Ayiti, by Roxane Gay, is a collection of fifteen short narratives about Haiti and its people, which gives the readers insights into the complex Haitian diaspora experience. The novel seeks to offer a deeper view into Haitian society and covers an array of themes such as the politics of survival, resiliency, and feminist culture in Haiti. Throughout the novel, Gay is highly critical of mainstream media because of how they depict and silo Haiti as a poor and helpless country. Haiti’s historical stance on censorship is well documented, and as a Haitian writer living in America, Gay is successful in giving agency to the voiceless by chronicling the stories of the Haitian diaspora. Ayiti explores stories that explain what it is like to be a Haitian …show more content…
Gay illuminates this in “Voodoo Child” when the narrator’s college roommate assumes, because of what she had read on the Internet, that she practices voodoo even though the narrator was raised Catholic. Another example is in “The Dirt We Do Not Eat” when Sara (Elsa’s cousin living in Miami) writes to Elsa asking her to confirm the rumors in America she had heard of Haitians eating mud pies. Elsa denies these rumors that were spread by a foreign reporter and dramatically ends her letter to her cousin stating, “Some mornings we wake, our stomachs empty, our stomachs angry, but never do we look to the ground beneath our feet with longing in our months. We chew on our pride. The dirt we do not eat.” (99) These examples further perpetuate the collection of misconceptions and stereotypes about Haitians, but they also begin to exemplify how prideful and resilient the Haitian people …show more content…
The result is that Haitians are oppressed because they feel that they are hopeless and that they are trapped in the mold that the media has created. “You will hear these words until you are sick to your stomach, until you no longer recognize [their land], until you start to believe the news stories are true, that nothing else matters, that [translation to English: you cannot buy things you don’t need, you don’t exist, you don’t count, you do not deserve respect].” This quote perfectly articulates the effects the media has on the people of Haiti. Gay pinpoints the media for creating a self-fulfilling prophecy or mold for the Haitians. Because Haiti is represented as poor and stricken by misfortune, the citizens believe this and feel a sense of hopelessness. Overall, the symbol of the media results in Haitians not being able to live out their full potential because of this oppression from the foreign
What would you do for love? Would you break up a marriage or assassinate an Archduke? In the short story “IND AFF” by Fay Weldon the narrator must make a choice on whether or not to continue her love affair while examining the Princip’s murder of the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife. The story is set in Sarajevo in Bosnia, Yugoslavia where the assassination took place. Through irony, symbolism and setting, Weldon uses the parallel between the narrator and Pincip to show that seemingly inconsequential actions of an individual can have great consequences.
“Geronimo: an American legend” is a story of an apache warrior who fought against the United States in order to preserve his peoples culture. The film starts off, ironically, with the first surrender of Geronimo. His people are sent to a reservation called turkey creek. On this reservation they were expected to become farmers that would produce mostly corn. However the apache where not harvesting enough to sustain their community and had to rely on government checks.
This particular revolution was meant to rid the country of its dependency upon slavery; however, it did very little to procure the exact solution that the natives of this country wanted. It’s stated more than once in this story that a true and honest living is not easily come by for any native of Haiti and they earn very little money when a job is available. People are paid an insubstantial wage, live in shantytowns, and often times go to bed with their stomachs distended from a voracious and unforgiving hunger. In The Norton Mix Introduction to Literature, Danticat shows these significant consequences of the Revolution by stating that when it got really bad for the family, they would boil ground sugar cane so that it would get rid of the hunger pangs that often tormented the children of the poor (p. 229).
The citizens are labeled as lazy and superstitious, stereotyped in that neat little box with no room for movement. Douglass agrees that they can be a bit lazy and ignorant, but they are not simply idle at all times. By this time, Haiti prospers in a coffee economy and continues to import and export goods from within her borders. Its important to recognize that this nation and its citizens were the first to fight and win their emancipation. The slave revolution in the former French colony of Saint-Domingue was a historic event that brought about universal liberties as other nations followed suit.
According to the text “ there were relatively few stories or images focusing on aging, poverty, isolation, crime and fear, and the ethno racial, or gender distribution of mortality, morbidity, and access to care.” They went to the extreme by looking for more information and pictures with people in body bags to put on their front page. People use the media as their information source to guide them on what is going on in their countries and around the world. What is portrayed in the media is often taken as true even if it actually is not completely accurate. Throughout the text it was clear to see that there is pressure when it comes to the media. News reporter often think about what they are going to present to the public because it has to be brain washing and appealing, but they also want to keep their connections to sources such as public officials. This means what they end up reporting is effected by what public officials will approve of, to make them look
The world isn’t always fair, but in some cases it is downright cruel. In his poem, Pitt’s states, “Surely some homeless, dust-streaked Haitian can be forgiven for thinking it is always Haiti's turn this morning, two days after the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere saw its capital city smashed by the strongest earthquake it has ever known, a 7.0-magnitude monster.” Haiti seems to get knocked down by this cruel earth over and over again while all the other countries are just spectators. He then follows that up by saying, “It is to write relief checks, donate blood, volunteer material and time and to fear, even in the doing, that these gestures are small against the need, inconsequential against the ache of a people whose turn seems never to end.” The rest of the world tries to help as best they can while Haiti takes its turn in the ring over and over.
Danticat's Krik? Krak!, are a collection of short stories about Haiti and Haitian-Americans before democracy and the horrible conditions that they lived in. Although it is a mistake to call the stories autobiographical, Krik? Krak! embodies some of Danticat's experiences as a child. While the collection of stories draw on the oral tradition in Haitian society, it is also part of the literature of diaspora, the great, involuntary migration of Africans from their homeland to other parts of the world; thus, the work speaks of loss and assimilation and resistance. The stories all seem to share similar themes, that one story could be in some way linked to the others. Each story had to deal with relationships, either with a person or a possession, and in these relationships something is either lost or regained. Another point that was shared throughout the short stories was the focus on the struggles of the women in Haiti. Lastly they all seem to weave together the overarching theme of memory. It's through memory and the retelling of old stories and legends that the Haitians in Danticat's tales achieve immortality, and extension to lives that were too often short and brutal.
The Root of It: Deconstructing Creole Identity in Crossing the Mangrove. “I like to repeat that I write neither in French nor in Creole. I write in Maryse Conde,”1 (“Liaison dangereuse,” 2007) is a statement that could not be less accurate for the Guadeloupean writer. Writing in French is especially problematic for post-colonialist Francophone authors; using the language of the colonizer while attempting to dismantle cultural and linguistic hierarchy seems to be an act of futility. To be sure, Conde, the author of Crossing the Mangrove, apparently writes in the French language, but she capably deconstructs the notion that a language must be necessarily tied to the culture and history it traditionally represents.
This article explores Haitian Independence in terms of a war for national liberation. The disassociation from white governance left a window of opportunity for long-term nat...
The article “When The Media Is The Disaster,” by Rebecca Solnit discusses the accounts that took place with the media and the victims during the Haitian earthquake. People were trapped alive struggling to survive. Many of these victims became so desperate for food and water they began to steal. The mass media interpreted their actions as stealing, characterizing them as “looters”. Solnit does not agree with the media labeling victims as “looters” because victims are being portrayed as something they are not.
Rizga shows her understanding of her audience through the use of appeals, reinforcement of thesis, and lead-in to the introduction. Rizga demonstrates strong audience awareness by telling the story of Maria, a Salvadorian girl newly arrived to the United States. Rizga writes about Maria’s struggles in her country as well as the struggles she was faced with upon arriving to the United States, which appeals to the audience’s emotions. Rhee, however, has a very weak appeal, “As a parent, I understand that problem.” Unlike Rhee, Rizga immediately begins her article with Maria being bullied in school for not knowing English.
Several of the problems that Haiti faces today have their genesis in the country’s colonial history. The country was like a toy being fought over by spoiled children. The first of these children arrived in the early sixteenth century in the form of Spanish settlers in search of gold. They enslaved the native Taino population and, poisoned by avarice, nearly eradicated the indigenous work force. Thousands of African slaves were brought in to take their place. Eventually, the Spanish left the island to grab their share of newly discovered treasure in other lands. Tiring of their toy, the Spanish
An interesting aspect of reading Sunjata is that it allows the reader to get a glimpse into the past. An unmissable trait that the story brings up is the power and control that women hold within their marriages and families overall. Part of this power comes from the West African people carrying on their family through a matrilineal system. Familial ties are a significant motif in Sunjata with even the storyteller tracing his ancestry back to the strong women told about in the oral tale. The matrilineal system means that instead of children taking the name of their father, as seen in many European societies, they would take the name of their mother and hold closer to the ties of her ancestors. This system allows for a sense of feminism to sprinkle all over the story of Sunjata and, ultimately, on the
My cultural identity, is Haitian American. My parents come from a country of beautiful landscape and valleys of the hidden treasures of knowledge, diverse people, and rustic towns. My parents walked up steep plateaus for water, laid in grassy plains for peace, and dive into the sea for cooling in Haiti’s humid heat. Although, I come from a culture of deep history, the first country to gain independence in the result of a successful slave rebellion, my parents knew the plague of suffering Haiti’s battle with will not recover through the poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy. As Haiti fought through its demons, my parents fought to provide plentiful opportunity for their family and immigrated to the United States of America.
• AW’s work is deeply rooted in oral tradition; in the passing on of stories from generation to generation in the language of the people. To AW the language had a great importance. She uses the “Slave language”, which by others is seen as “not correct language”, but this is because of the effect she wants the reader to understand.