The second portion of Danticat’s The Dew Breaker gave a beautiful and intricate finish to a touching novel. This portion, like the first, consisted of multiple stories from multiple perspectives that illustrate the impact and wide reach of the dew breaker, Ka’s father.
In “The Bridal Seamstress,” we hear the story of Beatrice Saint Fort. Beatrice is bridal seamstress from Haiti who has worked all her life. We learn about her through her interview with Aline, whose initial goal was to get a story about the soon-to-retire tailor. However, it was Beatrice who actually got the story on Aline. With every question Aline presented, Beatrice would ask one in return, thus exposing Aline’s past and inner thoughts. Aline, who did not even want to be a reporter, opens up to Beatrice about her life during the interview. After some time, Beatrice asks Aline to go outside and look at her block. During this interaction, Beatrice reveals her traumatizing experience from Haiti, where a prison guard whipped her for refusing to go to a dance with him. Beatrice believes that the prison guard now follows her everywhere she moves, as if haunting her. When Aline examines the supposed house of the prison guard, she sees that the house has been empty for years. Thus, we understand that maybe Beatrice is simply hallucinating due to the traumatic impact of this dew breaker. Aline, realizing the significance of this past torturer, thinks that he may be connected to other people. From this, she contemplates her future and thinks that her new goal will be to uncover this dew breaker in his new homeland.
In the next story, “Monkey Tails,” Danticat introduces Michel. Michel is thinking over his life in Haiti, where experienced misfortunes. In Haiti, after the Duvalier’s were extracted, chaos broke out as the citizens chased after the dew breakers, or ‘macoutes’. In this reflection, we learn of Romain. Romain, Michel’s friend, was the son of macoute who abandoned him while feeling the country. From this, Romain feels unwanted by his family. Furthermore, Romain finds out that his true father is actually next-door neighbor Monsieur Christophe who never expressed care for him. Furious by his life of lies, Romain also leaves Haiti. Afterwards, we find out that Romain’s dad committed suicide. This story was depressing and revealed the different misfortunes the people in Haiti experienced under the Duvalier’s.
“The Funeral Singer” is about the lives of Freda, Mariselle and Rezia. The narrator, Freda, was a funeral singer who had to flee from her homeland after refusing to sing for the president. Mariselle left Haiti because her husband was shot for painting an unflattering portrait of Haiti’s president. Rezia was raped by a macoute with the consent of her own aunt. This section further describes the sufferings many immigrants experienced in their past homelands. It further illustrates that immigrants truly move to achieve a better life in another country.
The last story of Danticat’s novel, “The Dew Breaker (circa 1967)” reveals the previous lifestyle of Ka’s father as a prison guard. Under orders, the dew breaker was searching for a preacher who spoke out against the government. During the search, we learn that Ka’s father became a dew breaker to escape the fate of his parents, who lived to work harshly in the fields. When the preacher is found, the dew breaker and other macoutes beat him. Afterwards, Ka’s father takes the preacher to his office for questioning. It is there that he receives the scar he struggle to hide on his face. After being attacked, Ka’s father kills the preacher. After the murder, he runs from the office, where he meets Anne, the preacher’s sister. Anne cares for the dew breaker’s wounds. The two eventually flee to the United States. The story ends with Ka asking her mother if there is more to her father’s story.
In the next reading, Lundy discusses the response of the Haitian diaspora to the earthquake on January 12, 2010. Lundy mentions how Haitians living outside of their homeland made use of political, economic , and communication ties to help their family who suffered back home. This article also investigates the impact of the earthquake on the identity of the second generation. Three fifths of Haitians living in the U.S. lost a loved one and two thirds desired to move back to help reconstruct their nation. Lundy further discusses transnationalism in detail, defining it as the process by which immigrants foster a complex relationship that binds them to their country of origin while they are simultaneously involved in their country of settlement. Lundy mentions that there are six interpretations of transnationalism: social morphology, type of consciousness, modes of cultural reproduction, avenue of capital, sites of political engagement, and reconstruction of a place or locality.
