History as the Key to Unlock the Future in Omeros:Philoctete’s Healing, Achille’s Completion, and the Narrator’s Inspiration :: Omeros

accounting as the Key to Unlock the Future in OmerosPhiloctetes Healing, Achilles Completion, and the Narrators InspirationTime is the metre, memory the whole piece (129)Derek Walcott forced the literary world to disagree with him when he denied that Omeros was an epic. Some critics allude that, like his narrator, Walcott is not sure where his work belongs. Others suggest that Walcott denies its obvious literary genre in order to avoid being categorized. Regardless, Derek Walcott repeatedly says that the purpose of his piece is to wrestle with the duality within himself and that of the Caribbean islands, specifically St. Lucia. Despite occasionally downplaying the importee of any existence, Walcott utilizes a accounting/ time motif to explore historys importance in forging an identity and the future (Bloom 135). pile in St. Lucia, Walcotts Omeros reveals an island possessing a rich past. St. Lucia, a former colony, has a history of pagan religion and tradition, a differ ent language, and an economic scope based namely on fishing. Locals must try to reconcile their heritage prior to colonization, the influences of colonization, and how to create a smart culture from the ashes of the others (Hogan 17). Through close of, if not the entire epic, the island is related to a woman. At times the references argon general and at times they refer specifically to Helen. These references take many another(prenominal) forms including a nurturing nature and physical attributes. The significance of relating the island to a woman lies in a somewhat matriarchal past where women would h rare the secrets to healing and give way a close link to the intrinsic nature of the island. This is in compare to the men, who are all in lookup of something, and while closely joined with the island, they shy away from tradition cutting down trees, turning from the old gods, focusing on tourism and money.Characters like Philoctete and Achille try to reconcile their knowledge of the old traditions with the new-fashioned island, where tourism becomes a staple, as does the Christian religion. Others, including the Narrator, search for a place to belong. In the opening of the epic poem, Philoctete recounts to tourists the chopping down of a sacred grove of trees for canoes, replacing the old gods and values with a new God and varying values. This replacement, or at least shift, of the old with/ to the new runs throughout the epic following most, if not all, characters, each possessing a wound, which only heals upon some sort of reconciliation.