Perspective

As many of the essays included in this collection deal with issues of personal identity or reflecting on the author's experiences, it is important to understand the author's perspective. In "The Telephone," for example, the author reflects on simple village life in Jordan and the negative effects that globalization had on his community. Globalization caused many people to leave the community to find better jobs or, in Accawi's case, to leave the country to seek higher education. In order to understand the import of Accawi's lament that he has not found a better life, it is crucial to understand that he is writing from the perspective of a highly educated, affluent, and successful writer. None of the comforts of being in the upper-class, he argues, can make up for losing a community.

In "On Seeing England for the First Time," Jamaica Kincaid writes as an Antiguan native about...