Blog Post #6

One common theme in all these three stories is Freedom. Every one is chasing freedom. They, especially those poor people who have great dreams, were forced to leave their country, their lovers, and their families under the threat of war. Each story has an object that represents the word, Freedom. For the first story, it is butterfly. For the second is women who practice voodoo were believed can fly, and the third is hot balloon. All these three objects can fly. It is like a symbol of thing that people are all chasing, but are also always out of reach.

These three families in these stories seem to have no connection with each other. However, they are all pinned down by their country, government, and prejudice. The only difference they have is they make different choice when facing these problems. Some jumps out from hot balloon, some take his family and go away to another land, and the others have no choice. Just like Josephine’s mom, no matter she is framed or she meant to kill that little boy, her death gives her freedom. She no longer needs to be tortured in prison and listens to other’s blame. Spineless Guy uses suicide to get freedom. His envy to his wife, his boss, and his son eventually causes his death. He has dreams and capability, but he has no place to express. Even his wife has doubted if he could really ride a hot balloon by him self. Guy doesn’t want to be as poor as his father, but he has no way to find a better job than scrub the latrines after unemployed for six moths. He dreams to be a person like Boukman, but he forgets, Boukman fights for freedom rather than escapes. In the first story, the girl’s family doesn’t fight for freedom, but it doesn’t mean they are all cowards. When they are facing their neighbor being killed, none of them really helped her even though they had this thought. They are protecting their self and their whole family. They buy gasoline, pretend subject to government, and try all the way to protect the family. In other words, the girl’s family is the only one, in these three stories, who did something to get freedom.

The reason I think for why Danticat use the theme of freedom is to make people remember that period of the history in Haiti. She raises the voice of people who are like the characters in these three stories. They have dream, they have ability, and they have family. But under oppression of reality, they tend to give up their dream. Also, these three stories make readers see what choices different person may makes while they are facing difficulties. Readers would also consider what kind of people themselves is. As Danticat said: “We need literature because we wouldn’t know ourselves without it. We need goo literature to be fully human.” On the other hand, Danticat her self experienced that period of history and she clearly knows people’s desperation and their desire of freedom. These three stories might be a translation of her experiences, which makes the book not only about stories but more like a memoir.

People are born to chase freedom. Especially in war, freedom becomes a more precious gift. Without power, speech, and money, freedom is always an unreachable dream. There are so many people’s great talent was covered under the darkness of war, like the boy in Children of the sea and Guy. After experiencing desperation and suffering, death is no longer a painful process any more. It becomes the antidote of saving them from misery.