All 94 entries tagged Characters
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June 08, 2008
His cripple
His cripple (2.XX.ii).
Possibly a reference to Caliban, Prospero's slave in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Minkler (1993) discusses other allusions to the play in Omeros (see Critical Bibliography).
Amanda Hopkins
08 Jun 2008 12:19
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Tags: Caliban Characters Context Glossary His Cripple Philoctete Prospero The Tempest William Shakespeare
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June 07, 2008
minnow
minnow (2.XXXII.iii).
A minnow is a small freshwater fish (Bib:CALD), suggesting here the size of the plane in the distance and specifically in a term familiar to a fisherman, like Achille, whose viewpoint is given here.
Amanda Hopkins
07 Jun 2008 12:33
| Tags: Achille Animals Characters Fishing Glossary Minnow Water
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I felt transported
I felt transported,/… to a place I had lost/…//It was another country (2.XXXII.ii).
This refers to the theme of 'uprootedness', a reminder that nobody on the island is an original inhabitant; everyone is displaced and not at home. The verb 'transported' also echoes the noun 'transport', the term used for Hector's vehicle, the Comet, which symbolises his exchange of the traditional St Lucian values for a modern Westernised lifestyle.
Amanda Hopkins
07 Jun 2008 11:51
| Tags: Characters Colonialism Comet Context Dispossession Hector I Felt Transported St Lucia Transport Walcott-The-Narrator
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my mother
my mother (3.XXXII.i).
Walcott's mother, Alix, is never named in the text, although his father, Warwick, is named three times: in 1.XII.i, where the Narrator converses with his father's ghost, first in Warwick’s his own words and later in words that might be Warwick's or the Narrator's, and again in 3.XXXII.i, in his mother's words.
Amanda Hopkins
07 Jun 2008 10:11
| Tags: Alix Walcott Autobiography Characters My Mother Narrators Mother Walcott The Narrator Warwick Walcott
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she fought her memory
she fought her//memory (3.XXXII.i).
Memory is a key element of classical epic, since the poems are intended as commemorations of past figures and events. In Omeros, characters, such as Achille and Dennis Plunkett, have a longing for communion with the past. Memory brings in the theme of nostalgia and the journey that the characters take in order to find their identity and feeling of home. Memory is also important in the Odyssey, and the loss of it threatens Odysseus from returning home.
Amanda Hopkins
07 Jun 2008 09:18
| Tags: Achille Characters Dennis Plunkett Epic Tradition Identity & Naming Memory Remembering & Commemoration Narrators Mother Nostos Odysseus Odyssey She Fought Her Memory Walcott-The-Narrator
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June 06, 2008
Charing Cross
Charing Cross (1.XXXVIII.i).
Charing Cross is an interesting choice of underground station. For one, it is close to both Trafalgar Square (a symbol of England's old empire and its nationalism) and the National Gallery (which houses many great works of art from the history of the Western world), which the narrator goes on to visit. The underground system itself fits with the feeling of the chapter that London, whilst having a gorgeous, historical exterior, has a dirtier, polluted underbelly. Also, it means that the narrator must emerge into the light from underground which has many symbolic possibilities.
Amanda Hopkins
06 Jun 2008 15:15
| Tags: Characters Charing Cross Context Epic Tradition Europe Great Wanderings Historycolonialism London Odyssey Walcott The Narrator
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June 05, 2008
black dog heel
The black dog did dog-dances//around him, yapping, crouching, entangling his heel (3.XXXI.ii).
One of several references to Achille’s heel. In the classical tradition, Achilles’ heel was often cited as the most vulnerable area of his body, and it was sometimes said that he died when it was wounded. The legend goes that Achilles’ goddess mother Thetis, afraid of losing her child to mortal death, dipped him in the River Styx when he was just a child. This rendered his body totally invulnerable, except a spot on his heel where Thetis had held him (Bib:23).
Amanda Hopkins
05 Jun 2008 08:41
| Tags: Achille Achilles Animals Black Dog Heel Characters Epic Tradition
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pomme–Arac
pomme-Arac (3.XXXI.ii).
Explained below (3.XXXI.ii) by Seven Seas: 'Aruac mean the race//that burning there like the leaves and pomme is the word/in patois for "apple". This used to be their place.'
Amanda Hopkins
05 Jun 2008 08:18
| Tags: Aruac Characters Colonialism Glossary Peoples Plants Pomme-Arac Seven Seas
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naturally contraceptives
naturally, by//a Church that damned them to hell for contraceptives (1.XI.i).
This displays an opposition between the fact that the Plunketts cannot children and the irony Dennis employs when he refers to the principles of the Church.
Amanda Hopkins
05 Jun 2008 07:17
| Tags: Characters Christianity Context Dennis Plunkett Naturally Contraceptives Plunketts Religion
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white sea white noise
She could feel the white sea//losing its white noise (2.XI.ii).
Dennis is losing his colonizer culture to turn into a real inhabitant of St Lucia. It also represents the Empire losing its voice, as Dennis becomes integrated in the local culture.
Amanda Hopkins
05 Jun 2008 07:07
| Tags: Characters Colonialism Context Dennis Plunkett Maud Plunkett White Sea White Noise
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