All 21 entries tagged Dispossession

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June 07, 2008

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:           |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

June 06, 2008

Berber

Berber (see Gryphon).

The Berbers are one of the indigenous peoples of North Africa. Whilst they make up the majority of the population, they represent another culture in search of an identity, since the Arabization of North Africa has left many of its inhabitants claiming Arab descendancy, far too many than is feasibly conceivable considering the small trickle of Arab people that have historically gone to North Africa.


Amanda Hopkins : 06 Jun 2008 16:24 |  Tags:        |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

rites like crabs

These were the rites […] like crabs (1.VI.i).

Imagery of struggle and division, depicted with the images of 'divid[ing] the wrestlers' and men as 'centaurs',  suggests the difficulties that the natives of St Lucia face when conforming to the needs of tourists, while maintaining ownership of their island. The island is in a constant struggle against the infiltration of Western colonization.


Amanda Hopkins : 06 Jun 2008 14:39 |  Tags:        |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

June 05, 2008

Ghost Dancer

Ghost Dancer (3.XXXI.iii).

A term that originated in the 1890s amongst colonized Indian tribes in North America. A prophecy was made by Indian men that all those who danced the Ghost Dance at the appointed times would be suspended in the air at springtime, whilst the new earth buried all the white men (Bib:24).


Amanda Hopkins : 05 Jun 2008 14:14 |  Tags:         |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

totem

totem (2.XXXI.ii).

A natural object assumed as the emblem for a family, clan &c., especially within Indian tribes. Here its discovery by Achille mirrors his journey of discovery into his own past and the reader’s accumulating knowledge of the island’s history. Totems were sometimes painted on a grave, but here the 'disturbed grave' is probably metaphorical. The fact that 'A thousand archaeologists started screaming/as Achille wrenched out the totem…' illustrates not only the tensions between the island’s inhabitants and the impositions of Westernised tourism, but also links in with the theme of being uprooted.


Amanda Hopkins : 05 Jun 2008 13:28 |  Tags:           |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

dead language

dead language (3.XXXI.ii).

The leaves of the pomme-Arac tree talk a 'dead language', a reminder that the history of the island has effectively been buried under centuries of slavery and oppression.


Amanda Hopkins : 05 Jun 2008 08:24 |  Tags:        |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

Aruacs muskets Conquistador

like Aruacs/falling to the muskets of the Conquistador (3.XXXI.i).

A recurrent image throughout the text, a reminder of the original inhabitants of the island (Aruac Indians in the third century AD) and the themes of colonialism. Conquistador is Spanish for ‘conqueror’ (cf. Conquistadores, 1.VII.i), but is used specifically in reference to the sixteenth-century Spanish soldiers who defeated the Indians of Mexico, central America and Peru.


Amanda Hopkins : 05 Jun 2008 07:59 |  Tags:         |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

May 21, 2008

white waggons

I saw the white waggons […] interstate (4.XXXIV.i).

The wagon train was the only option for white American pilgrims hoping to settle on the Great Plains in the mid-1800s.  The development of railroads as a faster, safer mode of transport accelerated westward expansion (cf. Union Pacific, 4.XXXIV.ii) and threatened the Native American way of life (Bib:22). Walcott’s reference to the Interstate Highway System currently used in the USA perhaps emphasises the fact that there can be no return to a traditional, nomadic Native American way of life on America’s Great Plains.


Amanda Hopkins : 21 May 2008 14:52 |  Tags:            |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

Crow horseman

The Crow horseman pointed his lance at the contrail (4.XXXIV.i).

A member of the Native American Crow tribe notices the vapour trail left by a passing aircraft, a sign of the change that is to be enforced on the traditional Native American way of life as a result of westward expansion and modernisation.


Amanda Hopkins : 21 May 2008 14:24 |  Tags:         |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

epic to epigram

a lost love narrowed from epic to epigram (4.XXXIV.i).

Perhaps a reference to the Great Plains and the Native Americans who populated them. The mid-nineteenth century acceleration of American expansion has effectively destroyed the epic landscape and Native American way of life – all that is left is a verse on a tombstone. Ironically, an epigram is typically witty, and is therefore an unsuitable legacy of the genocide of the Native American race.


Amanda Hopkins : 21 May 2008 14:16 |  Tags:             |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

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