Facing Struggles in Haiti in Edwidge Danticat's Novel of Short Stories, Kric? Krak!

The short stories in the novel Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat demonstrate the struggles that individuals face and how they react to them. The characters in the stories come from all different backgrounds and experiences but they all seem to share the same sense of suffering and pain. Danticat uses the women in the collections to display the struggles and unhappiness that the people of Haiti faced in the 1960’s. The women, all from different parts of Haiti and also New York, are faced with issues in the work place, in their social lives but most prominently, within their families. Each woman resolves or works to resolve her problems in a complete egotistical and unique way. In Krik? Krak! Danticat uses characterization to display the suffering of the families in Haiti and individualizes every situation to make it of more emphasis. Danticat also uses a large amount of symbolism while trying to portray the significance of the issues being faced. The major theme in Krik? Krak! centers around the diversity of suffering and that even when put in similar situations, every person suffers differently.
The use of characterization can be beneficial when getting to know the characters of a short story and also understanding their background. Gender roles in Haitian society are portrayed as a typical lifestyle at the time of post-colonialism. As men would typically hold a job and bring in the family’s income, women would tend to the housekeeping and display the role of caretaker of the family. Krik? Krak! focuses predominantly on the female society and how large of an impact the women have on their entire family. Mostly all of the short stories being told from a woman’s point of view, in many of the stories, the presence of men are nonexis...

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...post-colonial literature (Bader). The theory of flight gives the characters hope and allows them to try to free themselves from their past.
As shown, Danticat provides the feelings of Haitian suffering in the short stories in Krik? Krak! through characterization and symbolism. In the article “Haiti”, Hal Wylie states, “These stories are necessary in finding the essential values of life--the foundation for a character able to resist life's traumas” (Wylie). The harsh realities that the people of Haiti face are life changing but are all managed to be kept under control. Every story demonstrates a new struggle and how the different families react in their own way. In the post-colonial time of Haiti, every citizen faced problems economically and also socially. Edwidge Danticat interprets the issues and solutions the Haitians lived with in the novel Krik? Krak!