This week’s readings were unique in that they were all short stories rather than the informative short essays that were used to reading. “Over the Water” is a short story told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator whose cousin Marius has just died in the United States. The narrator had to help make arrangements to have Marius’ body transported and buried in their home country of Haiti. Though the narrator is first cousins to Marius, the two have never before known each other. While investigating Marius’ home, the narrator learns from Marius’ roommate, Delens, that Marius had died from AIDS and left nothing behind besides the 60$ in his pocket. Marius’ mother, Tante Zi, believes that this was all a lie and that Marius must have been poisoned. We then learn through the narrator’s lengthy conversation with Tante Zi that he/she is a writer and is already thinking of a way to write about his/her whole experience with Marius’ death. This scene is where the main theme from the plot is exposed and where the chapter gets its name from. The other side of the water is an expression in creole that has two meanings. One of which is simply that an immigrant simply dies over the water in another country. The other denotes an eternal afterlife. The narrator must go through all this trouble to ensure that Marius is not buried over the water but instead in his home country back at Haiti with the rest of his family. I addition, it is implied that though his body has passed, he will one day be reunited with his family over the water in the afterlife.
The other reading that I will analyze is the “Dew Breaker” by Edwidge Danticat. Each chapter is a short story involving different Haitian immigrants with intertwining paths. The first is about Ka and her mother, Anne, and her father, the “Dew Breaker”. Anne is a sculptor who has come the United States with her parents to sell a sculpture to some famous artist. However, her father has thrown the sculpture she made of him into a lake because he felt that he could never live up to the way that his daughter had immortalized him. He used to torture prisoners in his very dark past until he met Anne. Another story involves a Haitian nurse in Brooklyn named Nadine. Nadine was working with a patient who has just had her larynx removed and is coming to terms with being unable to speak. She reflects on her recent breakup with her boyfriend, who happens to be a husband in another one of the chapters, and the subsequent abortion she was forced into. She finds it difficult in her own way to come to terms with the recent events in her life. Overall, I think these stories sum up the struggles that many immigrants must face on their way to the United States or to other countries in general. In addition to trying to fit into a new country both socially and economically, immigrants must overcome certain personal obstacles that don’t simply disappear on the journey over. The difficulty of being an immigrant is not often enough conveyed to most people. Its honestly insane that these people can overcome so much in the hopes of a better life not just for themselves, but also for their children. Going through all these struggles for family is one of the most selflessly amazing things that someone can do for another.
