“The Spoiler’s Return” by Walcott talks about the corruption in Trinidadian society. Examine the poem and critically analyse it.

For Spoiler the most effective weapon against the current scenario is satire and he invokes satirists like Martial, Juvenal and Pope to aid him in his endeavour. He laments the contemporary situation in the Caribbean and through Rochester’s words expresses a pessimistic outlook towards it in his desire to be born as an insect or an animal. This is connected to his previous mention of Satan’s kindness in allowing him to be reborn as a man rather than as a lower form of life.

It seems as if taking into consideration the present circumstances Spoiler is regretting having come back to earth in human form. Spoiler is aware that his despondency is shared by other artists of the region particularly the East Indian Caribbean author V.S. Naipaul who has analysed aspects of Caribbean culture and society in his novels and essays. Naipaul’s critics have often accused him of presenting too gloomy a picture of the Caribbean in general and of Trinidad in particular. This explains Spoiler’s play on Naipaul’s name, “V.S. Nightfall” and the evocation of his most pessimistic work to date, An Area of Darkness.