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Essay / The Epic Poem Omers by Derek Walcott - 953
In The Epic Poem Omeros by Derek Walcott is a literary piece that requires a lot of attention. This poem can be dangerously confusing at times because it is written in a world where so many different things are happening. Omeros is a racial, ethnic, and political poem that captivates the reader for several reasons. Wolcott intentionally does not place the poem in chronological order. It uses many different cultures/religions such as African Gods, Greek Gods, Caribbean Gods and the Christian God. Wolcott talks about the complexity of being both Afrocentric and Eurocentric and shows how these principles/ideologies distract us as human beings. His characters show signs of displacement in a society trying to assimilate between culture and race. In some cases, the poem also rejects or hides the characters' race and culture as they attempt to find an identity in the world. Omeros is unlike any traditional epic poem and deviates from the conventional genre of the epic poem. Jay says for example: "The epic element of Omeros threatens to reopen an old debate about Walcott's relationship to European and African elements in his personal heritage and in West Indian culture as a whole" (Jay 546). Walcott uses wounds to open up this long debate and show us how these cultures work against and with us. The wound is an apparent and widespread symbol in each character, both physically and psychologically. The wound is the gash in the story that connects us all. Omeros is a literary work that continues to generate massive controversy and raises many questions regarding its legitimacy as an epic poem. One reason for this is that no one really wants to admit or discuss what Wolcott is actually proposing. This is precisely the ...... middle of paper ...... the cultural, racial and national values of each character since there is not a single protagonist but several very different characters in less than a universe dealing with very different problems. . Wolcott's lack of traditional epic elements prevents readers from focusing on the real issue of the wounds that history has caused in our diverse cultures. By understanding how Walcott relates races to the characters' problems related to their injury; we can realize that each character had something that another lacked. . Wolcott deviates from the norms of epic writing because he imports all of African, European, and Caribbean culture to show unity among all. This is why he uses contradictions from the beginning to show that no character comes from a specific region. However, we are all multicultural or multiracial because of the wounds that history has created..