The main reading for Essay 1 is Jamaica Kincaid’s “On Seeing England for the First Time.”
“On Seeing England for the First Time” is an anti-colonial text, which means the essay takes up a strong position against colonialism and the legacy of British colonialism in the Caribbean nation of Antigua. Mind you, the kind of colonial impact that Kincaid takes a stand against is mainly cultural, disseminated especially by the colonized nation’s education and schools. The schools only taught “English” history and English culture. Antiguan culture and history were considered unreal and not worthy of being taught. So colonial Antigua got filled with an educated middle-class that was less Antiguan and more “British.” While people like Kincaid’s parents didn’t mind it, the writer minds because she thinks critically about being imperialized/colonized culturally. She can’t undo or reverse history, so she takes a stand through her writing.
In your essay, please validate the claim that “On Seeing England for the First Time” is a strong criticism of colonialism with analysis of relevant passages and quotes from the essay.
The essay should have a thesis. A thesis is a claim and support the claim throughout.
Use MLA for inline citations. This means you put the page number in parenthesis at the end of a quote or a paraphrase from the text.
In other words, give a structure to the essay with an Introduction that establishes context, a clear argument, paragraphs with unique yet related content and use quotes and/or keywords from the text to support the claims you make.
