Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

The Tourist/The West

A Small Place's antagonist is… drum roll please… you. Kincaid uses second-person narration to place the reader directly in the story, so brace yourself to play the part of the bad guy. See, the tourist isn't much of a character at all, instead serving as a representative of the West in general—and the West, in general, has done more harm than good to Antigua.

It's a risky technique, one that hopes readers won't be turned off from the get-go. But ultimately, this technique allows us to better understand the plight of the Antiguan people by showing us just how wrong-minded outsiders can be about them. It might feel uncomfortable at times, but then again, so is living under the legacy of colonialism and slavery.