The Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead

Throughout her childhood and into her adulthood, Ka was under the impression that her father was a part of the oppressed citizens of Haiti.  Little did she know, her dad was a member of the Tonton Macoutes.  He fled Haiti to come to Ka because he was involvement in the army.  Prior to learning this, Ka had carved a sculpture of her father out of wood and was going to sell it to any buyer.  The sculpture in itself acts as a symbol of her father’s current and former life.  The wood was both smooth and cracked, revealing its flaws as it gets weathered by age.  Ka’s father told the secret to his daughter, and afterward, destroyed the beautiful artwork she created his dad felt ashamed and that he did not deserve to be recognized or flattered.  Ka now sees her father in a different light as “the hunter” and not the oppressed.

Water Child

Water is one of the prominent themes used in The Dew Breaker and Danticat does it beautifully.  The idea of water is important because, like reconciling, it reveals the truth aspect of something while also making something whole again (this sounds rather stupid, but it’s more about the imagery and not the definition).  This is the first chapter of the novel where the reader is given a link between these seemingly unrelated stories.  We have the characters Nadine and her unnamed husband.  We learn that Nadine is an ex-girlfriend of the man in seven.  She works at a hospital and is always reminded of her aborted child, to whom she has built a shrine in his/her memory.  The shrine is impressive it captures the idea of a “water child” brilliantly.  Danticat takes a few pages describing the image of the shrine, which uses water as the primary visual effect.  It reminds the reader about the birthing process something Nadine was never allowed to experience. Her parents in Haiti write to her, urging her to call more often, but she feels disinclined to do so. Having split up with her boyfriend, she still suffers mental pain from the abortion she had seven months ago. She lives an isolated life.

Night Talkers

The title of this chapter is called “night talkers” because Danticat says how truths are revealed when someone talks in their sleep.  A few of the minor characters in this chapter do tell about their past, which is how Dany learns that the Tonton Macoutes executed his parents.  After hearing this, Dany travels to Haiti to visit his aunt, Estonia Estimate.  Dany has been searching for the man who murdered his parents.  Through a series of events, Dany finds this man.  Coincidentally, it also happens to be Ka’s father. And once again, we are given another link in the chain of the not-so-unrelated stories.

The following themes are derived from the above discussed chapters,

Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism some characters Ka’s father, have been corrupted by participating in the violent acts of a totalitarian regime. Others, like Beatrice, are haunted by the terrors that have been inflicted upon them in the past. While many novels about totalitarianism are written as dystopias, portraying the daily life of those under a repressive regime, Danticat’s novel explores the ways in which totalitarianism can be embodied by perpetrators and victims and continue to haunt subsequent generations even after the regime has fallen.

Fatherhood

Fatherhood is a metaphor for political leadership in this novel, although Danticat is not necessarily saying that political leaders should be men. Ka’s father in his youth embodies the totalitarian dictator on a smaller scale, and the question is whether he can truly change and become a loving father. Ka’s relationships with her father, and her mother’s relationship with Ka’s father, parallel the relationship of the Haitian people to their nation’s government (even though the government, like Ka’s father, has changed). We see this difficult relationship echoed throughout the novel. Michel, for example, has very mixed feelings about his father, Christophe, and Claude killed his father. Michel has decided to prevent his own son from having such feelings by recording the truth to pass on to his son.

Suffering of women

Danticat wants us to understand that the suffering of women is common in totalitarian regimes and that these regimes cause significant social fragmentation. Beatrice and Anne, for example, are both bereaved by Haiti’s horrible past. Nadine, meanwhile, is not directly affected by the regime, but she suffers due to the breakup of Haitian community and Haitian families caused by the regime. On the other hand, Danticat portrays women as playing a reconstructive role, often in community with one another. Aline and Ka both plan to work to portray the truth. Anne, while traumatized, works for redemption for her husband.

Stella is a fiction retelling of Haiti community fighting for their independence from, slavery and the French colonialism .The author set the book at the time when Haiti was experiencing revolution this was back 1791 top 1804.Stella give out a story of two brothers Romulus and Remus they acted as agents of change in their homeland. According to the author they were fighting against French colony of Sint Dominique to the independent republic of Haiti.

Through sacrifices of their African mother, Stella and Marie developed the spirit of liberty .Romulus and Remus ought to work together to have a new Berge allegorical novel make the narrator available to English speaking audio for the first time.Stella’s first novel generally talks about the devastating that colonials and slavery on Bergeauds homeland.

In novel Stella by EmericBergeaud

ROMULUS AND REMUS

History is a river of truth that follows its majestic course through the ages. The Novel is a lake of lies, the expanse of which is concealed underwater; calm and pure on the surface, it sometimes hides the secret of the destiny of peoples and societies in its depths, much like Lake Asphaltites. History, a sonorous echo, faithfully reproduces the sound and fury of human hurricanes. To brave these storms and guide our savage heroes to port requires something other than a frail canoe of bark; and besides, savages ourselves, we have neither map, nor compass, nor nautical expertise.

SAINT-DOMINGUE

In a favored land, toward the end of the last century, there lived or better grew, rampantly and humbly in the bosom of a seductive and bounteous nature, a young family that was violently sequestered from humanity. The family lived upon a plain, in a poor hut protected by an orange tree. This tree paternally extended its vigorous branches, as if it had taken pity on the flimsy cottage, leaning over to protect it from the wind.

MARIE THE AFRICAN

The young family, captive in Saint-Domingue, was made up of a mother and her two sons, still adolescents. By some peculiarity or picturesque trick of nature, the complexion of the younger son was the hue of faded mahogany, while that of the elder was closer to the shade of darkest ebony. Yet this difference in color did not rule out a certain family resemblance that made them, at first sight, recognizable as brothers.

Marie the young mother was black like her older son. She had reached that age where beauty becomes genuine without losing its charms.