Adrian Horczak
Professor Lutton
People of New York
The Dew Breaker
In “The Bridal Seamstress,” Aline is interviewing Beatrice about her job has a bride dress maker and why she is retiring. Aline was an intern who struggled finding a paying job after graduating from college. Her Mission is to describe why Beatrice is retiring from dress making. She finds out that a dew breaker is following Beatrice, so she will move making sure no one, especially one of her clients, knows where she will live. She wants to get away from that man.
The next chapter, “Monkey Tails,” describes Michel’s childhood. There is an uprising going on in the Haitian village he lives in. His friend, Romain, encourages him to become an adult. However, after his excursion with Romain to a hotel, he does not see Romain again.
In “The Funeral Singer,” Freda is a 22-year-old still in school and trying to get a diploma. She continues to be in school still at this age because she spends lots of time with her friends and does not study enough. She sings at funerals as a job. However, when she is asked to sing at the president’s funeral, she refuses because she is rebellious and joins the militia.
The final chapter describes the dew breaker and is also referred to as “The Dew Breaker.” It mentions how a priest was seized by the militia for giving sermons condemning the government. Later, when he is to be set free, he is sent to the dew breaker for questioning. He hits the dew breaker with the leg of a chair as soon as he walks in and the dew breaker gets a scar. Because of this, the dew breaker kills the priest. After that, Anne, the priest’s half sister, comforts and cares for the dew breaker. Finally, they get married and have a daughter named Ka.
The second part of “The Dew Breaker” is very confusing to me because every chapter is narrated by a different person. I have read a book that uses a similar style, but all the events and people were closely related to form one grand story line. However, second half of “The Dew Breaker” does not continue with Ka’s family, rather makes me aware of other and practically unrelated people in the story. One theme I can find throughout the book is people coping with their differences and losses. For example, Anne knows her husband and her daughter are not Catholic like her, but she gets them to go with her to the Christmas Eve mass every year. Michel also needs to cope with the problem that he does not get see his father, but really wants to. Other themes that are present throughout the book are not clear to me. Danticat was probably trying to convey a storyline through the different narrators, but she does not do such a good job with clearly linking the information together.
Transnationalism in the Aftermath of the Haiti Earthquake: Reinforcing Ties and Second-Generation Identity
News of Haiti being struck by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake spread all around the world. Haitian individuals were worried about whether their families were safe, physically and economically. The earthquake killed over 250,000 people and approximately another 300,000 were injured. Many buildings were destroyed and the whole country needed to get itself back on its feet. The situation seemed so dire that many Haitian Americans felt they should go back to Haiti. Many claimed that they would adopt Haitian orphans. Furthermore, the United States government allowed people of Haitian decent to remain in the country if they did not have documentation.
The earthquake stimulated much help from the rest of the world, but it also effected the way Haitians are viewed. Second-generation Haitian immigrants did not want to be looked at as Haitians, as opposed to the way their parents viewed themselves. People who were considered Haitian after the earthquake were looked down upon and beat up.
People really worked hard to help Haiti after the earthquake struck on January 12, 2010. This devastating event change a lot of things, but I do not understand why Haitians were looked down upon after the earthquake. Everyone should have sympathized with them because their families were effected by the tragic event. The article also mentions at one point that some Haitians think people did not do enough to help Haiti. I think they should be thankful for any help they receive even though it is expected.
