Krik? Krak ! By Edwidge Danticat Analysis

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Ayiti, by Roxanne Gay, and Krik? Krak!, by Edwidge Danticat are collections of short stories about Haiti and its people, which gives the readers insight into the complex Haitian diaspora experience. Both authors successfully empower the voiceless by sharing stories that give a glimpse into the struggles and hardships that Haitians face. The collections seek to offer a deeper view into Haitian society and covers an array of themes such as the politics of survival, assimilation, resiliency, and feminist culture in Haiti. [In particular, both collections explore the Haitian immigrant experience and illustrate the notions of cultural identity, home, and family relationships. Krik? Krak? studies the experiences of the Haitian immigrant experience…show more content…
Krak! with “Children of the Sea” to describe the state of the Haiti diaspora and to exemplify the conditions that Haitians are trying to escape from. “Children of the Sea” tells the story of a group of Haitians fleeing the corrupt and oppressive Duvalier regime by boat on the sea by using unread letters between the two narrators. The female narrator’s sections of the story serve as testimony to the ongoing oppression in Haiti as she describes the brutal violence of the Macoutes, or Duvalier’s soldiers. The male narrator also describes the horrific acts that the Macoutes perform on Célianne (the pregnant women on the boat) and the long-lasting effects it has on her. The passage has an effect on the notion of home for the immigrants on the boat. For the people on the boat, the notion of home has been damaged. Haiti, as a their original “home”, feels out of reach or perhaps gone forever. The space on the open sea in a flimsy boat evokes a kind of rootlessness as the male narrator describes, “I don’t know how long we’ll be at sea. There are thirty-six other deserting souls on this little boat with me.” The sea serves as a space in-between their homeland and their new home, so that they are suspended in limbo between “homes”. Need to…show more content…
Suzette is surprised to find her mother in Midtown babysitting another child and is caught off guard when she sees her mother participating in American culture when she buys a frankfurter off a hotdog stand. The fact that her mother has kept her day job a secret from Suzette further solidifies the growing gap between the mother and the daughter and also implies that the mother may feel ashamed of her slow assimilation into American culture. The mother’s sense of shame is revealed when she says, “I cannot just swallow salt. Salt is heavier than a hundred bags of shame.” (150) Salt is symbolic of shame and it supports Davis’s argument in that it shows that the mother is slowly disassociating herself with Haiti but is not accepting of the fact that she is assimilating into American culture. Ultimately, Danticat’s “New York Day Women” is an incredibly influential story to showcase the effects of the Haitian immigration experience on the mother-daughter relationship between Suzette and her mother. The relationship clearly develops a gap because Suzette has assimilated into American culture and only understands the Haitian culture through her mother’s stories. Moreover, the passage displays how the mother has struggled with developing her identity since immigrating to America. Her mother is slowly
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    WORLD LITERATURE HOMEWORK: Sabrina Ferreiro 30/8/14 2nd Reflective and Analytic Essay: Children of the sea and Caroline’s wedding are both short stories from the book Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat . Children of the sea is set at the beginning of the book making it the first short story whereas Caroline’s wedding is situated in as the last story in the book without counting the Epilogue called Women Like Us. Children of the Sea and Caroline’s weddning have very different settings and stories

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