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On Seeing England For The First Time Rhetorical Analysis

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In Jamaica Kincaid’s essay “On Seeing England for the First Time”, she clearly voices her animosity towards the one place her whole life surrounded as a child in hopes of persuading her audience into understanding that there is a fine line between dreams and realities. As an adult, Kincaid finally is able to travel to England to witness firsthand what all the hype was about and why her childhood and education happened to be based around the fantasy customs of this country. Noticing that every detail of her life revolved around England, from the way she ate her food to the naming of her family members, Kincaid found her hatred growing more and more. Coming from a British colony, the obsession with England drove Kincaid crazy to the point that she finally traveled there one day. She says, “The space between the idea of something and its reality is always wide and deep and dark” (37). Kincaid sets out to prove that English life was all just an exaggeration not worthy of the publicity and attention it received. Kincaid makes a fascinating argument that the idea of something and its reality are two completely different things. Using herself as a firsthand source, she uses many metaphors and personal narratives to help the reader understand her views and emotions …show more content…

She refers to “Made in England” on numerous accounts to show exactly how much of her world revolved around this “perfect” ideal place everyone wanted to live up to (33). Explaining how everything but “the exceptions being the sea, the sky, and the air we breathe”, Kincaid is portraying a sense of dictatorship over her own life (33). Her tone grows stronger with more anger towards this control England had on her life as her essay goes on. Using this tone reinforces her argument of showing the reader that England was not as splendid and fabulous of a place people have depicted it to

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