Derek Walcott Uses Poetry to Explore Themes of Ethnicity, Cultural Chauvinism and Political Inequality. Do You Agree?
Derek Walcott Essay
I agree with the fact that Walcott uses poetry to explore themes of ethnicity, cultural chauvinism and political inequality. However, these aren’t the only themes we find in his poetry. He also makes use of themes such as life and death and religion. Sea Canes is one of the poems which includes the themes mentioned above.
In Sea Canes the poet is found observing a landscape in which he can see sea canes and animals, all of this in a miserable atmosphere; “Half of my friends are dead.” Here he also mentions religion and disagrees with it by stating that religion is not necessary to respect the dead. He prefers to remember them exactly how they were, instead of see dead people as something supernatural and much nobler than the living. As he looks to the other side of the sea canes he views a boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead. He metaphorically says that the owls represent us humans leaving the world of the living to enter the mystical world of the dead.
In The Hawk we can locate clear examples of ethnicity, cultural chauvinism and the clash between western and Caribbean culture. Here he mentions the carnival in Trinidad, and says that the only ones that should attend it are the locals. Later in the poem, Walcott mentions the ethnicity and the races of the people at the carnival. “The negroes, bastards, mestizos, proud of their Spanish blood”, all the people with mixed ancestry who are proud of their Spanish blood, not their native blood. Here Walcott is referring to the colonial powers and their endless control over the Caribbean population. He also compares the Yucatan peninsula with Trinidad. He states that Yucatan has a magnificent landscape while Trinidad has been destroyed during colonialism. Walcott describes the natives as toothless tigers, once powerful and strong but now nothing more than a big defenseless cat “Caribs, like toothless tigers”. Here we can appreciate cultural chauvinism,
I agree with the fact that Walcott uses poetry to explore themes of ethnicity, cultural chauvinism and political inequality. However, these aren’t the only themes we find in his poetry. He also makes use of themes such as life and death and religion. Sea Canes is one of the poems which includes the themes mentioned above.
In Sea Canes the poet is found observing a landscape in which he can see sea canes and animals, all of this in a miserable atmosphere; “Half of my friends are dead.” Here he also mentions religion and disagrees with it by stating that religion is not necessary to respect the dead. He prefers to remember them exactly how they were, instead of see dead people as something supernatural and much nobler than the living. As he looks to the other side of the sea canes he views a boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead. He metaphorically says that the owls represent us humans leaving the world of the living to enter the mystical world of the dead.
In The Hawk we can locate clear examples of ethnicity, cultural chauvinism and the clash between western and Caribbean culture. Here he mentions the carnival in Trinidad, and says that the only ones that should attend it are the locals. Later in the poem, Walcott mentions the ethnicity and the races of the people at the carnival. “The negroes, bastards, mestizos, proud of their Spanish blood”, all the people with mixed ancestry who are proud of their Spanish blood, not their native blood. Here Walcott is referring to the colonial powers and their endless control over the Caribbean population. He also compares the Yucatan peninsula with Trinidad. He states that Yucatan has a magnificent landscape while Trinidad has been destroyed during colonialism. Walcott describes the natives as toothless tigers, once powerful and strong but now nothing more than a big defenseless cat “Caribs, like toothless tigers”. Here we can appreciate cultural chauvinism,