Ayiti By Roxane Gay: A Critical Analysis

Ayiti, by Roxane Gay, is a collection of fifteen short narratives about Haiti and its people, which gives the readers insights into the Haitian diaspora experience. Throughout the novel, Gay is highly critical of mainstream media because of how it silos Haiti as a poor country. Gay is successful in giving a voice to the voiceless and tells the truth of the Haitian diaspora by exploring stories that explain what it is like to be a Haitian in America through stories such as “About My Father’s Accent”, “Voodoo Child” and “Cheap, Fast, Filling”; Gay describes the difficult process of leaving Haiti in passages such as “You Never Knew How the Waters Ran So Cruel So Deep” and “A Cool Dry Place”; and Gay touches on the brutal historical aspects of the country that shaped the modern culture with vivid stories such as “In the Manner of Water or Light” and “The Harder They Come”. Gay’s use of the media as a symbol and its effects on the Haitian diaspora have a profound effect on the readers. The media is used as a symbol numerous times throughout the text. It is primarily used as a symbol by Gay to represent how Haiti is depicted to the rest of the world.
Despite the good that may be going on, the media has pigeon-holed Haiti as being a poor and chaotic country and has not given them a true chance to tell their story. The media even has an effect beyond Haiti itself and extends into the diaspora for Haitians living in America. Gay illuminates this in “Voodoo Child” when the narrator’s college roommate assumes, because of the Internet, that she practices voodoo even though the narrator was raised Catholic. This example further perpetuates Gay’s attempt at trying to show how the media gives a one-sided view of