An ugly thing, that is what you are when you become a tourist, an ugly, empty thing, a stupid thing, a piece of rubbish pausing here and there to gaze at this and taste that, and it will never occur to you that people who inhabit the place in which you have just paused cannot stand you, that behind their closed doors they laugh at your strangeness… They do not like you. They do not like me! That thought never actually occurs to you… (Kincaid, 17)
Why is the tourist an ugly thing? The tourist is rubbish for the same reason; they come into the country completely oblivious of the status of the native people- a tourist is therefore uneducated and seems stupid because the ones who travel to Jamaica have only a false preconceived notion that all Jamaicans are lively and happy people. Sure, they can be optimistic but that doesn’t detract from their economic status and the struggles they go through. A reason why tourists are hated is because they shelter themselves in the resorts and choose to ignore the poor. They don’t even think about lending a helping hand to the people who struggle to get by in Jamaica everyday. It is the negligence that is just as detrimental as if the tourists were to arrive in Jamaica and decide to beat on the locals that wait them.
