“Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work” and “The Other Side of the Water”
In the beginning of the essay “Create Dangerously,” Danticat recounts the brutal executions of Marcel Numa and Louis Drouin, two Haitian men from New York who returned to Haiti in order to topple the dictatorship of François Duvalier. She compares these executions to the secret performances of “subversive” pieces of literature during this time period. Both involved disobeying a higher authority and (potentially) facing the punishment that came along with doing so. The purpose of these secret performances was, according to Danticat, to “convince them [the people] that they would not die the same way Numa and Drouin did.” However, the courage of the reader can be compared to the courage of the writer. She states this by saying that the writers of these works:
“Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously” (10).
That is, someone somewhere will risk their life to read these works. Thus, according to her, it is only right that the author write just as dangerously. She goes on to say how the immigrant artist must always ponder movement on a global scale as well as the deaths that brought them to where they are now. Thus, she sees the deaths of Numa and Drouin as sacrifices because their deaths motivated many (including Danticat’s parents) to leave Haiti and lead a better life elsewhere.
First of all, I was struck by the introduction. She recounted the executions as if she herself was there and described the men as if she knew them. It felt as if the executions were something she lived by and was grateful for. It was because of their executions that she and her parents migrated to the United States. It was because she and her parents migrated to the United States that she was given the opportunity to write about these executions. She called this story her “creation myth” (5), and it makes sense that she would call it such.
I agree with the statement: “Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously” (10). It seems only right that those who risk their lives to read something have the opportunity to read something that is “worth” the risk. I do not mean to say that reading something on the safer side is not worth it. However, considering that such an action might be subversive to authority and can have deadly consequences, it makes sense that the author should write something just as subversive.
I was also struck by the prose in which Danticat writes. Word after word, line after line. It all seemed to flow together nicely. Although it was short, it seemed as if Danticat was easily able to get her point across.
In the second essay, Danticat recounts the events after the death of her cousin Marius, including the difficulties she had to face in order to have his body sent back from Miami to Haiti. Since Marius was undocumented, he needed special papers in order to leave the United States. In addition, since he died from AIDS, there were special procedures that needed to be followed. Eventually, with money wired from Marius’ mother, the body was eventually sent back to Haiti.
One thing in particular that struck me about the second essay was the question Danticat posed when hearing that her dead cousin would need papers to exit the country since he was undocumented:
“Were we still aliens in death, I asked, our corpses unwanted visitors still?” (91)
Are we still aliens even though we have left this world through death? Are we still considered aliens whether dead or alive? Will we ever belong? It seemed as if, through that one question, she was asking a multitude of other questions. It looked like she was questioning the purpose of Marius’ existence in that one question: if he ever belonged or if he will ever have a chance at being treated “normally.”
The Dew Breaker (First Half)
The first half of The Dew Breaker is comprised of five vignettes: “The Book of the Dead,” “Seven,” “Water Child,” “The Book of Miracles,” and “Night Talkers.”
In “The Book of the Dead,” we see that the narrator’s father has gone missing and has taken with him a statue that they were supposed to sell to a famous actress, Gabrielle Fonteneau. The statue, called Dad, is a wood-carved depiction of the narrator’s father. When he returns, we learn that he threw the statue into a lake because he feels like he does not deserve the recognition. He reveals to his daughter that, although he did spend time in a prison, he was not a prisoner. Instead, he was a torturer (a “dew breaker”) and killed many people. It was on this job that he received a deep scar on his right cheek. Without the statue, the narrator and her father still go to Fonteneau’s house to tell her that the statue is gone. Fonteneau is clearly disappointed.
“Seven” follows a tenant in the basement of what seems to be the house of the narrator and her father from “The Book of the Dead.” He lives with two roommates, Michel and Dany, and is preparing for the arrival of his wife, whom he has not seen in seven years. He left for the United States the day after their wedding and has been working to get a green card and bring his wife over. Both the narrator and his wife seem to be joyful at their reunion. They even go out for a stroll through Brooklyn. However, the vignette ends with signs of a strong disconnect between the two.
“Water Child” follows Nadine, a nurse who works in the Ear, Nose, and Throat ward at a hospital in Brooklyn. Nadine seems to be disconnected from everyone around her and has even received the label of “not a friendly woman” (58). She even tries to avoid calling her parents despite their numerous letters asking her to do so and keeps the television in her apartment on all day to hear some voices. We also learn that Nadine had a relationship with a man named Eric, became pregnant, and had an abortion. As a memorial to the unborn baby, she has created a small altar with a drawing of a baby, microcassettes with messages from Eric, and a glass of water with a pebble in it. She cares for a woman (referred to as Ms. Hinds) who has gone through a total laryngectomy and who is discharged from the hospital at the end of the vignette.
“The Book of Miracles” follows Anne, who is on her way with her husband and grown daughter to Christmas Eve Mass, something they do every year when the daughter is home for Christmas. During the mass, the daughter sees someone who looks like Emmanuel Constant, a man who set up a death squad after the exile of Haiti’s president and killed thousands of people. Anne confirms that the man is not Constant but worries that someone might be looking the same way at her husband (who used to be a “dew breaker” or torturer). The vignette ends with the Mass ending, and the daughter remarking that it’s the same thing every year.
“Night Talkers” follows Dany, one of the roommates from “Seven.” Dany is traveling through Haiti to visit his aunt. The aunt, Estina Esteme, raised Dany after his parents died and the aunt herself was blinded when their house was set on fire by a dew breaker. On his visit, he meets with many villagers as well as Claude, a boy who was deported from the United States and killed his father. Dany later reveals to his aunt the real reason for why he visited: He found the man who killed his parents and is now living in the same man’s basement. However, just after this revelation, the aunt dies. In a conversation with Claude, Dany finds out the reason why Claude killed his father: His father took drugs that Claude was hustling for someone else and shot him because he would not give them back.
I liked how, even though each vignette could probably stand on its own, they are all connected in some way. In “Water Child,” it is mentioned that Nadine had a relationship with a man by the name of Eric who was a night janitor at Medgar Evers College (62). The man in “Seven” was mentioned to have many lovers and was also a night janitor at Medgar Evers College (38). In addition, we see that the man in “Seven” changed his phone number when his wife was about to arrive. When Nadine tries to call Eric, she finds out that his number has also changed. So, it seems that Eric is the man we follow in “Seven.”
In “The Book of Miracles,” Anne seems to be the mother of the narrator from “Book of the Dead” and wife of the father from the same story. This is because Anne repeatedly mentions that her husband “worked in a prison, where he hurt many people” (72), implying that her husband is the dew breaker.
In “Seven,” the men are living in the basement of the house of the narrator and father from “The Book of the Dead.” We know this because one of the men, Dany, mentions (in “Night Talkers”) that he is living in the basement of the dew breaker’s house and that the dew breaker is a barber. In addition, Anne mentions in “The Book of Miracles” that they rented the rooms in their basement to “three younger Haitian men” (76), who it seems are Eric, Michel, and Dany.
As with the essays, I was struck by the flow with which Danticat writes. The writing in The Dew Breaker seems like poetry because the words flow together so well. I also like how, even though the dew breaker is the subject of this book, he has an air of mystery surrounding his character. We still don’t know much else about him other than that he tortured many people. However, his presence seems to affect (albeit indirectly) the characters in all of the stories.
