Comparing Loss In Homer's Iliad 'And Ransom'

Employment of language throughout a text strongly influences meaning making. Various aspects of language can illustrate different reactions to grief and loss. David Malouf’s 2009 adaptation of Homer’s Iliad, “Ransom”, explores grief as a vicissitude. Language is used to portray character’s contrasting retorts, displaying meaning throughout the text. Contrastingly, John Agard’s 1967 poem, “Listen Mr Oxford Don” utilises aspects of language to represent a differing form of loss. Both texts implement varying characters, themes and techniques to illustrate different reactions to grief and loss.

Through examination of the language employed throughout “Ransom”, Malouf explores meaning making, exposing differing reactions to grief and loss of the

novel’s protagonists. “Ransom” is a reworking of Homer’s ancient Greek classic, the Iliad, focusing on the emotional aspect of this epic poem. Grief and loss are described throughout “Ransom” as powerful forces, allowing feelings of retribution and reevaluation of existence to come to air.

Achilles’ run in with grief and loss is portrayed clearly through Malouf’s implementation of various aspects of language. Achilles’ pernicious reception of loss and grief is illustrated through implementation of metaphorical and descriptive language when the “tears he brings fall inwardly”. The death of Patroclus has brought forward many destructive characteristics in Achilles, fuelling the necessity of revenge to “assuage his grief”. The inability to express his emotions sends Achilles on a “downward path”, relying on acts of defiance to temporarily cure his “burned rage”. Nesse (2010) illustrates the reasoning behind Achilles’ violent reaction to his friend’s death: “the maladaptive response to bereavement is the price to pay for the overall much more frequently used separation reaction. The costs involved in grief can therefore be viewed as a trade-off with the overall benefits conferred by separation responses”. Achilles’ destructive reaction to grief is once more reinforced through Malouf’s use of language to create meaning making when he is described “ waiting for the rage to fill him that would be equal at last to the outrage he was

committing. That would assuage his grief, and be so convincing to the witnesses of this barbaric spectacle that he too might believe there was a living man at the centre of it, and that man himself”. Malouf’s use of prose creates almost a poetic verse, lyric and timeless. Malouf’s use of language provides us a model representation of the exploitative qualities of revenge, it’s ability to “breed self-hatred, which breeds further violence, the way it deprives one of the very comfort it promises to provide” (Chakrabarti, 2005, Dreyfus, 1980, Stillwell, 2008) illustrates Malouf’s portrait of Achilles. The narrator of “Ransom” is displayed as highly vigilant through Malouf’s language, exploring the deeper meanings of the character’s expression and nuances: observing the differing reactions to grief and loss. Achilles’ hypnotic barbarity in the search of meaning following his “soul-mate’s” death illustrates clearly that Malouf’s use of language can illustrate different reactions to grief and loss.

John Agard’s 1967 poem, “Listen Mr Oxford Don” deals similarly with the utilisation of language to convey different reactions to grief and loss.

Contrastingly to Malouf’s “Ransom”, which deals closely with loss of a friend and subsequent grief, Agard depicts the loss of national identity through various language techniques, illustrating the effect this has on the protagonist. Agard addresses meaning making through his poetic language: addressing issues of language, ethnicity and immigration in his characteristic subversive style. In opposition to Achilles’ violent and spiteful reaction to loss and grief, the persona in “Listen Mr Oxford Don” responds to his loss of his national identity in a lighthearted and comical manner. Agard’s unique use of language which includes grammarless verse in combination with conventional metre is illustrated when the persona refers to himself as “on de run”. The linguistic stereotypes of “Clapham Common” are exhibited, portraying the persona’s comical and satirical reception of the stripping of his national identity. Agard’s employment of almost calypso rhythm displays that as an immigrant, the speaker does belong to his native country nor his new one, his national identity is no more. The persona attempts to describe the popostery of having to adopt a new identity without hesitation despite the fact that he already has one. His response to this loss is to create a new identity, using his unique language style to combine cultures. Kingsberg

(2014) analyses the intricacies that Agard’s language conveys, describing that “In the age of the modern nation-state, gaining the qualities for inclusion in one polity necessitates relinquishing some or all of the characteristics that confer acceptance in another”. This is the trap Agard’s persona feels entrenched in, using comical language to detail meaning; his grief and loss. Much like Achilles, the persona in “Listen Mr Oxford Don” feels confused in exactly how to approach the feelings provided by grief and loss. The persona takes a more proactive response however compared to Achilles’ violent and seemingly reactive reception. The persona in “Listen Mr Oxford Don” provides further evidence of his lighthearted reaction to grief and loss through the use of language, creating meaning. Ornate and tranquil language alongside deliberate spelling and grammatical errors are utilised when the persona details: “Dem accuse me of assault on de Oxford dictionary/ imagine a concise peaceful man like me”. This use of language attempts to defend and reaffirm the recently lost culture and familiar language of the persona. He once again raises the madness of holding him accountable of “assault on de Oxford dictionary” by comparing his struggle to speak this foreign language to physical violence. Although Agard’s poem does not adhere to the “de Queen’s English”, it still manages to flow smoothly and lyrically, creating meaning making; displaying the persona’s proactive and positive reaction to loss, contrasting Achilles’ pernicious response throughout Ransom.