Post#7 of my English Class: The Rum Diary Reflection

            The Rum Diary is a 2011 film based on a novel by Hunter S. Thompson The novel is about Paul Kemp getting a job at a newspaper in Puerto Rico. While there, he meet some people like Bob Sala, Lotterman and Moburg. He also meet Chenault and her fiancé Hal Sanderson who introduce him to Zimburger and Segarra, and all of them try to  involved him in a fraudulent business. They went to Saint Thomas, that is the center of their business, but Kemp bring in Sala to the trip and therefore Sanderson end their business. Then, Chenault leave Sanderson and go to Kemp, but he lost his job. Finally, he moves to New York, when he marries Chenault and became a successful writer.

            In this film, the main characters were foreign in Puerto Rico. There it is Bob Sala not Puerto Rican but he understands Spanish, he lives in the suburban and live an ordinary live and all of this makes him a traveler. Paul Kemp first came as a tourist when he was staying in the hotel, but then, when he was force to leave the hotel he became a traveler because he start to know the Puerto Rico culture. In the other hand, we have Sanderson, Zimburger and Segarra that are all tourists because they just live in nice places, they didn't care about Puerto Rico they just have interest in money. We also have Lotterman as a traveler because he knows really well Puerto Rico.

            Lotterman refer to Puerto Rico saying: "This is America", but Kemp respond: "This is Puerto Rico" and Lotterman end the conversation saying: "This is America." With this, Lotterman demonstrate that he knows Puerto Rico really well and with the United States invasion Puerto Rico had turn into an American country. In the other hand, Kemp shows that he didn't know it, because he was just referring to the Caribbean Island without thinking that Puerto Rico is part of the United States.  In other scene, Sanderson was in a beach and he says to some men that were arriving to it: "This is a private beach!" But, the beaches in Puerto Rico are public and they are not property of any one, but he arrives as a tourist and want to command the whole island.

In other scene there was Kemp interviewing a couple tourists:

Kemp: " What would you say you like 

most about Puerto Rico?"

Male Tourist: " The bowling alleys and the casinos."

Female Tourist: "Well, the more you spend, the more you save."

            Kemp: "Have you seen a lot of the island?"

            Male Tourist: "We don't leave the hotel."

            Female Tourist: "It isn't safe."

            Kemp: "But you're having fun."

            Both Tourists: "Oh, yeah! A lotta, lotta fun!"

            This shows the perspective that the short term tourists have about the island. They think that Puerto Rico is not a safe place and therefore they have to stay at the hotel. And, they also said that Puerto Rico are not more than bowling, casinos and low prices. All of this is also connected to Jamaica Kincaid's book "A Small Place", because in it she describes that the tourists are "ugly human beings" and that all they do is gaze and critic the country in which they are tourists. They didn't want to know the country, they just want to stay in a hotel and 'enjoy the paradise'; in this case they are here only to enjoy the bowling and the casinos.