Dew Breaker Violence Quotes

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In dictatorships throughout history violence has been used as a tool to control and oppress people. Examples of this include violence seen in Cuba, Iran, and North Korea. A more in depth example comes from the Haitian dictator François Duvalier, who controlled Haiti from 1957 to 1971. Duvalier was known as a brutal dictator who was not shy when it came to the use of violence and torture to control people. In the novel, The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat, violence is a recurring theme that appears in every part of the novel. The theme of violence in The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat, exemplifies how dictatorships used violence to oppress people, push their agenda onto people, and to silence dissidents. The use of violence is a common …show more content…

In the quote the author talks about how violence only truly works when it is overwhelming. This means that force acts of violence to have a large impact they must be overwhelming and severe. The example used in the quote is Saddam Hussein, who used helicopter gunships to disperse protestors. The basic idea behind using that much violence to control a group follows the logic that if you can show protestors/dissidents that they will sustain massive losses then they are more likely to hold off on protesting. This same ideologies was used in Haiti when it was under a dictator. This dictator, François Duvalier used extreme violence to control Haiti when he was in …show more content…

This is a common mentality that many dictators have. It is very common for dictator’s to use violence to dispatch of any problems that arise. It is this type of indiscriminate violence that haunts Ka’s father in The Dew Breaker. In addition to being a ruthless and violent dictator, Papa Doc, also actively tried to keep his people, the people of Haiti illiterate so that he could better control them. When this failed though and dissidents arose Papa Doc was not afraid to use extreme force. In addition to using violence to oppress people dictators have been known to use acts of violence for other

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