Danticat- Create Dangerously

Danticat begins this chapter by describing two Haitian men getting ready for their execution. These men were members of a group that organized guerillas against the Haitian government. One thing that is important to note about these men is that both of them were immigrants that live in the United States. As the essay continues, it discusses the topic of the battle between the oppressed and the oppressors. She mostly focuses on how the arts battles corrupt regimes. There are many authors in Haiti that write against the government. Even though they understand this is illegal, they still do it in hopes that people read it. Danticat explains that people do read it. They understand that they can get in deep trouble if caught, but people still read because the authors’ courage inspired them. We also notice that there were other forms of art that spoke against the government such as plays. These plays would be held in secret theaters and spoke out against the government. These art works and literature were created with great caution and were created in absolute secrecy in order to effectively disobey authority.

Other Side of the Water:

In this chapter, Danticat talks about the death of her cousin. Her cousin, Marius, was an immigrant from Haiti that lived in Miami. He moved to Miami by boat. So, Danticat’s cousin did not have the luxury of mobility that Danticat enjoyed. He was stuck in Miami and if he were to return to Haiti, he would not be able to come back to the states. Therefore, when he died and his body was requested to be transported back to Haiti a few obstacles got in the way. Before his body was sent back to Haiti, Danticat had to provide quite a few documentations. These documentations included his passport, information about his property, and information about the disease he carried. At the end of the essay, after Marius’s mother received the body back in Haiti, she begins to allude to the water that once separated her from her son. The water is an important symbol in Haiti. It is a symbol of connection with Africa and at the same time it is a barrier that isolates Haiti.

Reflection:

One of the things that really got me thinking and made me contemplate a bit was the scene where Danticat had the conversation with Dr. Freedman about transferring Marius’s body to Haiti. Danticat says:

“He’s a dead man whose cadaver needs to be shipped to the country where he was born. Why is it so complicated?” I asked.

“In part,” he answered calmly, “because he’s an alien.”

Were we still aliens in death, I asked, our corpses unwanted visitors still?

How can two dead bodies be treated differently? At the end of the day the dead body of Abraham Lincoln is as useless as the dead body of a slave. Yes they might have held different statuses before death, but now their bodies are nothing but useless corpses. I just found it very disturbing to see that even after death people are still labeled and categorized.