The readings for this week were very worthwhile and interesting. I enjoyed each and every one of them, especially the 120 pages of The Dew Breaker. Each text brings about ideas about the complexity of immigration. It involves so many things such as the development of a dual identity, where you present yourself as one person to your family members back at home while you are a completely different person where you live. Also, many times people immigrate because of terrible circumstances in their homeland, which adds that bittersweet feeling when referring to the homeland. Taking my parents as an example, they miss their homeland because of the culture, traditions, moral and familial atmosphere. However, once people start talking about Ecuador’s bad side, such as the country’s politics and economic situation, my parents immediately say, “Thank God we moved to New York City and do not have to deal with that anymore!” It is shocking to me how there are many complexities and issues behind immigration. What I have noticed is that many times immigrants have double the burden when compared to other people. They do not only face issues related to immigration but like the rest of the people they have to also face the consequences of bad decisions. For example, I have an uncle who immigrated to the United States in the 1990’s. His idea was to come to New York City, work very hard, make a lot of money and then go back to live with his wife and two children. However, once he arrived to New York, he became involved with another woman and left behind his first family. After a period of time, he wanted to return with his wife but his wife rejected him. Besides this, he could not get a good job because employers were racist towards him. This just goes to show that immigration has a lot of emotional, social and economical consequences on both the immigrant and his/her family.
In “Create Dangerously,” Danticat discusses the terrible way in which Marcel Numa and Louis Drouin, two Haitian men that lived in New York and returned to Haiti to fight against the dictatorship, were executed. The reason why she talks about these two men is to raise awareness of the ways that people secretly and sneakily rebelled against oppressive higher power, be it through subversive pieces of literature, actual protesting and riots, or through plays. On the superficial level, literature and the arts may not seem like successful ways to rebel against a higher power, but these things have the ability to gather a huge group of people with similar ideas that want change. I find it interesting how Danticat says that both writers and readers of subversive literature are courageous. Sometimes I think only writers are the ones that are risking themselves when they write this literature. However, as it turns out, readers are also in danger when reading this because ideas are spread through literature. And what the oppressive higher power does not want is for the successful spread of their opponent’s ideas. Ultimately, the writers of subversive pieces have to sacrifice their safety, stability and social standing so that the people could become aware and form coalitions to fight for justice. I was personally struck with how Danticat was able to narrate these executions as if she had been a witness to them. I guess that the death of these two men must have had an impact in her life as a writer, just to see how powerful writing is and that it leads people to ultimately sacrifice their lives.
“The Other Side of the Water” reminded me of Everybody is doing Fine, a movie with Robert DeNiro, where the father goes on a trip to visit his children, only to find out that each of his children has kept things hidden from him. Each child tries to make it appear as if he/she is more successful than he/she really is. Once he discovers the truth it makes him realize that he was living on the other side for way too long. It is a very sad movie, which is why I was upset reading about Marius. Danticat had a lot of difficulty in getting his corpse sent back from Miami to Haiti. Since Marius was undocumented, he needed documentation to be sent back to Haiti. Also, since Marius died from AIDS, there were special procedures that needed to be taken. There are a lot of questions raised from the situation in which he died. Was he gay? Was he poor, rich? Did he do drugs? What did he spend his money and free time doing? I find it significant how distance makes people who love you suffer, especially when bad things happen and they found out your secrets. The following quote touched me a lot: “Faraway family members realize that they are discovering—or recovering—in death fragments of a life that had swirled in hidden stories” (Danticat 94). People who live back in the homeland tend to believe that their immigrant family members are so much better off than they are. Although this may be true in the economic sense, SOMETIMES, it may not be true in way of life. My parents always say how back in Ecuador life was easier and more fun to live despite tough economic situations. Also, it surprised me how illegal immigrants still need to account for their illegal status even after their death. How sad is that?
The first 120 pages of The Dew Breaker were very interesting. The book is a very unique piece of literature, comprised of vignettes. The first half contains “The Book of the Dead,” “Seven,” “Water Child,” “The Book of Miracles,” and “Night Talkers.” Each of them are short stories about different parts of people’s life. Many of the events are upsetting and unfortunate. In “The Book of the Dead,” we learn about a narrator and her father. The narrator is an art sculptor who is trying to sell her art to Gabrielle Fonteneau. However, her dad does not like the sculpture of himself, gets rid of it and then tells his daughter many secrets he has kept from her. This story is very sad. In “Seven” we learn about a tenant in the basement of what seems to be the house of the narrator and her father from the first vignette. He lives with two roommates and is preparing for the arrival of his wife whom he has not seen in a long time. He is happy that he is going to get back together with his wife and reignite the passion in their relationship. However, the vignette ends in a sad tone because the couples seems distant once they find each other. “Water Child” talks about Nadine, a nurse who works in the Ear, Nose and Throat department at a Brooklyn hospital. She seems to be distant from everyone in her surroundings and from her family back in the homeland. She has also had an abortion and does not feel good about having committed one (which is why she created a memorial for the baby). She cares for an elderly woman who is discharged from the hospital in the end.
“The Book of Miracles” is about Anne, the wife and mother of the father and narrator from the first vignette. The story is mainly about Anne’s perspective of her family during a Christmas Eve mass. There are repressed feelings that she has and does not let it out so that they could realize what she thinks about them. Instead she keeps her true feelings hidden behind her religious personality. The story ends with the Christmas mass ending. “Night Talkers” is the saddest one out of all of them because it involves a guy named Dany who goes back to his homeland to visit his blind aunt, the one who raised him after his parents passed away, to tell her that he found the man responsible for his parents’ death and her blindness. However, the same night he told her that, the aunt passes away.
What makes this book so appealing is that although each vignette can stand on its own without the support from any other text, all of them flow very nicely when they are together because they are each connected in some way. If you pay attention to the small details, one detail in one story is connected to the detail in another. Danticat makes the reader feel suspense and a genuine urge to want to know more about the characters in each vignette. We only get snippets of details about the lives of these people in each vignette, which is why we are motivated to continue reading. If only more books could be like hers.
