Summary Of Danticat's Nineteen-Thirty Seven
Newer generations of families often wipe clean the slate of misfortune. Danticat, in the chapter, “Nineteen-Thirty Seven”, writes of a girl named Josephine. Her mother had been in a group of women, whose generation had crossed over the river separating the Dominican Republic from Haiti, to escape the reign of General Trujillo. Her mother, after being imprisoned for many years, dies, and she goes with another woman from her mother’s group to see the prison guards burn her body. Josephine, at the end of the chapter, says, “Let her flight be joyful… and mine and yours too” (Nineteen-Thirty Seven, 42). In saying this, Josephine is trying to have hope in herself, even though her mother is dead. Josephine is the new generation, and she must find
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In the chapter, “Children of the Sea”, an unnamed young man flees the country after being labelled wanted for defying the regime. He was the host of a radio show group that was created to speak out against the oppressive government. Eventually, his radio show was shut down, and he fled Haiti in fear of his life, leaving an unidentified female behind. The two wrote each other back and forth, despite never actually receiving the letters. The boy, in one of his letters, says, “I hope another group of young people can do the radio show” (Children of the Sea, 6). The boy, in leaving Haiti, is hopeful that another generation after him will run his abandoned show. He knows that he made a difference, and he hopes that others will want to uphold it. Likewise, in the story, “A Wall of Fire Rising”, a man named Guy sparks a hope within his son through his suicide. The chapter tells of Guy’s impoverished family, and how his son, Little Guy, was cast in his school’s play as Boukman; hero of freedom. Guy worked for a family of Haitian Arabs who owned a hot air balloon, which, in the end of the chapter, he flies and jumps out of. He falls to his death, and Little Guy responds with a line from his play: “I call on our young. I call on our old… so that we shall let out one piercing cry that we may either live freely or we should die” (A Wall of Fire Rising, 66). Little Guy, in quoting this line, calls on not
In the chapter, “Children of the Sea”, an unnamed young man flees the country after being labelled wanted for defying the regime. He was the host of a radio show group that was created to speak out against the oppressive government. Eventually, his radio show was shut down, and he fled Haiti in fear of his life, leaving an unidentified female behind. The two wrote each other back and forth, despite never actually receiving the letters. The boy, in one of his letters, says, “I hope another group of young people can do the radio show” (Children of the Sea, 6). The boy, in leaving Haiti, is hopeful that another generation after him will run his abandoned show. He knows that he made a difference, and he hopes that others will want to uphold it. Likewise, in the story, “A Wall of Fire Rising”, a man named Guy sparks a hope within his son through his suicide. The chapter tells of Guy’s impoverished family, and how his son, Little Guy, was cast in his school’s play as Boukman; hero of freedom. Guy worked for a family of Haitian Arabs who owned a hot air balloon, which, in the end of the chapter, he flies and jumps out of. He falls to his death, and Little Guy responds with a line from his play: “I call on our young. I call on our old… so that we shall let out one piercing cry that we may either live freely or we should die” (A Wall of Fire Rising, 66). Little Guy, in quoting this line, calls on not