“Create Dangerously: The immigrant Artist at Work”

Danticat begins this essay by telling us about the brutal executions of Marcel Numa and Louis Drouin. These two are Haitian Men from New York who go back to Haiti to fight to destroy the dictatorship of François Duvalier. One man was caught while he went shopping while the other man was injured and told his group to leave him behind after a fight. Danticat then goes on to compare these executions to some pieces of literature and artworks of this time. According to Danticat, these executions and the performances of some works of literature involved disobeying a higher authority and possibly facing the punishment that went with disobeying a higher authority. The author says that the purpose for the performances was to convince people that they will not die the way Drouin and Numa did. Danticat goes on to say that the courage of the reader can be compared to the courage of the writers.

The courage of the writers and the readers is their courage in finding a way to disobey authority through either the writing or reading of some works of literature. The scholars who write literature with ideas that oppose higher authority have found ways through time to state their opinions even against higher powers. While the act of writing anything that opposes authority is dangerous, Danticat says that reading these works can be just as dangerous. Danticat says that somewhere there will be people risking their lives to read these works of literature.

I found this interesting because I have never really thought too much about authors publishing work against the interest of authority. I immediately thought about J.K Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series. Being a woman meant it was not easy for her to publish works under her name. Therefore, she created the pen name J.K Rowling from her initials to publish her novels under the pen name. This may not seem like a dangerous piece but at the time the first book in the series was being published it was not common for female writers to publish their works.

“The Other Side of the Water”

This essay was about the death of Danticat’s cousin, Marius. Danticat had to face much difficulty in trying to send Marius’ body back fro Miami to Haiti. Marius was undocumented and therefore, he needed special papers to leave the United States. The fact he died from AIDS meant there were more special procedures that needed to be followed before his body could be send back. The body is eventually send back with the money that was sent by Marius’ mother.

This was a surprising article for several reasons. I knew that for Dead bodies you needed a lot of money. I didn’t know a specific number but I didn’t expect so much difficulty with the paperwork for a person’s body to be sent back to his or her country. I suppose I can understand the difficulty in the situation of Marius. He was undocumented which meant he was originally not among the known citizens of the United States. He also died from AIDS which was a deadly disease that killed many people.

The Dew Breaker

The Dew Breaker surrounds the people around a family of three that includes the Father (The Dew Breaker and a barber), The mother (Anne and a hairdresser), and their Daughter (Ka). The barber was a torturer in Haiti before he came to NYC as an undocumented person. He is married to his wife who knows the truth about her husband and they had a daughter who grew up thinking that her father was a prisoner. Ka made a stature of her father in her imagination during his time in prison in Haiti. Ka and her father were bringing the statue Ka made to a famous Haitian actress and art collected named Gabrielle Fonteneau. Ka’s father didn’t like the statue and threw out the statue in a lake. Ka then learned from her father that he was not a prisoner but instead the torturer.

We then learn about the three tenets of the barber’s basement. There were three men, Eric, Dany and Michel who have lived there for sometime. Dany is married and has his wife coming to NYC after being seperated for seven years. Dany’s wife brings many gifts of food and sexual aids that are thrown in the garbage by the creole speaking customs officer. When Dany and his wife meet after 7 years and make love that night. Then until the weekend, the wife spends her day sitting at home cooking and listening to Creole radio states from Haiti and NYC. When the weekend comes, Dany takes his wife to see Haitian Brooklyn.

Then we read about Naden, who was Dany’s wife. She works in the ear, nose and throat Department in the hospital as a nurse. She had aborted her child 7 months ago and now has a shrine in her apartment. It tells us about a patient named Ms. Hinds  who is a teacher that had a laryngectomy. Ms. Hinds can no longer talk and causes a lot of trouble for the other nurses  until Naden has a conversation with Ms.Hinds with Ms. Hinds writing down what she wanted to say on a pad. When Ms.Hinds leaves from the hospital, she talks to Naden and says goodbye. Once Ms.Hinds and her family leave in the elevator, Naden looks at her enlarged reflection in the elevator doors and thinks of her aborted child who would have been born that week.

Then we read a chapter from Anne’s perspective when she takes her husband and her daughter to the Christmas mass. At the mass, Ka notices a man who looks like Emmanuel Constant and keeps looking at him. Anne remembers her brother drowning and she hopes that he is invited to heaven to stop wandering since he was not buried.Anne then becomes afraid that other people would recognize her husband the way Ka thought she saw Emmanuel Constant.Therefore, she decides not to being her husband or Ka to mass anymore.

We also read about Dany, another one of the tenants who live in the Barber’s basement. Dany purposely decided to live in the barber’s basement because he recognized the barber as the torturer who killed his parents and ruined his aunt Estina’s eyes, and killed Estina’s husband. Dany goes back to Beau Jour, his aunt’s village in the mountains which is like a paradise. He goes back to tell his aunt about the barber. Once when he starts to tell Estina, the man who led him to Estina’s house interrupts their conversation. Then he meets Claude, who is a Haitian American who doesn’t speak creole, who killed his father and is like a refuge in the mountainside village. Dany then tells Estina about the barber in a dream after which Estina and Dany talk about him sleep talking about his parents. They go back to sleep and Estina dies peacefully without knowing about the barber. Dany then talks to Claude about Claude’s life.

While I was reading the Dew Breaker, One thing that really struck me was the ability of some Haitian Americans to participate in transnationalism while others such as the barber who were living undocumented, could not participate in transnationalism.

It was also surprising that Dany left Beau Jour for NYC when it seems almost like paradise. Many of the villagers say that they weren’t as lucky as Dany to have been able to move away from the village. I don’t really believe that Dany is lucky for moving away because he had to leave behind a really kind and accepting place like Beau Jour.