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

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

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