In all the readings of this week, the overall motif was the recurring distressing scenes described in Danticat’s writing. In the essay, “Create Dangerously” Danticat talks about the barbaric executions of Marcel Numa and Louis Drouin, who tried to aid in the coup to overthrow the dictatorship. This sets the abhorrent and dreadful setting of Haiti, along with the other harsh conditions witnessed by the individuals during the time. This led many of them to migrate to America, however, the immigrants still faced problems here, as seen with Eric’s wife in “Dew Breaker.” In chapter two of “Dew Breaker,” Eric’s wife faces the hardships of being an immigrant by being essentially stuck at home, incapable of exploring her surroundings, due to the hardships in communication. This reveals how the hardships were far from over for the immigrants trying to escape their previous deplorable conditions back home.
In the second reading, “The Other Side of the Water,” Danticat persists to distress the reader by revealing the harsh conditions for the immigrants. In this reading, Danticat mentions the passing away of her cousin Marius due to AIDS. Danticat focuses on the idea of how hard it was to send Marius’ dead body back home to Haiti, because of legal issues due to the fact that he was a undocumented resident in the United States. Danticat emphasizes how these actions were racist, and ostracizing the immigrants, treating them as unequals, even after they have passed away! This goes to prove the poignant conditions of racism and unrest in the community amongst the immigrants during this time.
In the “Dew Breaker,” Danticat continues to topple on the grievous encounters of the immigrants, centralizing it around the family of Ka. Ka is the daughter of Anne and her torturer father, previously from Haiti. The central disturbing theme of the book revolves around the idea of family relationship between Ka and her father, along with redemption. The story is quite disturbing considering that a daughter learns the true nature of her father, and realizes that he was not a prisoner, but actually a torturer. Along with being a torturer, Ka’s father killed numerous people back home in Haiti, and that blood will probably never wash off. The theme of redemption is emphasized in the chapter “Night Talkers,” in which Dany seeks redemption by wanting to kill Ka’s father, whom he suspects to be the person responsible for killing his parents.
Along with the disconcerting discovery of Ka’s father true identity, Danticat imbeds numerous other perplexing instances in the book. In the chapter “The Book of Miracles.” the grotesque character of the Emmanuel Constant, who killed thousands of innocent people back in Haiti, is mentioned as having been seen by the church by Ka. In “Water Child” the disturbing mentioning of aborting a baby along with ideas of complete isolation and depression are mentioned which discomfort the reader extremely. This is seen throughout the chapter, as Nadine is continuously reminded of abort her baby, which goes against the norms of Haitian tradition, which continues in the disturbing mood established through Danticat’s writing. In all, Danticat imbeds numerous serious/stoic instances of extremely distressing scenes into her writing, leaving to room for comfort for the reader.
