A Wall Of Fire Rising By Edwidge Danticat

1495 Words3 Pages

Not all societies are Utopias, living in society can be a struggle. “A Wall of Fire Rising” by Edwidge Danticat, discuss for attempts for control in a society that tries to keep its members powerless through the struggles of the characters. Each of the characters got affected by the entrapment differently and they transcended through flight. Guy, the father of a really poor family of 3 can’t find a job in 6 months. Little Guy is a poor student struggling to get education in an oppressing society. Guy and Little Guy react differently to the entrapment. Guy would steal a hot air balloon to escape; Little Guy would be the voice of Boukman Dutty, in a school play, to spark for change. Their reaction to the entrapment is different because Guy believed …show more content…

Little Guy had to go to the side of the road and study under lights in the street with the rest of the neighborhood kids. Children that are trying to learn can’t even learn properly because of lights. This seems as if the society is trying to hinder the learning capabilities of Little Guy and the rest of the kids in the neighborhood. Also when Little Guy gets into a play, this surprises Guy and Lili because they would never think that he would get the main role in a play in this society. The surprise Lili and Guy had may show how society is trying to keep its member …show more content…

Guy was always watching the hot air balloon from behind the gate. This gate may symbolize the society trying to keep the members powerless. Guy would one day get on the hot air balloon and fly it up. No one was expected Guy’s flight. Guy’s flight was a direct influence from Guy’s powerful quotes. Everyone would stop working and cheer him on because to operate the balloon it usually takes a whole crew. “From behind the sugar mill a group of workers were clapping and the balloon floating in the air. Many were clapping and cheering, calling out Guys name. A few women were waving their head rags at the sky, shouting Go! Beautiful, go!” (Danticat 76). Guy however jumped out and killed himself. To Guy this was his was the only way for control and escaping, his death. Guy’s death too is a flight because Guy is becoming free from the society that is trying to keeps it members powerless. Chen theorized that Guy’s violent and tragic conclusion evoked tales of the New World’s flying Africans. The flying Africans is enslaved Africans that manage to transcended the conditions of slavery by flying back to Africa. However there are different perspectives to this; the rationalist outsider’s view on this is “slaves would commit suicide because it’s the only way to transcend” (41). Gay Wilentz view on this is “this was a collective resistance of this in the diaspora to a

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