When someone craves power, they tend to take power from others, resulting in oppression and control. However, according to “The Dew Breaker” by Edwidge Danticat, those that seem powerless prove to be more powerful than those who seek control. Revolving around a faithful preacher and a loyal torturer, this story illustrates that those who submit themselves to fate live happier and gain more personal freedom than those who control others to hide and run away from their emotions. The preacher, who is praised by followers and speaks against society, turns out to be more powerful than the torturer, who scorns others despite his own neglect.
Although the preacher knows he will die for contradicting the government’s ideals, he accepts his imminent…show more content… In contrast to the preacher, he believes religion “maligned [the people], pegged them as slaves, and told them to obey their masters,” although he is loyal to the government through the Miliciens. This irony continues when he submits to the government’s forces to talk to “the officials who’d taken over his father’s land… [saying] ‘we’re all the same now’” (197). To further gain social power, he “regained his father the house where both he and the father were born” (197). However, in correcting the past, he slowly succumbs to the brainwashing power of the government. In turn, he becomes a powerful torturer, siphoning the power of others through “stapling clothespins to their ears… paddl[ing] them… cracking backs… poun[ding] a rock on the protruding bone behind their earlobes… [and] shouting at them” (198). Through torturous exercises, he “thought he was God” (199), even though he truly wants to get “out of this life, moving to Florida or even New York” (189). Despite his dream to have a new life, he chose power over happiness. After capturing the preacher, he ends up killing the preacher, and he finally gains the courage to break away from the corrupt government. The discontent felt by the fat man near the end of the story reflects how gaining power was an obstacle to escape the government and travel to