Adrian Horczak
People of New York
Professor Lutton
April 1, 2015
Reading Journal 10
Edwidge Danticat wrote Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work. The essay begins by describing how the president of Haiti, Francois Duvalier, in 1964 tries to make popular the shooting of two rebellious individuals, Marcel Numa and Louis Drouin. All the schools in the Haitian city, Port-au-Price, where the execution was taking place, were closed. Additionally, people were brought by buses from nearby cities, and the television reporters were summoned to watch and broadcast the event. Later, the topic of creating dangerously is brought to light. It is expressing disagreement to what is expected. Acting out when there should be silence is creating dangerously.
The Other side of the Water by the same author, discloses the limits of movement due to borders. It shows how even after death, people are not allowed to move freely between boundaries. In the essay, Danticat explains how her deceased cousin, Marius, was not allowed to be taken to Haiti from the United States. She was in Haiti talking on the phone with Marius’s roommate who told her he did not have much when he died. What restricted Marius from getting moved to Haiti were his lack of papers. The borders between countries are enforced so much, even corpses need documentation.
The novel, Dew Breaker, is also written by Danticat. In it, Ka is living with her Haitian parents in New York. Although she was born in the United States, she likes to identify herself as a Haitian. Ka talks about her father’s scar and how it has brought memories of the past to light. However, he does not like what happened before because he killed people. That is why he is often covering it. Furthermore, he is trying to forget about his past since he is in the United States of America. Although he may have pride in his West Indian roots, he wants to get accustomed to American life like the rest of his family. Ka’s mother is getting involved a lot with the church, and she is viewed by everyone to be getting old. She does not demonstrate such interest in American culture, so she just feels old and not wanting to change the way things are.
Create Dangerously demonstrates how some people have too much power and do not want to listen to the people, so they kill those who try to start uprisings. I believe that they are severely restricting people’s freedom of speech. The people in charge should not only be good speakers, but good listeners, as well.
I am curious as to why in The Other side of the Water, there is a problem transporting Marius’s corpse because he lacks the proper documentation. Normally, undocumented people in the United States of America are worried of being deported, so why would Marius’s corpse not just be treated as a person who will be deported. Instead, he has trouble leaving the country due to his illegal residency.
In the Dew Breaker, Ka feels a strong connection with her parents Haitian roots. This comes to no surprise to me because West Indians have pride in their culture and ethnicity.
