The second half of Edwidge Daniticat’s “The Dew Breaker” sums up and concludes all the separate stories that were begun in the first half of the novel. In addition to this, she adds backstories for some of the characters with whom we are already familiar. All of these vignettes focus in on the characters experiences in Haiti and provides the impetus for them needing to leave the country. For instance, Michel was embroiled in the chaos that rocked Haiti after the overthrowing of Baby Doc Duvalier. Unsurprisingly after the deposition on Baby Doc the population formed mobs to root out all the macoutes. Regulus, Michel’s friends father, happened to be a macoute. He ended up committing suicide because of the pursuing mob. The Dew Breaker ends up marrying Anne, whose stepbrother he murdered after being assaulted with a piece of broken chair. I don’t know how this happened to be honest with you, why the Dew Breaker would choose to spend his life in America married to someone who he had personally wronged makes no sense to me. Maybe being reminded every day of the atrocities he committed is his own twisted way of repenting.
My observation about the lack of levity in Danticat’s writing has remained unchanged. Normally I don’t like to make such shallow comments on writing style but this book genuinely left me a little depressed. I completely understand why the author chose to write this way, the stories she portrays are not happy ones. These immigrants journeys have taken them through some very dark times during the Duvaliers’ rule. It would be disrespectful not to capture every last miserable detail.
Moving on to something marginally less personally depressing but equally devastating, the Haitian earthquake killed over a hundred thousand people and left the capital, Port-Au-Prince ruined. Out of all this devastation it can be said that one positive aspect emerged. The Haitian diaspora suddenly got much more patriotic and took a much keener of an interest in helping out their paesani back home. The Haitian population living in New York, amongst other areas, experienced a surge of nationalism and national pride. For the first time they didn’t feel ashamed to admit that they were Haitian. Perhaps it could even be said that this earthquake was the start of the Haitian diaspora looking at their heritage as a source of strength rather than a source of shame. Corporations and individuals alike came together in an attempt to expedite the rebuilding and betterment of the country, in a way this earthquake galvanized Haitian nationalism.
