All 5 entries tagged Hector

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 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

the title he gave his transport

the title he gave his transport (2.XXI.i).

Achille is here seen experiencing a premonition of the downfall of his friend through the movement of the stars above St Lucia. This mirrors the repeated instances of prediction in Homeric epic, for example when Teirisias the prophet of the Underworld predicts a solitary and difficult homecoming for Odysseus should his men eat the cattle of Helios (Odyssey 6:104-117). Foreboding and signs of the future in Homeric epic also often focus upon the skies, but rather than stars they are often told using thunderclaps, the movement of birds etc., for example an eagle is sent by Zeus in Iliad 8: 247-9. In Homeric epic auguries in the sky are sent by the gods to convey an omen to mortals. In Omeros, Achille notes the speedy and inexorable fall of a star (the star's end is wholly unavoidable, as by the time the movement of its light has reached Achille in St Lucia, the star has of course already fallen millions of light years away in space) and, connecting it to the name of Hector's car (the 'sixteen-seater passenger-van' which we will be told about in 2.XXII), 'he trembled'. Achille clearly recognises that in his change of transport, Hector has exchanged the traditional St Lucian way of life, represented by fishing and canoes, for modernity and a newer, westernised lifestyle and set of values. In doing so he has sealed his doom. Just as Hektor's fate is sealed from the beginning of Homer's Iliad, and made more certain by Patroklos' death, so is Walcott's Hector doomed after his purchase of the Comet. Achille expresses the inevitability of Hector's downfall through the simile of the last spark of light in a dying fire hissing out and the image of the falling star. Both presage Hector's death which will occur whilst driving his Comet (6, XLIV).

Amanda Hopkins : 28 Jun 2007 15:59 |  Tags: Achille Achilleus Characters Epic Tradition Hector Hektor Iliad Journey To The Underworld Odyssey Prophecy & Omens The Title He Gave His Transport Tourism |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

whored away

the way it whored/away a simple life that would soon disappear (2.XXII.i, cf. 'daughters to whores').

This suggests the cheapening of the island's values, but also references Helen of Troy, who was made an adulteress when she was given to Paris by Aphrodite. St Lucia's Helen alternately lives with Achille and Hector, and is pregnant by one or the other. [DD]

Amanda Hopkins : 28 Jun 2007 15:50 |  Tags: Achille Characters Epic Tradition Hector Helen Helen Of Troy Mythology Trojan War Whored Away Women |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

van

van (1.VII.i).

Hector's taxi or 'transport'. Hector has given up the traditional job of a fisherman to become a taxi driver for tourists.

Amanda Hopkins : 28 Jun 2007 12:58 |  Tags: Context Fishing Hector Tourism Van |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Hector

Amanda Hopkins : 23 Jun 2007 12:09 |  Tags: Characters Hector |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem