Claudia Yan

Peopling of NYC

Journal Entry 10

The latter half of The Dew Breaker was really crazy. While the first half of the book seemed to have some sort of structure and reasoning with all of the characters having a relationship with Ka’s father, the Dew Breaker, the last half seemed to take the term of Dew Breaker into a wider scope. In addition to expanding the role of the Dew Breaker, Danticat was able to provide a image of the problems going on in Haiti at the time through the stories of her different characters. Danticat demonstrates a theme of coping in different ways by using multiple literary elements.
Each short story in The Dew Breaker is written in a different style even thought it is written by a different person. For example:  the first chapter is told in a third person selective omniscient perspective while the chapter Funeral Singer is told in a sort of documentary of Freda’s journey to getting her diploma week by week. The varying styles of each chapter help to explain the idea that in the diaspora, everyone has hurdles and personal problems that are individual to themselves. With each person having individual problems, they also each have their own way of coping with their issues. The character who has the most extreme method of coping is undoubtedly the Dew Breaker who forces himself to face the woman whose brother he killed as well as to live in constant fear that somebody from Haiti, living in New York City, will recognize him. His coping method is to punish himself as much as possible to try to atone for his previous sins.
The end of the book goes to where the Dew Breaker’s fate begins to change. He kills Anna’s brother and they end up “getting married” and moving to America. The fact that he kills Anna brother and faces her every day of his life is insane and forces the reader to look back at the first chapter and reevaluate their opinion of Ka’s father. I think Danticat is amazing for having written this book; it is capable of telling the history of Haiti, demonstrating the struggle of immigrants as well as raise the question of how or whether to forgive in the context of people that did terrible things, but only because there were no real other options to choose from. Had Ka’s father not become a Macout he would have remained in poverty for the rest of his life.
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The journal about Haiti earthquake was really interesting for me since I wrote my media assignment on post-earthquake action taken in Haiti. This journal focused a lot on the action of people in the diaspora and how they reacted to the earthquake. I think that while the action of those in the diaspora was quick and that they reacted very well to the crisis, the contributions made from countries around the world that were non-Haitian made a really large impact. My media assignment focused on how post-earthquake, media stopped covering Haiti and the help for the country kind of dwindled. Perhaps the immediate problem was fixed such as by providing food and some shelter for all the people who had gotten displaced but a long term solution needs to be found that will help the country grow economically. Haitians in the diaspora said that they were angry because of how there was no structure and no improvement in the government of Haiti. Political problems always confuse me greatly, but I think a large problem with the government in Haiti is that the people in the government are a little behind understanding what needs to be done for their country. There is also not enough skilled people in Haiti for the country to really get back on its feet.
One of the things that I was really impressed by was the quick action that was taken to help the earthquake victims and their families. Digicell got its cell towers up and running by the end of the week and also reduced their prices, the US government allowed Haitians temporary protection and the immigrants in diaspora showed that they were willing to help their native country get back on its feet.
I thought it was interesting how Lundy kept putting positive notes about how the earthquake served to reconnect people in the Diaspora with their home country and how it also gave an opportunity to improve the political issues going on in Haiti. It is kind if sad that life requires a huge earthquake with the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and destruction of a country for people to take notice but that is kind of how the rest of the world functions as well. Even though a problem might occur, action is not taken until something really bad happens.