Krak By Edwidge Danticat: Literary Analysis

Imagine: A young boy scavenges for food to provide for his impoverished family which was composed of his ill mother and starving siblings or a homeless, single mom desperatley seeking for shelter. These synopses from "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt and "The Street" by Ann Petry share a common theme: perseverance through hardships. In "Angela's Ashes," a memoir by Frank McCourt, he stells about the harships he endured through his childhood, such as, struggling to assist his family in the midst of poverty by stealing food to provide for them. Futhermore, in "The Street," a novel by Ann Petry, tells the story of young Lutie Johnson, a homeless single mom who is seeking shelter for herself and her children. In these two excerpts, the authors use the characters, settings, and events to develop the theme, which I've identified as perseverance through hardships.

Natasha Tretheway’s first two poems, leading introductions give an image of having false expectations and leads with another device of foreshadowing. “Theories of Time and Space,” and “The Southern Crescent” both show how the same situation happens to the mother, and then it happens again to her when she is with her mother. The train personifies as the mother’s life. She leaves at sixteen years old, “She is leaving behind, the dirt roads of Mississippi…” However she doesn’t ascertain for what she would find at the end of her journey. This ride involves another disappointment, just like the first trip. The speaker and her mother derail on their train ride and never reach their final destination. Both trips, the reader can imagine and feel the hope of visiting important man in their lives that let them down in the end. “Each small town pass before her window/ until light goes, and the reflection/ of mothers face appears clear now/ as evening comes on, dark and

In the short story “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there is a great deal of literary elements used to enhance the story. For example, imagery is used to draw the reader 's attention further into the story by having them see it happening in their head and allegory is used to pull the reader away from the story by referencing things that happened somewhere else. While these two literary elements are both used to magnify different parts of the story, as well as counterbalance each other, the literary device that this essay will be focused on is symbolism. While it appears in many parts of the story one of the most obvious uses of

Purpose: To understand how Haiti became what it is and all the trials it has endured

Danticat writes about a daughter and her mother, who has been accused of being a witch. The mother had to cross the river separating Haiti and the Dominican Republic to save herself and her daughter. This real event was a massive massacre with very few survivors. “My mother had escaped El Generalissimo's soldiers, leaving her own mother behind. From the Haitian side of the river, she could still see the soldiers chopping up her mother’s body and throwing it into the river along with many others,” (40). Despite surviving, the mother saw her own mother die in this massacre and likely many more people that she knew. She lost everything while trying to escape, except for her own daughter. This forced them to start their life over in Haiti. And while she did get a chance to start a new life, she went through immense suffering trying to escape and even once she did escape and got to Haiti. After moving to the city, the mother is accused of being a witch and

There is a lot to know about Haiti when it comes to the conditions as well as the events witnessed in Haiti during the regime of the Duvaliers. However, little is know about this country because despite its proximity to the United States. The Duvaliers caused a lot of injustice that Haitian were subjected to. In Edwidge Danticat’s Krik? Krak!, originally published in 1991, she brings out the suffering and violence that were witnessed in Haiti through the resilience of strong women. Josephine’s mother in “ Nineteen Thirty-Seven” and Marie in “Between the Pool and the Gardenias” represent the strength of women, playing a significant part in most stories in her book; yet, their

    The maternal bond between mother and kin is valued and important in all cultures.  Mothers and children are linked together and joined: physically, by womb and breast; and emotionally, by a sense of self and possession.  Once that bond is established, a mother will do anything for her child.  In the novel Beloved, the author, Toni Morrison, describes a woman, Sethe, who's bond is so strong she goes to great lengths to keep her children safe and protected from the evil that she knows.  She gave them the gift of life, then, adding to that, the joy of freedom.  Determined to shield them from the hell of slavery, she took drastic measures to keep them from that life.  But, in doing so, the

Shielded from the atrocities of slavery during her childhood, Jacobs depicts family life among slaves as one that remains intact in a “comfortable home” (29) through the example of her own family. Each member held limited rights along with the ability to work and the privilege to use their earnings as they pleased. It is not until the death of her mistress where she finally begins to feel the effects of slavery in the sudden separation of her family who are “all distributed among her [mistress’s] relatives” (Jacobs 33). The separation of family is one of the most integral subjects of her narrative since “motherhood [plays a great role] in her life” (Wolfe 518). Jacobs appeals to the emotions of her female audiences by contrasting a slave mother’s agonies in her separation from her children with the “happy free women” (40) whose children remain with her since “no hand” (40) has the right to take them away. The separation of families in Douglass’s narrative does call for some pity but the event is not as tragic in comparison to

Hurricanes, earthquakes, war, riots, death, and economic problems. Haiti has experienced it all. Through the novel Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat shares stories of Haitians experiencing tragedy. She expresses how Haitians can find hope even in suffering. Danticat uses the motifs of generations and children to convey the idea that Haitians can discover hope even when experiencing pain and hardship.

In "A Sorrowful Woman" the wife is depressed with her life, so much so, "The sight of them made her so sad and sick she did not want to see them ever again"(p.1). This wife and mother has come to detest her life, the sight of her family,

The theme of this book is that the human capacity to adapt to and find happiness in the most difficult circumstances. Each character in the novel shows this in their way. For instance, their family is randomly taken from their home and forced to

“Here is how I came to love my mother.  How I saw her my own true nature.  What was beneath my skin.  Inside my bones.” (Tan 40)

In addition, to show what the editor said in the McGuffey’s there is a poem that is from a child’s point of view talking about his mother, “Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair; Over my slumbers your loving watch keep; Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep! (Gorn 108).” It is shown here how the mother is to watch over her children and take care of them. Moreover, in the Women’s Diaries it talks about the hardship mothers had, “Accounts shade and darken in the pages of women whose energies were spent nursing and caring for infants and small children (Schlissel 115).” It says that their diaries turn in essence bleak because they are being overwhelmed with so many duties and then on top of that having to care for the children. Being on the trail made it very difficult for the women to perform these duties as the author points out, “The West to them meant the challenge of rearing a family and maintaining domestic order against the disordered life on the frontier (Schlissel 115).” The women had to face to challenge and they did in a way that shows that the men were not the only ones who had an immense amount of courage in this great undertaking.

‘The Mother’ is an allusion to ‘The Soldier’, which glorifies war and the death of soldiers. ‘The Mother’ is the complete opposite, imparting the horrible realities of war, creating a very melancholy and sombre tone.

From a feminist critical perspective, it is clear to perceive that her husband’s death was a release of freedom from her marriage. The text describes that at times, she did and did not love her husband. However, love had not mattered anymore because she was now free. Whether they loved each other or not, she would have still been his property. This restriction of freedom was no longer her cross to bear. The death of her husband would pave her a path for a new life.