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"Did you see how nicely she can eat?" |
"Civilization" can be a highly connotative word. It might bring to mind qualities such as superiority, humaneness, and refinement. Indeed, many members of civilized societies have seen themselves as superior to the "barbarians" outside their civilization” (Civilization ). Advocates of colonialism argue that colonial rule benefits the colonized by developing the economic and political infrastructure necessary for modernization and democracy. Jamaica Kincaid grew up in the English colony of Antigua surrounded by English culture; yet, she expresses her passionate revulsion for all things English. She views the English culture as a destroyer of Antiguan culture and even of the English themselves. The first paragraph of Jamaica Kincaid’s essay, “On Seeing England for the First Time,” clearly depicts her view of the English as brainless zealots who “wore” England everywhere they went “including places where they were not welcomed, in places where they should not have been” (Kincaid 205). The people of Antigua inherited this fanaticism from the English. They felt they had to eat English food, wear English clothes, and praise England above all, including their own native land. Kincaid vehemently opposes this belief because she recognizes that England and Antigua are different in terms of weather, location, and ethnic groups. All of these differences are extremely important to each setting’s culture. Ethnocentricity is a belief in or assumption of the superiority of your own social or cultural group. The English were very adept at conveying to the world that their culture, language, and customs were the most civilized in history. They also made sure that everyone, including their own colonies, understands that even if you live as the English live you will never reach their status because you are not English. Jamaica Kincaid realized this as she ponders the question, “…who are these people who forced me to think of them all the time, who forced me to think of them all the time, who forced me to that the world knew I was incomplete, or without substance, or did not measure up because it was not England; that I was incomplete, or without substance, and did not measure up because I was not English” (Kincaid 213). Kincaid is experiencing what many colonized people feel but cannot express. She also encounters the complacent, seemingly happy colonized person. These people, like her father, accept the views of the “superior” civilization such as the English. In George Orwell’s Burmese Days, Doctor Veraswani is an Indian doctor who accepts the British lifestyle. The doctor also agrees with the derogatory perception of Indian held by the British, “ 'Ach, this heat! Some mornings I think that never will I get the What happens to the culture that was in place before the English came along? It is erased, replaced, or seen as primitive. The people feel inferior as Kincaid observed, “They were special, everything about them said so, even their clothes rustled, swished, and soothed. The world was theirs, not mine; everything told me so” (Kincaid 209). When Kincaid learned to eat the proper English, her mother exclaimed, “Did you see how nicely she can eat” (Kincaid 206)? How can one way of life replace another? It all boils down to complacent and sometimes ignorant people who do not fight back or questions the newcomers’ ideals. English lifestyles destroyed Antiguan life.
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