Omeros Chapter VII Summary

i

  • The narrator uses the traditional space of the marketplace to link the Caribbean landscape with other ancient places and with St. Lucia's past; he imagines the goods and enslaved people in such a place.
  • Achille and Helen have a dramatic fight in the marketplace, during which she screams at him and he pushes her against a van.
  • Helen bites and claws Achille; he tears her yellow dress. It's a scene.
  • The van, incidentally, belongs to Hector, and he takes Helen into it in the aftermath of the fight.
  • Needless to say, Achille is devastated when Hector drives off with Helen.

ii

  • Achille recalls the moment when he learned he couldn't trust Helen: He saw her with Hector while he was out on his boat illegally diving for conchs to sell to tourists… in order to win Helen over with more money. Oops.
  • He thinks about how the conchs are no more his than Helen is.

iii

  • Achille reflects on his sense of betrayal in love and friendship.
  • He is troubled in his remembrance of his relationship with Helen and cannot rest.