“Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.” –Ralph Ellison J. K. Rowling once said, “Indifference and neglect often do more damage than outright dislike.” Working through five texts this semester, combined with several secondary reading sources; exploring and recognizing the differences between literature in national and global contexts has strongly improved. Building close reading practices and understanding historical processes related to globalization as well as colonial and post colonialism have developed a strong contextual analysis for the works discussed. A Small Place, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Graceland, Anil’s Ghost, and The White Tiger are all sufficient sources, which portray who globalization is interpreted. Shaping the world in cultural, social, political and economic stand points; globalization is an eye opening aspect examining the relationship between identity and social context which I would like to interrogate through the prism of humanity within this essay. Generally speaking, there is not a solid explanation when describing humanity, but rather can be interpreted several ways. Through the novels A Small Place, Graceland, and the White Tiger humanity is constructed through the coming to know of one’s identity and the journey taken to reach this social context. I will use these three novels to further the explanation and analysis that identity seeking is a catalyst of interpreting one’s own humanity. The issue deriving from human rights is that different people of different countries interpret the concept differently, so there is a differing understanding between the term and its protection. Human rights however are fundamental for living and basically for human existence. In the first novel, A Small Place written by Jamaica Kincaid, the tone of the novel is quickly established from the beginning. It is easy to recognize that the author points out an implicated reader. In other words the tourist. An ongoing theme throughout this novel is colonialism and the identity of Antigua. The locals in Antiqua remember their country’s history as something very present to them. Their past history is not much of a history at all, but much more ongoing. It’s still relevant in their immediate past, which touches upon the aspect of temporality. Kincaid suggests that tourists, not only who visit Antigua but also in more general terms, are privileged. From the start of the novel, she points a finger at all people who visit the country who are not natives. The relationship between the global and the local in this novel helps to further explain why aspects of humanity in this dramatic monologue are of such great importance. The locals do not necessarily get the same privileges as tourists do visiting the country. A strong point made by Kincaid argues that tourists entering the country for vacations rarely take into consideration what goes on in that country at the local level. However, through vivid examples, Kincaid assists the reader to see why maintaining their humanity and incorporating local knowledge is a catalyst to their identity construction. Kincaid refers to Antigua as “A Small Place”, suggesting that through the lens of the tourist experiencing a tropical island, lays complex Antiguan people who are misinterpreted. Kincaid says, “For the people in a small place, every event is a domestic event; the people in a small place cannot see themselves in a larger picture, they cannot see that they might be part of a chain of something, anything” (p 52). This points out the hostility of Antigua’s colonial past and how now a day it is driven by tourism, but also the concept of humanity comes into play. Tourists visiting this country need to be more perceptive to the local natives who live there and take into consideration their everyday lives. Humanity