How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Page)
Quote #1
But if I could read between the lines of her floor/like a white-hot deck uncaulked by Antillean heat,/to the shadows in its hold, its nostrils might flare/at the stench from manacled ankles, the coffled feet/scraping like leaves, and perhaps the inculpable marble/would have turned its white seeds away, to widen/the bow of its mouth at the horror under the table […] to do what the past always does: suffer, and stare. (II.ii.15)
The narrator begins this section by mapping the sea and geography of St. Lucia onto his lover's body. Ooh la la, we know. He contemplates the creepy bust of Homer in her apartment and makes the connection between the heroic past and the past of his people, which is dominated by captivity and slavery.
Quote #2
He believed the swelling came from the chained ankles/of his grandfathers. Or else why was there no cure?/That the cross he carried was not only the anchor's/but that of his race, for a village black and poor/as the pigs that rooted in its burning garbage,/then were hooked on the anchors of the abattoir. (III.iii.19)
Philoctete's incurable shin-sore forces him to look for deeper causes of the pain than simply a random, rusty anchor. His wound is both spiritual and physical, and stems from his poverty and marginalization on the island.
Quote #3
Helen needed a history,/that was the pity that Plunkett felt towards her./Not his, but her story. Not theirs, but Helen's war. (V.iii.30)
Major Plunkett channels his complex feelings toward Helen into a desire to "help" her by creating a recognized history of the island. But this isn't an impartial history—nope, he wants it to show the world why the major powers of the world would fight for Helen (both woman and island).