Jeremiah, "A Small Place"

There are a few instances that the author points out that show major differences in how a tourist views Antigua and how the locals view Antigua. There is the instance where the tourist easily gets through customs with ease, while the locals have a harder time getting through customs because they have to bring needed provisions from another country. There is the instance where the tourist admires the beauty of the beach and the ocean, while the locals laugh at the tourist for swimming in the same ocean where the entire town dumps their waste. Throughout this excerpt from Kincaid's A Small Place, there are many instances that show the differences in perception of the locals and the tourists, but why do these differences exist?
In order to answer this question, one has to understand how the author feels about tourists. The author seems to describe a tourist as a person trying to escape from their boring, desperate, and lonely lives. The author is trying to convey the message that tourists are so bent on escaping from their lives, that they do not take time to look around at their surroundings. That is where the difference in perception lies. The tourist is so naive, that they do not even see the suffering and hardships that the locals see. The tourist only sees paradise, whereas the locals see the poverty and hardships that plague their home.