On the other hand, in the poem ‘Homecoming’ Walcott comes home where ‘there are homecomings without home’, exploring the ideas of ‘rootlessness’ well. He witnesses the changes made to the society and is not quite as how he remembers it. The title ‘Homecoming’ is ironic as it reflects on who Walcott is thus represents his ‘roots’. Walcott comes from Anse La Raye, a Quarter in St Lucia, where there are mainly fishers and agricultural workers. However over the years, the town developed a large tourist industry where they attract thousands of people every year. This perhaps is one of the reasons why Walcott feels uneasy about his homeland despite the ambiguity of whether Walcott himself has changed thus his homeland does not feel like his home anymore. Yet, he explains that he suddenly feels like he is like one of the tourists; “seems a tourist’s”. His “heart’s sore” by the fact that he found his homeland as such different place that ‘you sway, reflecting nothing’. The fact that he uses mirror image shows his confusion to who he is, thus questions his ‘root’ feeling ‘rootless’. Rhys conveys related ideas to Walcott when Antoinette is taken to England. The readers will recognize the key difference of Walcott and Rhys; Walcott is returning to Caribbean where he finds himself to be out of place, whereas Antoinette has come to England, not her home, thus feels out of place. However, the fact that the characters are trying to find out who they are, going through various emotions, are equally explored. For example, the fact that Antoinette feels that she is in a ‘cardboard house’ shows how suffocated she feels and she feels that she does not belong there; thus she feels ‘rootless’. Antoinette says she does ‘not want to see that ghost of a woman who they say haunts this place’, which is quite ironic as she is looking at herself but she refers herself in a third person; she describes herself to be someone else. This directly linked with the ideas of self-reflected images in Walcott’s poem; both look at themselves as if they are looking at someone else. This can be seen as loss of identity hence they can not define their ‘roots’ feeling ‘rootless’.
Furthermore, this leads into questioning ideas about the changed homeland thus their identity has been affected. Walcott introduces ideas of history with ‘twisted, coppery, sea-almond trees’; this brings in the existence of the ‘sea-almond trees’ which had been there since the Caribbean was discovered by the colonialist. However, the augmented images of ‘twisted, coppery’ suggest the ages of the tress and the length of the tree’s existence. Conversely, it could also mean that people are not respecting the traditional values thus it is becoming demented. The on the beach, there are ‘forked limbs of girls toasting their flesh’ suggest the ideas of the tourists disgracing the long-established principles of the Caribbean. The use of semantics to do with food such as ‘forked’ and ‘toasting’ suggest that for a long time, the island’s main industry have been through agricultural aspects such as fishing, but the tourists are almost imitating these images and disgracing these ideas by ‘toasting their flesh’. Walcott expresses his ideas about these tourist industries by personifying the island and the sea to describe his emotions; ‘Their grief/ howls seaward through charred, ravaged holes’. The fact that ‘their grief/howls’ suggest that the ‘grief’ has been there for a long time and the personification of the sea ‘howl[ing]’ suggest that the nature itself can not bear the modern situation, almost trying to protect the long-kept legacy. In comparison, Rhys uses nature images to make Rochester, a microscopic imitation of colonialism, feel uncomfortable; nature strikes back at Rochester since he is not familiar with the surroundings. The personification of the fact that ‘hills would close in’ on Rochester reflects the fact that he feels entrapped. Furthermore, there are repetitions of intensifiers ‘too much’ to describe his surrounding; emphasising on Rochester’s over-whelmed emotions. Although both Rhys and Walcott personifies the nature to describe emotions, Rhys uses nature to strike back at Rochester to make him feel like he does not belong there, thus he feels ‘rootless’ and aware that he is ‘rootless’ within the environment he is in. On the other hand, Walcott uses nature to express his own emotions and anger towards his changed homeland, thus he suddenly feels he is ‘rootless’; not necessarily he does not belong there but he feels he does not belong there.
In ‘Veranda’, Walcott expresses his own personal feelings towards how he is torn between his own heritages, questioning his own ‘roots’. Since he had two black grandmothers and two grandfathers, he feels that it is important for him to understand about his ‘roots’. However, the two races have such diverse history that he feels torn between the two. In this poem, there are semantics of history such as ‘voices’, ‘Roman’ and ‘age’. This reflects on the fact that Walcott tries to find out more about his own family history but the fact that it is ‘fading world’, Walcott can not find a certain accurate answers. The use of word ‘Sire’ has a specific impact on how Walcott feels that it is his duty to know about his own inheritance, thus there are connotations of obedience. He expresses his confusion of his ‘rootlessness’ when ‘your genealogical roof tree, fallen, survives’. ‘Genealogical roof tree’ implies his mixed background of which the white generations in the Caribbean has ‘fallen’; the empires, but then ‘survives’ because parts of him are black, so he survives. Feelings of ‘rootlessness’ is also paralleled through Wide Sargasso Sea when Rhys herself is very multicultural. Antoinette can be seen as the self-portrayal of Rhys herself, and by writing this novel; she accentuates the feelings she had through the character Antoinette. This is particularly visible when Antoinette claims that she “will be a different person when [she] lives in England and different things will happen to [her]”. Due to her loss of identity, she feels ‘rootless’ as a result she feels that the only way to get her identity back to by moving away from home. However, this is highly ironic as later when she moves to England, she becomes the ‘mad woman in the attic’; she does change. However, the readers witness that Bertha has completely different characteristics to Antoinette and perhaps through losing her identity, this is how she became to feel ‘rootless’ thus changes into Bertha.
Both writers see the importance of the ideas of roots and rootlessness, seen especially through their own personal attributes towards these concerns. Both writers’ personal background of them being multicultural adds to the fact that they are more personally engaged with the concerns in their writing; both writers expresses anger towards the loss of identity leading into ‘rootlessness’. However, Walcott presents ideas of ‘roots’ and ‘rootlessness’ on the changes made to his homeland so when he comes back, he does not feel at home, whereas Rhys conveys feelings of ‘rootlessness’ by putting the characters in a foreign environment where dominance and oppression takes away their identity leading the characters to feel ‘rootless’.
