Jack Finn October 17, 2017 Dr. Hakim M.A. Williams Literature Analysis The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat is a collection of nine different stories that tell about the enduring suffering of a select few that suffered under the Dictatorships of François Duvalier (Papa Doc: 1957-1971) and Jean-Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc: 1971-1986) (___) The nine chapters of the book bounce back and forth between the past and the present to show the impact that the dictatorships had on these people and how it is still affecting them today as immigrants. The novel mainly focuses on a former dew breaker that resides in a Haitian area of Brooklyn, New York. A dewbreaker was someone that was a torturer during the Duvalier dictatorships, who participated in the …show more content…
He later tells them both that they served as “masks to his face” (___). While his daughter Ka does not fully understand his difficult past life like the mother mentions, she is further disheartened when her father throws the sculpture of himself into a lake (___). He feels dishonored and undeserving of praise; he does not want to be remembered and the scar that the priest left him in fighting back is a daily reminder. He wants for the acceptance of his past by his wife Anne. Other sins of his include the killing of Dany’s parents in Haiti by the dewbreaker (___) and Mariselle’s family. Michel, another man paying rent to the dewbreaker, looks back on how the violence of the Duvaliers’ impacted the disappearance of his best friend when he was a youth after Baby Doc was overthrown (___). Duvalierism lasted after the Docs lost power and a violent age of government followed. Another character that was affected includes the dressmaker Beatrice Saint Fort who was tortured by militants in Haiti for denying the advances of one of an officer (___). Danticat focuses on several themes throughout the novel. The main focuses written about include ideas like past identities and running from one’s past, family redemption, the impacts of dictatorships and ruling through fear, and the effect it has on the public. The themes in The Dew Breaker
This passage of the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger takes place when the main character Holden leaves the boarding school after being expelled. Since he does not want to be the one to tell his parents the news, he plans on going to New York.
Why does Holden continuously judge people based on their physical appearance? Could this be a projection of his insecurities or a reflection of his mental health?
Becoming delusional was the only way many people could cope with the horrors of the government. Under the rule of Dictator Jean-Claude ''Baby Doc" Duvalier, Haiti underwent horrific and traumatizing events. Many hatians like the woman of the story, learned to disconnect herself from the ghastly situations and escape into a better life. Danticat adds another example of this in the story. She describes "My grandmother Defile who died with a bald head in a prison because God had given her wings." Her grandmother had been a victim of the 1937 massacre at the border of Dominican Republic.
Novarre Scott Momaday's book The Way to Rainy Mountain is both a personal and anthropological exploration of the ways of the Kiowa Indian tribe. Momaday was raised on a Navajo Reservation, but was educated within the 'white' university system, where he first gained a reputation as a poet. His work straddles the borders of the genre of autobiography and ethnography. The book is the story of a tribe, a chronicle of both history and myth. "There are on the way to Rainy Mountain, many landmarks, many journeys in the one" (Momaday 4). Although about a people whose lives have been displaced and forever changed as a result of colonialization, the book functions less as a political critique and polemic and more as an internal spiritual journey. "Rather, it describes a process: a people, one person and one family at a time, preserves essential aspects of its heritage, connects through imagination to that heritage, and in so doing, assures its survival" (Charles 66).
Stephen King’s “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” is a marvelous and unusual text. Within the first part of his book, also called C.V., he explains his life experience up to the day he finishes the book. King expresses his life with multiple literary elements that assist the readers on imagining his life of adventures, catastrophes, fears, and loves. Following are three of my favorite passages that caught my attention.
Human trafficking,the illegal practice of trading in human beings for the purpose of prostitution, forced labor, or other forms of exploitation, is a crime that affects the most vulnerable citizens of society. After drugs, it the largest criminal activity globally! The victims must be the primary concern for all law enforcement units. Human trafficking in the world can be diminished and possibly erased through teachings, government intervention, and awareness.
During Eliezer’s suffering, he announced “How good it would be to die right here”(76). Obviously, during the holocaust people suffered dearly, which during the time made Elie say that. In the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel two things people had faced were emancipated faith and hope, and weaker relationship/ survival instinct.
Dry September is a story where citizens of a Jefferson, Mississippi have heard a rumor that Will Mayes, a black man has raped a white woman named Minnie Cooper. The story explores the reactions of the town’s citizens as this rumor is spread. Individuals begin to make individual conclusions and assumptions drawing hasty ideas based on insufficient or miniscule evidence, even going as far as to make up some of the evidence to draw a conclusion. There is a relationship between racism and violence in the world of the text.
The five most important scenes of The Scarlet Letter were first, Hester holding baby Pearl being shamed on the scaffold right in the beginning. Second, when Chillingworth found out that Dimmesdale was the man who committed adultery with Hester. Third, when Hester and Dimmesdale were in the forest talking about fleeing and living with only each other and Pearl. Fourth, in which Dimmesdale finally reveals his sin to the public as he is on death’s bed. Finally, the last most important scene of the novel, is the “happy ending” when everything gets wrapped up.
In The Awakening and A League of Their Own both Kate Chopin and director Penny Marshall show how a woman’s role were during the 20th century. Though both may have a different setting they both illustrate feminism very well. The Awakening is a short story written about a woman, who practically dreams a life of independence. She shows interest in a man while married to a strict business man with two kids. Edna soon escapes her trapped world by committing suicide, drowning herself in the calm waters of the ocean. A League of Their Own, illustrates the 1940’s during WWII when baseball players were drafted to the war. To keep baseball running they selected several women to make the
Ashleigh Newland Professor Vazquez ENC1101 26 September 2014 Haitian Coup D’état Casualties Education is a very integral part of my upbringing and it has helped to foster me into the person I am today, both in my personal and academic life. As a dual enrollment student, I was granted the opportunity to read about the writer Edwidge Danticat, a noble Haitian American author, who writes about the victim’s of the Military Coup D’état over throw of the Haitian government. In her essay “I Speak Out” Edwidge interviews a coup d’état victim who goes by the name of Alerte Belance. In this essay Danticat brings to life the torture that Alerte experienced at the hands of the attaché paramilitary men. The paramilitary men were against everyone who
In Walter Wangerin Jr.'s beast fable, The Book of the Dun Cow, two roosters have the unusual distinction of being Lords of their own manor. Webster defines a Lord as a "person having great powers and authority, a ruler or master," where as a manor is defined as "the district over which a lord holds authority and domain" (Webster). Chauntecleer is introduced to the reader as the leader or Lord of the Coop and the ruler over the animals in the surrounding land. On the other hand, Cockatrice takes over as leader of his Coop and land after he kills his father, Senex. Chauntecleer and Cockatrice are two very different roosters who lead and rule their domain in stark contrast yet they are both labeled as Lords of the manor.
"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of
Lynn Nottage is one of the most talented contemporary playwrights in the Untied States. Her focus indeed is on the African American lifestyle and through her work she manages to touch topics and share ideas that are usually quite controversial. In addition, her approach towards each of her plays is different, in the best expectable way. Nottage’s intention is to present the world of the play in the most unique and memorable. Crumbs from the Table of Joy and Mud, River, Stone are two plays written by Lyn Notagge that reveal her magnificent playwright skills. Both of the plays are unique in their own way and represents stories that are different, but also connected in a way.
A poem is an experience, not a thought. It is an experience both the author and the reader share with one another. Authors of poems use tones, keywords, hidden messages, irony, and diction to create their work. They use these tactics so the reader thinks about what they are reading and try evaluating what the message is that the reader wants to get across. In the poem “Snow” by Louis MacNeice, he uses these same characteristics to get the readers mind active in the words. Let’s examine the poem “Snow” and see what the meaning behind this poem is.