Omeros

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, and racism.

“This was the light that Achille was happiest in.”

Achille defines himself as a fisherman. He is happiest setting off onto the sea, the part of the day when he feels the potential that lies ahead and the camaraderie of his fellow fishermen. This moment is filled with optimism and community, a riposte to the emotional pain he feels at other times of the day. The dawn light makes Achille feel at home.

“He believed the swelling came from the chained ankles of his grandfathers.”

Philoctete is aware of the symbolism of his open wound. The pain is overwhelming, but he takes some satisfaction from the way it connects him to the pain of his grandfathers. The violent separation caused by the slave trade is echoed in the use of enjambment, as “his grandfathers” are separated onto the next line, isolated and distanced from Philoctete and his interpretation of their pain.

“This wound I have stitched into Plunkett’s character.

He has to be wounded, affliction is one theme

of this work of fiction, since every ‘I’ is a

fiction finally.”

Dennis Plunkett is purposefully isolated from the other characters by his whiteness and affiliation with the British Army; however, the narrator makes sure to point out that Dennis has his own pains and sufferings that bind him to the community. He may have privilege and be seen (or see himself) as an outsider, but there is a community of wounded people to which he could potentially belong.