A Small Place Analysis

A Small Place is as dependent on its setting as Mario is on Luigi. Everyone knows that the fella in green is the real brains behind the operation. But it's hard to define the "real" Antigua. It see...

It's rare to see a book written in the second person, and it's even rarer to see one that knocks it out of the park. We talk about Kincaid's use of second-person narration in our analysis of the to...

A Small Place exists at a strange crossroads between genres. In many ways, it's a memoir; it seems to recount specific stories from Kincaid's early life in Antigua. However, any resemblance to Kinc...

Some people consider A Small Place to be an angry book, but we think it's a little more accurate to call it passionate. Our narrator is certainly willing to rage against the machine, like when she...

Kincaid writes with some of the most precise English we've ever encountered here in the Shmoop-iverse. Sometimes, this hyper-precision is used as an effect, like her explanation that the Mill Reef...

Some places are just small, and the size of Antigua plays a large role (see what we did there?) in A Small Place. Antigua is filled with contradictions—it's a small, poor island in the middle of...

A Small Place is not your typical novel; it contains no plot, no cast of characters, and very few fleshed-out scenes. Instead, the book engages the reader directly in an attempt to foster some sort...

Kincaid writes clearly and precisely, so you shouldn't have any trouble following what's going on. There are some pretty long paragraphs too (we're talking pages upon pages), but they're rarely con...

Cleared for LandingLadies and Gentlemen, we have just touched down in Antigua, a small Caribbean island with tons of corruption and some nasty history. You don't know much about that, though—you'...

Always the nonconformist, Jamaica Kincaid wrote a novel that shatters all seven of Booker's stinkin' plots. Here's why:There are only two real characters (the narrator and "you"), neither of whom a...

You're a tourist, okay? You like doing tourist stuff but aren't very interested in getting to know the people who inhabit the places you visit. Frankly, you're just happy to be away from your borin...

As a young lady, Kincaid moved to NYC because her mother wanted her to work as a nanny and fund her brothers' schooling. Kincaid had no interest in this arrangement, however, and cut off contact wi...

The only thing that's steamy about A Small Place is the weather. Don't forget your sunblock.

Vere Cornwall Bird (1.1)The 1974 Earthquake (1.3)Horatio Nelson (2.2)Barclay Brothers (2.2)Mill Reef Club (first reference 2.3; throughout)Queen Victoria (first reference 2.3; throughout)Bradley Ca...