Omeros Rhetorical Analysis

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Omeros Commentary Derek Walcott alludes to his personal life and how he has been wounded in a war of love. He develops a tone of depression and despair by relating to the situation of a Japanese soldier during World War 2 and a castaway in the sea in book 4, chapter 33 of his epic, Omeros. Walcott has shifted from his plot to focus on a divorce, a breaking of love between him and his wife. He compares himself to a “Jap soldier on his pacific island who prefers solitude to the hope of rescue,” (4.33.2). Ironically, there is no such thing as a soldier who would rather rest in peace than fight in a war and be rescued. He sees himself as one of the few who give up the war of love. He perhaps had a chance to be rescued, possibly alluding to his wife, but …show more content…
The failure was so terrible, not only could people see it or hear it from Walcott, but smell it. “While my own eyes had turned Japanese looking for a letter, for its rescuing sail,” (4.33.2). He has been waiting wholeheartedly for a letter from his wife, pardoning him and allowing them to reconcile, but his eyes have grown tired. He compares the letter to a rescuing sail, as if he has been stranded in the sea, representing his loneliness, lost. His wife’s letter pardoning him would be the rescuing sail, saving him from the desolate sea, back onto his feet on land with his lovely wife, but at one point, he recognizes that the rescuing sail will never arrive, and grew tired of waiting. Walcott refused to acknowledge that she will not be coming back, but in retrospect looks upon his pursuit and war for love like Philoctete, “who did not know the war was over, or refused to believe it,” (4.33.2) As Walcott emotionally moves on, recognizing his loss in the war of love, he now compares himself ti a castaway, lost at sea. He, “brushed imaginary sand from [his] feet… and pillowed her waist with [his]