i
- On the mountainous Atlantic side of the island, Hector is driving his Comet like a madman (as usual) despite the fact that Plunkett has warned him to be more careful on the road.
- This doesn't seem to stop him, but unfortunately, a piglet in the road definitely does.
- Hector swerves to avoid it and crashes.
- His dead body seems to take on a position of remorse as he feels sorry for the way he dealt with Achille over the whole Helen business.
ii
- The narrator returns to St. Lucia. The taxi drivers vie for his business, and his driver tells the story of Hector's death.
- On the journey, the narrator sees the traditional villages falling quickly away, surrendering to hotel development.
- The narrator questions his feelings about the changes. Does he despise the "progress" that he sees around him because it destroys a way of life, or because it's ruining his poetic vision?
- He compares his devotion to traditional island life to Plunkett's guilt-ridden research project.
- The hypocrisy of art strikes him: While it prefers the quaintness of traditional objects, it would dump a poor village for a fancy church any day.
- Has he idealized the poverty of the island for his own purposes?
- He notes that what others take away from the island is not the pride of the people or their traditional skills—it's the accent of the language, which is not a skill but an innate thing.
- The tourists will soon realize that their perfect vacation destination has really been destroyed to accommodate them.
- Now St. Lucia looks just like every other beach around the world.
iii
- The taxi driver stops to take a pee at the spot where Hector died, and the narrator describes his fallen friend as a "road-warrior" with a nice woman.
- Now we have a series of film-like cuts to splice together the associations that flow around Hector.
- We learn that Hector's death is a kind of punishment for leaving the sea, and that he felt shame for his new work and life.
- He had both Helen and some money, but discovered that the sea was his real love—so in exchanging one lifestyle for another, he wound up spiritually empty. Major bummer.