The Theme Of Freedom In Edwidge Danticat's A Wall Of Fire Rising

How can people escape poverty and retrieve freedom while being faced by oppression? The disturbing deeds of those who endure and experience the disputes of Haiti prompts the normal lives of an average Haitian. Despite the troubles the characters must go through, the novel Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat proposes that sacrifices for freedom allow hope for the next generation, but result in brutality and a loss of innocence for the current generation. In the short story “A Wall of Fire Rising” Guy, a father, and a loving husband creates a public scene of his perception on freedom by jumping out of a balloon and committing suicide. Working hard hours, he endeavors a job at the sugar mill and later flies the balloon from the sugar mill. When Guy implies the idea of escaping their home to his wife Lili, he says, “Sometimes, I just want to take that big balloon and ride it up in the air. I’d like to fly off somewhere and keep floating until I got to a really nice place,”(61). Guy not only wants to escape his current situation, but he wants a better future for his family and especially his younger son Little Guy. Guy
Josephine’s mother Manman explains that, “she had never talked very much about the future. She had always believed more in the past” (34). Manman is concerned about her daughter’s life after fleeing to Dominica with her daughter to keep her future bright. Jacqueline helps Josephine after finding her mother dead by embracing the same traditions as her mother. Jacqueline says that “life is never lost, another one always comes up to replace the last. Will you come watch when they burn the body?” (41). Jacqueline is trying to notify that what happened to Josephine’s mother is tradition and her sacrifice of her own life would be an important part of their