Edwidge Danticat is one of the most entertaining and profound writers of our time. She is often referred to as the "Voice of Haiti" and her works have been known to revolve around Haitian folklore and values. Her writings always seem to feature a strong-willed young girl who grows up within a culture where women are made to feel inferior to men; sexual objects to be used and discarded at will. However, the young girl always finds a way to break out of her cultural prison. She is an astoundingly clever writer and deserving of all of the praise she has earned. Her works often examine issues of migration, language, skin color, racism, and relationships; between mother and daughters, men and women, and young and old.
http://youtu.be/Hz79YxAfBVA
Her first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, is a beautifully written, award-winning novel that features a young Haitian girl named Sophie, who is taken from her home in Haiti, where she is cared for by her beloved Aunt Atie, and sent halfway across the globe to New York City to live with her mother, whom she barely knows anything about. The novel revolves around Sophie’s migration and the relationships she has with people around her. In her migration, language becomes a key component of the novel and is one that Daniticat plays with constantly. Danticat uses Sophie’s language as a metaphor for Sophie’s belonging within her surroundings, whether it be Haiti, or America.
The novel begins with Sophie coming from school to meet with her Tante Atie and immediately complains that Tante Atie never attends Sophie’s reading classes, which means that Sophie gets paired off with an old woman who “wants to learn her letters but does not have children at school” (Danticat 4). To this, Tante Atie responds, “I do not want a pack of young children teaching me how to read. The young should learn from the old, not the other way” (4). The fact that her Tante Atie’s response is preceded by the image of Sophie teaching an older woman demonstrates that Atie simply does not want to learn the written language. Later on the reader realizes that Tante Atie never leaves the island of Haiti, but Sophie does. This lends to the notion that the language becomes a metaphor for belonging. Atie never learns her letters and therefore becomes tied to the island. However, Sophie continually learns her letters, which allows her to be mobile- or at least more mobile than Tante Atie, and primed for migration.
Tante Atie believes this as well; at one point in the novel, Atie tells Sophie “Your bonjou, your greeting, is your passport” (18). She says this to Sophie to let her know that her language will let others know where she comes from, and where she has been- like a passport. Indeed, when she first arrives in the new world she has to learn the language of English extremely quickly, or else the other children will tease her mercilessly. The fact that the novel is written in English even though it is told through Sophie’s perspective, demonstrates that she adapted well and at some point became an English speaker. However, she never truly neglected her native language of French Creole, which grants her access to Haiti. In fact, when she arrives in Haiti as she visits with her daughter, the cab driver commends her on her Creole; he says “I find your Creole flawless”. She can fit in perfectly.
Throughout the novel, Danticat writes using a language within a language; that is, she writes in English, because it demonstrates Sophies migration and acceptance of the English language. However, she often speaks in Creole phrases, or paraphrases in English to clarify for the reader. This demonstrates that her language is a mixture of cultures that she cannot sway one way or the other. It is her passport, which tells the reader where she has been and where she is from. Language becomes a metaphor for belonging in Breath, Eyes, Memory. As clever as her writings are, her works do not become Academic writing- and though you are being taught something of culture, language, or even history, the artfulness she applies to her writing style and craftsmanship behind her sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, make her an artist rather than an author. Breath, Eyes, Memory was her first novel, which was born out of her Masters thesis from Brown University, and as good as it is, it cannot compete with her other novel, The Farming of Bones.
The Farming of Bones, is one that serves as an artistic
commentary on the effects of racial tensions that are often the hallmark of
colonialism. The novel is a work of historical fiction that serves as a
memorial to the many Haitians that were slaughtered under the reign of General
Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. The General begins an effort to “cleanse”
the country of all those who do not belong, meaning the Haitians that had
migrated to the Dominican Republic in search of work. The novel’s main
character, Amabelle, is an interesting character because she represents both
the Dominican and Haitian heritages that are in conflict with one another from
the novel’s inception. In a scene where Amabelle helps a woman give birth to two twins, Danticat
continuously intensifies and explores the inner conflict that plagues Amabelle
as she shows the reader her repression of Haiti and ignorance of her
inferiority to her masters, while foreshadowing of the slaughter of the Haitian
community in the Dominican Republic.
From the novel’s inception, Amabelle is portrayed as a young woman who holds conflicting identities, constantly repressing her Haitian heritage and instead acting as her surrogate “family” would like her to act. Amabelle sees the Dominican family as one that had saved her from homelessness and starvation after they took her in as a slave when her Haitian parents drowned. Therefore, she is incredibly grateful to them. When the reader first witnesses her interactions with them, she is helping to birth two twins for Senora Valencia, a woman whom she had grown up with, yet still treats Amabelle as a servant. Essentially she is bringing two people into the world that will oppress her in the future since they would inherit her as a slave, but is oblivious to this fact, which demonstrates her ignorance of her own inferiority in the family’s eyes.
It is also clear that the twins are a foreshadowing of events to come for a number of reasons: one is dark and the other is of a lighter complexion which is perhaps a representation of the differences between the Haitian and Dominican people, and Danticat makes sure to have the doctor explain to Amabelle that “many of us start out as twins in the belly and do away with the other” (Danticat 19).The fact that Danticat makes them different in complexion and has the doctor explain the constant battle for survival between twins while living off of the same mother demonstrates to the reader that she is clearly foreshadowing events to come later on in the novel. Haitians and Dominicans are made to seem as if they are of different complexions within the novel and they are both fighting for survival while living on the same motherland. After the children are born, Senora Valencia expresses her concern to Amabelle and asks: “do you think my daughter will always be the color she is now? My poor love, what if she’s mistaken for one of your people?” (12). The exchange between Senor Valencia and Amabelle furthers the idea of Amabelle’s ignorance of her inferiority; she is insulted by Senora Valencia but it does not even seem to register.
Amabelle is the bridge between Haiti and the Dominican Republic in many ways within the novel, and the author exploits this idea within her character in intriguing fashion. She is a character that lives between two worlds and is ignorant of her role within each of them. She sees a family that exploits her as a slave to be her saviors. The birthing of the twins is a rich and brilliant scene that effectively demonstrates Amabelle’s ignorance, and foreshadows events to come later on in the novel.
It is a special thing to be excited about an author who is still living. Danticat's writings are often profound pieces of work that speak on the value of women, engross the reader in rich histories and folklore, and provide food-for-thought on a variety of different subjects. Her sentences are artfully written and crafted and offer a voice of hope to women as she urges them to change the world around and create dangerously; women have all the power they will ever need within themselves.
Works Cited:
http://www.amazon.com/Breath-Eyes-Memory-Oprahs-Book/dp/037570504X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367081918&sr=1-1&keywords=breath+eyes+memory
http://www.amazon.com/Farming-Bones-Edwidge-Danticat/dp/0140280499/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367081942&sr=1-1&keywords=farming+of+bones
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