One can study this work of literature regardless of its context or the author’s intention. In the poem, the Spoiler is a calypsonian who has borrowed permission from his master Satan to visit Trinidad from hell. The Spoiler reflects of his time in hell and refers to Satan as the ‘hot boy’. Due to Satan’s favoritism towards Spoiler, he is sent back to earth not as a mere flea or bedbug but as a man wearing a suit.
From the psychoanalytic point of view, his meditations on Trinidad’s current social and political situation depict that those in power bring forth their predatory instincts – referred to as ‘sharks’ – to exploit ordinary people ‘small fry’ (Walcott). As such, Walcott projects the theme of corruption by denoting the Spoiler’s return in a suit as representative of the powerful people in society that have emerged from hell to bring terror to the Trinidadian people.
In his 1981poem, The Spoiler’s Return, Walcott uses the post-colonial methodologies to criticize the corruption in Trinidad. One of the important concepts for postcolonial theory is the concept of race. From this point of view, race is not a biological concept, but a social one. That is exactly what is seen in the poem where Walcott describes the exploitation of Trinidad people by minority group. The poem describes the Caribbean as having Edenic beauty but is ruled with a color and attire that is similar in intentions as that of the colonial government. In essence, the poem uses a lamenting tone in which Walcott cries out for aid to his fellow satirists Pope, Juvenal, and Martial (Walcott). The gloomy picture and dark characterization of the characters in the poem portrays the extent to which Trinidad has fallen in the pit of corruption, malice and exploitation from the wealthy and powerful in society.
Work Cited
Walcott, Derek. “The Spoiler’s Return.” Zoboko. 2022. Web.