…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “Girl” & Barbie Doll

    • 2455 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Cited: Kincaid, Jamaica. “Girl.” Dimensions of Culture 3: Imagination. Ed. Nancy Gilson, Cristin McVey, and Abraham Shragge. San Diego: University Readers, 2007. 485-86.…

    • 2455 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beloved

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Tone is the way an author conveys a feeling to the reader through a piece of writing. In Beloved, by Toni Morrison, the book begins with a dark and foreboding tone and as you traverse through the memories of the characters the tone becomes more and more gloomy but as the book comes to a close the tone becomes more hopeful in 124.…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is the same with writing. Every adjective and adverb you use, your sentence structure, and the imagery you use will show your tone. The definition of “tone” is the way the author expresses his attitude through his writing.…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays