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Character Summaries:

Philoctete: We are introduced to Philoctete as an old man who has spent his whole life on St. Lucia. He loves the island and its people, but is wary of the tourists who always inhabit the island. He also has a severely injured leg that he struggles with how to cure. He decides to suffer through the pain of his leg with the hope that Ma Kilman might help him to cure it. He also plays the role of peacemaker when he attempts to make a truce between Achille and Hector at the end of their friendship. Once Achilles is out at sea, Philoctete believes that his good friend is lost. He seeks guidance from Seven Seas, who assures him Achilles is alive and on a personal journey of discovery. Philoctete has little faith in this, so he decides to start embracing and believing in miracles since there is no other option but negativity. Later, he becomes the godfather of Helen’s baby and his leg is finally cured by Ma Kilman with the help of some traditional medicine of the island. Philoctete is a character who’s most prevalent characteristic is perseverance. He pushes through the pain of his injured leg throughout the epic, as well as through his worry about Achille at sea. In the end, he ends up happier than he’s been for the whole of the story because he is healed, both physically and spiritually.

Major Plunkett: Major Plunkett is a British expatriate who has retired to St. Lucia after his service and after he was wounded in World War II. He has been married to his wife, Maud, for 25 years. They have no children together and live on a plot of land where they employ other people on the island, including Helen at one point. He loves the Caribbean, as it is a place of peace for him after the horror experiences he faced in the war, including watching his comrades die. After living on the island for quite some time, Major Plunkett starts to feel isolated from the people on it, his own people in England, and himself. He decided to delve into research on St. Lucia and his own past. He find that he had an ancestor who was a midshipman for the English Navy who died in a ship crash at age 19. He replaces the empty space in his life that would be filled by a son if he had one. Discovering this ancestor motivates him to want to continue researching his family tree and to make a type of pilgrimage to old British battle grounds. After doing this research, he worries that, in the context of the Caribbean, he will end up on the wrong side of history. He also becomes distant from Maud as a consequence of all the time he spends fixating on his history and the history of the island. He starts to miss the good old days, when he was unaware and could cling to his patriotism and his honorable life of service. Once St. Lucia gains independence from Britain, he starts to feel like an outsider again. He continues to float on the fringes of the people of the island until Maud dies, supposedly of cancer. We find that he wrote her love letters throughout their marriage, and she died while reading them. We see him grieve for Maud, but eventually he copes by continuing to have conversations with her in his head and by reading his old letters. One of the few white people in this epic, Major Plunkett shows the reader his journey of self reflection on this role he plays as the “white man,” not only in this story but in history as a whole. His character shines a light on the many aspect of loss in history, both in general and personally, and he becomes more and more developed and lets the reader into another perspective on life on the island of St. Lucia.

Walcott/Narrator: The narrator feels his burden is to pay attention to the past and to turn it into something the people will be able to consume and understand through poetry. He sees his town as somewhat destroyed and describes what he sees as both a geographical and historical drought. We also learn about the loss of his mother, first when her mind fell victim to dementia, and second when she died, and that his father is dead as well. Our narrator also holds a love for the island, like a lot of the other characters, and feels as though he belongs there in spite of his loss of the native language. This loss of language is just another loss of the narrator’s that we learn of in this part of his development, as well as his loss of a woman. This rounds up his losses to his mother, his father, “his” language, and his love. He visits and experiences the past of the Native Americans in the United State and begins to draw his own parallels between their struggle and the struggle of the indigenous Caribbean people against their colonizers. He muses on the hypocrisy of history, and sees it as something to be forgotten on St. Lucia. After this, the narrator fixates more on the loss of his father, on how he is currently older than his father ever was, since he died young. He also reflects on how he had abandoned his family and friends in his past. He reconciles with his past once Philoctete’s wound (rife with metaphorical meaning) is cured by traditional medicine. However, he starts to see himself as a self-indulgent poet and tries to reckon with that by expressing his obsession with Helen and her mythical association through this epic of his. The narrator is yet another character who provides a perspective on the past, but he does this through struggling with his own. He is very in tune with his island, and therefore is concerned with the island’s history as well. Through learning about his perceived loss of language (which points to the larger loss of tradition on the island at the hands of modernization and Westernization), and his loss of love and family we gain a clear view of who he is as a main character in this epic. The narrator character is used as a tool for Walcott to directly express himself in his epic.

Helen: Helen is first introduced in the novel at the beach where she is described as one of the most beautiful women who every man falls for. She is described as a housewife and is considered to be the center of the universe in the novel. Throughout the majority of the novel she goes back and forth between Hector and Achilles until she finally ends up pregnant with Hector’s baby, because of which she ends up with Hector. Rumors spread that Achilles has been lost at sea so Helen then grieves for the possible loss of him. Later, at Hector’s funeral, Helen appears but doesn’t go to his grave and becomes strangely distant. After Maud’s funeral, Helen tells Achilles she wants to be with him. Helen then gives Achilles her yellow dress so that he can dress up in it for a dance. She gets a job as a waitress and continues to feel proud of who she is. Though she is mostly looked at for her beauty she is still proud of who she is and proud of her past.

Seven Seas: Seven Seas is a blind man who is described as he who “sees with his ears” (pg. 11). He is called Seven Seas because he claims that he has traveled the world. One of the first times he is introduced is at Ma Kilmans No Pain Cafe where he starts singing in an unfamiliar language. Seven Seas appears in Achilles dream before he goes to Africa. When Achilles returns Seven Seas tells him about his own past life and adventures. When Hector dies, like Helen, he goes to the funeral but doesn’t go to his grave. Seven Seas then almost transforms into a version of Omeros while the narrator talks about his journey to the underworld and helps the narrator to make his journey through the path of the underworld. In the real world Seven Seas tells Achilles that the human species is endangered. He then continues to predicts the fate of the other characters such as Major Plunkett and predicts that Plunkett will heal in time. Seven Seas sees by using his other senses but still is considered one of the wisest characters in the entire novel. He is regularly someone who the other characters return to for guidance, and makes recurring appearances in most of the historical flashbacks. Seven seas brings faith and a sense of tradition to this epic.

Ma Kilman Ma Kilman is an elderly women who owns No Pain Cafe. She is a recurring character throughout the novel who mainly helps Philoctete heal his wounds through traditional medicine. Ma Kilman is religious, Catholic, and attends Mass. She cares about most the characters through the novel and can be described as an “old mother” to most of them especially in healing Philoctete and Major Plunkett when his wife dies. Ma Kilman brings a sense of caring and love to the story that is not noticed as frequently.

Hector: The epic starts off with a hectic battle between Hector and Achilles over the beautiful Helen. Their relationship is ruined by the fight and Hector exchanges his life as a fisherman to become a taxi driver. Hector soon feels trapped in this way of life, causing him to never feel at peace and never satisfied with his relationship with Helen. Although Hector was confident in his decision of leaving the sea, he was unhappy with that choice. Hector’s exchange of the traditional St. Lucian job tragically ends his life and the punishment of a car accident for abandoning his best friend and the sea.

Achille The book starts off with Achille and Hector’s rivalry over Helen. Their friendship ends and Achille attempts at winning Helen over. He also aims at discovering his racial roots to confirm that he deserves to be apart of the St. Lucian culture. In the journey of Achilles finding his past roots, he ends up in his ancestral village in Africa. He meets Afolabe, his father who attempts to teach him his history and ancestry. In the process of learning the meaning of his name, he is stubborn at first. When Achilles’ dad tries to preach that knowing the meaning of his name is important, Achilles explains "In the world I come from," he tells Afolabe, "we accept the sounds we are given" and he “still [does] not care to know" (138). He finally finds peace with his identity and he reawakens. When he is awake, he is more fond of his peoples cultures and traditions. The book ends as Achille is content with his original and traditional way of life.

PLOT FOR BOOK 7: Beginning One of the first real descriptions of Omeros Through the help of Omeros, the narrator sees the future of St. Lucia and is informed of the history of St. Lucia Achilles and Hector fight over Helen for her love The beginning of the novel you meet two of the characters, Philoctete and Achilles. They are both talked about as they are, Fishermen. There is also one of the first real descriptions of Omeros which then through the telling of Omeros, the narrator sees the future of St. Lucia and is informed of the history of St. Lucia. You then are introduced to the remaining characters such as Helen, Major Plunkett, Seven Seas, etc. The people seems to find discomfort and misses the way things were in the past. The love triangle with Helen begins with Achilles and Hector fight over Helen for her love. Helen chooses Hector for she is pregnant with his child.

Middle Seven Seas and Achilles enter the underworld Hector is in “hell” (292) He dies in a car accident. Ma Kilman’s niece, Christine, makes an appearance and is described as a “new helen” (pg. 316) Achilles leaves on a journey but rumors spread that he is lost at sea which worries Helen. Meanwhile Philoctetes is wounded and is seeked out by Ma Kilman who uses traditional medicine to cure him. Achilles returns but Helen does not seek him out. Seven Seas then ventures into the underworld where Hector is located since he had died in a car accident. Maud Plunkett dies of cancer in the middle of the novel as well.

End Helen chooses Achilles after grieving over Hector. Helen is pregnant and Achilles wants to give it an African name but Helen doesn’t (pg. 318) "a triumphant Achille, his hand gloved in blood, moved to the other canoes/ whose hulls were thumping with fishes./…/ When he left the beach the sea was still going on". The book ends with descriptive imagery of Achille aggressively killing fish finally allowing him to come to terms with his life peacefully. The book also concludes with the sea continuing to be at peace. After Hector's death, Helen then chooses to be with Achilles. She is still pregnant and Achilles wants to give the baby an African name but Helen does not. Major Plunkett is grieving from the death of his wife and Ma Kilman is there to console him and she is also there taking care of Phiocete still. Things with the people on the island, they soon to realize how much is to offer with the place and with life. The book ends with descriptive imagery of Achille aggressively killing fish finally allowing him to come to terms with his life peacefully. The book also concludes with the sea continuing to be at peace.

Reception: Since the publication of Omeros in 1990, Derek Walcott’s work has become a statement in the literature world. It was given high praise by The New York Times and The Washington Post, later being chosen as “The Best Book of 1990”. His analysis of the Caribbean’s rich History and his intricate pose on the references made throughout the text. Maria McGarrity, an English Literature critic, says Walcott’s work in Omeros “seeks to transcend “the limits of nation and geography” and “to move beyond the boundaries of time, space, language, and culture”.” (McGarrity) The book is composed of complex patterns and historical recollections; making it a “major achievement”.

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