Derek Walcott and 'Omeros' Flashcards
Q: How does Omeros engage with myth?
Reclamation and critique: layering new voices and pains on classical text – not glorifying past, but mourning what is cost. It renews ancient myth without mockery, using it to explore Caribbean identity and history.
Q: How is the form of Omeros structured?
A: Non-linear narrative, divided into seven books, uses loose terza rima and Caribbean patois.
Q: What are the three main narrative threads in Omeros?
A: 1. Achille vs Hector for Helen, 2. Major Plunkett and Maud’s colonial reckoning, 3. Walcott’s autobiographical reflection.
Q: What does Philoctete’s wound symbolize?
A: The enduring pain of colonial trauma, the persistent legacy of slavery, and the loss of cultural memory.
Q: What is the symbolic meaning of the Gommier Tree?
A: Represents sacred indigenous culture destroyed by colonial violence.
Q: What does Achille’s canoe “In God We Troust” represent?
An allegory of Walcott’s very method of Homeric adaption – Troust may seem like error to Western perspective BUT echoes Caribbean patois. Creative assertion of local identity– the assumption of Western religion but transforming it through own voice. Empowerment: divine truth doesn’t have to be spoken in Standard English
–> Homeric epic tradition can be reimagined in Caribbean culture: Western critics may view it as “wrong” use of classical texts, but instead transforms classics and sanctifies that culture as a new epic voice.
Q: How does Walcott reinterpret the epic tradition?
A: By elevating everyday Caribbean life (fishermen, islanders) into epic scope.
Q: What does Seven Seas represent?
Nickname Old St Omere: a Caribbean Homer, A living link between ancient epic tradition and modern Caribbean voice.
Deliberate ambiguity of whether he speaks Greek or African language: fusion of oral traditions that equally valorises the classical and African cultural roots. Holding both Homer and Africa at once creates new oral tradition rooted in Caribbean identity – legitimizes African diasporic memory as equally epic alongside diasporic memory.
Q: What is the importance of Antigone’s bust of Homer?
Simultaneous weight and limitations of Western Canon: silent witness incapable of empathy – cannot respond to the suffering of colonialism/slavery also inextricable from the West. Walcott must reimagine Canon with reinterpretation for postcolonial voice.
Symbolism of the canoes
Trees on water powerful image of displacement: submission to their transformation and tragic compliance to colonial exploitation – allegory for colonized peoples forced to forget roots to serve imposed function (typically as slaves).
Q: How is the rivalry between Hector and Achille significant?
A: Mirrors Homeric epic conflict but on a personal, local Caribbean scale – the heroism of everyday lives
Q: How does the poem depict Achille at the end?
A: Finding contentment in fishing and simple life, symbolizing survival and renewal.
Importance of Title ‘Omeros’
Cultural fusion of O-mer-os: deconstruction and reconstruction of name – adapting Greek tradition to reflect both classical past and his cultural present – a new language of epic born from creole.
Q: What is the original name of Saint Lucia, and what does it mean?
A: “Iounaloao,” meaning “Where the iguana is found.”
Q: What is the symbolism of the iguana in Omeros?
A: It stands for cultural memory—ancient, enduring, and a silent witness to human intrusion and loss.
