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The For The Widow By Paule Marshall, Krik ! By Edwidge Danticat And Masters Of The Dew

Decent Essays

Water is something that is seen as solely necessary for human beings to stay hydrated, but the novels being mentioned in this paper describe water as being something more. Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall, Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat and Masters of the Dew by Jacques Roumain all depict water as being something that helps with liberation, recovery and new life. Praisesong for the Widow begins with Avey Johnson packing her bags and getting ready in a hurry to get off of a ship. At first it is hard to comprehend why Avey is in such a rush to get off the ship, but as the story continues it becomes clear that the appearance of her Great Aunt Cuney and the message she tries to give Avey has disturbed her enough to leave any idea of a trip behind. This abandonment of the ship is actually the best thing she could have done because as she leaves the ship, she also leaves her old life behind and gets lead into her new one by Lebert Joseph. This is something difficult to accomplish because of all the literal baggage Avey has, but Lebert finds a solution to this. In order for Avey to be able to let go of her old life she must first expel everything that keeps her tied to it. She must expel all the ideas of self-hatred and white supremacy that have kept her down all these years. The only way to successfully do this is to put Avey back at sea and closer to her Ancestors, so Lebert Joseph leads Avey to a ship that goes through crosscurrents in order for the water to cleanse

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