A reflection on the book `Krik?Krak`
1. What is the significance of writing in CHILDREN OF THE SEA?
This is where the narrator recollects about her past. Writing the Children of the Sea was deemed significant for the flow of the book because all the rest of the story were just products of the memories or records of the life of the character as she was on board a ship to Miami. It was a contrast of life and death as the main character writes about her life while a girl of fifteen gives birth to a baby and the baby eventually dies.
2. In NINETEEN THIRTY-SEVEN, why do the women travel to the river so often?
A quote from the book says “The River was the place where it had all begun” (41) answers the question on why women travel so often to the rivers. They go to the river to escape the horrors of their own land. To escape death and seizure her mother swam the river that crosses between the Dominican Republic and her native country, the Haiti. Her grandmother on the other hand, being too weak to swim was caught and killed in Haiti.
3. Explain the significance of the list at the sugar mill in THE WALL OF FIRE RISING. Why doesn`t the mother want his son`s name on the list? In The Wall of the Fire Rising, a couple is trying to raise their son without tainting his soul with poverty and hopelessness. This is the main reason why his mother doesn’t want his name to be signed at the sugar mill. The Childs parents don’t want the boy to serve as slave in the Mill. The child however grew fascinated in the works of Boukman, a declaration of freedom and slave revolution.
4. How does (social) class become significant in BETWEEN THE POOL AND THE GARDENIAS?
To further stress the importance of class in Between the Pool and the Gardenias, I quote an excerpt from the book which says “Her lips were wide and purple, like those African dolls you see in tourist store windows but never could afford to buy.” The character is that of a young woman who have had many miscarriages before since she can’t afford better healthcare for her baby. She is now in denial of her child’s death and is drawn to a dead child that she has seen on the streets. Though the corps is decaying, she can’t seem to take her eyes of the child and continues to visit her. She wants to give the child proper burial but such would require money.
5. Reread the conversation between the girl and her grandmother on page 107 in THE MISSING PEACE. Why does the grandmother feel hostility toward the visitor?
In the Missing Peace, two desperate women where brought together amidst the chaos of the fall of the old regime. The narrator, Lamort, helps an American journalist named Emilie in finding her mother. Lamorts grandmother feel hostility toward the visitor for the simple reason that she was American in a foreign country and she fears that their quest for the journalist mother would put her grandchild in danger.
6. Both death and life function as major themes in SEEING THINGS SIMPLY. How does painting work with those two ideas?
According to the character, the painting serves as a memoir for her as shown by the excerpt, “to have something to leave behind even after she is gone.” Through her paintings life was preserved but as her real reason for making the painting unfolds, it foreshadows death.
7. Danticat places the traditions of Haiti and Haitian culture at odds with Americans and American customs in CAROLINE`S WEDDING. Offer an example of this relationship and its significance to the story.
In Caroline’s Wedding, clash of Haitan and American culture was portrayed as Caroline is not having a church wedding which is very important to their tradition. The difference between the American and Haitan culture was further illustrated when Coroline said to her mom in one of their arguments that they don’t want to spend money a single day just to please the rest of the crowd while leaving them bankrupt. It is cheaper to get married in court than in the church, the way all Haitan Weddings are held. They said that her husbands’ friend who is a judge will be the one to wed the couple in his office and not in the church.
8. The text closes with writing once again in the Epilogue. What is the significance of writing for this author? What does the Epilogue reveal about Danticat?
The Epilogue provides substance and unity for the rest of the story as one would get to understand that she is writing of different generations of women who are bounded by struggles. When asked what the essence of writing for her is, the author said in the last part that the act is pretty much like braiding ones hair; you take a clump of rowdy stands and try to unify its strands to make it bigger and stronger.
