How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Page)
Quote #1
What the white manager mean/to say was she was too rude, 'cause she dint take no shit/from white people and some of them tourist—the men/only out to touch local girls; every minute--/was brushing their hand from her backside so one day/she get fed up with all their nastiness so she tell/the cashier that wasn't part of her focking pay (VI.i.33-34)
In mythic terms, Helen is caught between a rock and a hard place. She faces workplace harassment on two fronts as a black woman, and she's pretty sure that her sense of personal dignity is what others call "too proud."
Quote #2
Passengers/crammed next to each other on its animal hide/were sliding into two worlds without switching gears./One, atavistic, with its African emblem/that slid on the plastic seats, wrinkling in a roll/when the cloth bunched, and the other world that shot them/to an Icarian future they could not control. (XXII.i.117)
Hector's Comet is a creeptastic ride—the animal print seat covers and the maniacal driver really do put passengers in an awkward situation. But the transport is also an outward sign of the struggle for Hector's soul. Dramatic? Perhaps. Consider, however, that Hector really wants to return to a traditional lifestyle but can't because of his desire to move forward.
Quote #3
Everything that was once theirs/was given to us now to ruin it as we chose,/but in the bugle of twilight also, something unexpected./A government that made no difference to Philoctete,/to Achille. That did not buy a bottle of white kerosene/from Ma Kilman, a dusk that had no historical regret/for the fishermen beating mackerel in their seine,/only for Plunkett, in the pale orange glow of the wharf […] this town he had come to love. (XXII.iii.119-120)
Although colonial rule of the island has effectively ended, the residents don't perceive much change. Walcott's cynical (realistic?) perception of the hand-over shows that the tensions are less racial than economic at this point.