How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Page)
Quote #7
The worst crime is to leave a man's hands empty./Men are born makers, with that primal simplicity/in every maker since Adam. This is pre-history,/that itching instinct in the criss-crossed net/of their palms, its wickerwork. They could not stay idle too long. (XXVIII.ii.150)
In the struggle to survive the Middle Passage, the psychological battle is major. The slave traders try to strip independent and proud people of their will by breaking up family/tribal units, chaining their bodies—and taking away their identities. The ability to do something, like working at a craft, defined these people's lives in their home villages and the stasis of the voyage crushes their souls.
Quote #8
Pride set in Helen's face after this, like a stone/bracketed with Hector's name; her lips were incised/by its dates in parenthesis. She seemed more stern,/more ennobled by distance as she slowly crossed/the hot street of the village like a distant sail/on the horizon. Grief heightened her. (XLVI.ii.233)
Helen's pride is further defined as she suffers the loss of Hector. This is no longer arrogance; Helen has the dignity of a survivor. Grief sets her farther apart from the mere mortals with whom she shares the island.
Quote #9
He thought of Tumbly and Scott. They'd fought the same war,/but he limped with pride at being the walking wounded/in the class-struggle, in the hotel's high ranking,/its brass-buttons and tips, and he might have ended that way, saluting taxis and crisply thanking gentlemen. (L.ii.252)
Some of the worst wounds are the ones we can't see, and that is certainly the case with Major Plunkett. He loves St. Lucia and takes a great deal of comfort in his ex-pat lifestyle because it helps him escape the indignity of class warfare in his native England.