Bethel through its commitment to satirical, sarcastic and thoughtful tones provides an effective argument on the fluidity of Bahamian national identity. Whenever Bethel describes people who think “one” thing describes national identity, he always uses a sarcastic tone by referring to that view as “absurd,” “exalted,” or puts quotes around worlds as “authentically Bahamian.” However, when describing his point of view he has a thoughtful tone with the use of inclusive language such as “we” or “our.” Two examples of this are when he says “we know no identity except among themselves, landing now here, now there, as suits us” and “we prefer to emphasize flow over fixity, change over stagnation.” Bethel takes a very sarcastic tone in describing Fox Hill, saying it is the "unchanging symbol of the Bahamas" and "the quintessence of our national spirit" and "like the statues in the square or the straw market or the flag, a symbol whose meaning melts away if you watch it for too long? almost making fun of Fox Hill because it is what many describe as “the ideal Bahamian identity.” Through the tone of satire it dispenses this truth by continually showing that the story of Fox Hill is malleable and ever-changing fluid. Bethel encourages readers to feel that we have found the sign of national identity, but dispenses with this sign by showing that “the journey is free, collective life is recognized as composed of many different paths. Identity can be freely thought of as a garden planted with trees, but as a sea dotted with islands, and one's reality as a series of migrations between them “Bethel employs a variety of strategies to advance his argument. The three that had the most impact were his use of… half the card… he refutes it with strong counterarguments about the changes that have occurred at Fox Hill; hence the need to see the village not as the sign of Bahamian identity, but as a malleable and fluid source of “Bahamianness” free from stagnation. When Bethel discusses Pierce Lewis' theory of monuments, he introduces the topic of monuments by prompting the reader to think that the sign of the ideal Bahamian national identity is in Rawson's Square. However, after Bethel attributed the unidentifiable nature of this topic to the Bahamian context, any hope that the monuments would become the cornerstone of national identity was swept away. This style of writing is very effective because what it does is introduce what the reader might be thinking and then logically demonstrates why this point of view is wrong. As a result, he allows the reader to see that only his point of view makes sense.