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Analysis Of Blind Privilege In Krak ! By Edwidge Danticat

798 Words4 Pages

Keoni Caoile
Mrs. Wagner
Pre-AP English 10
June 12, 2023
Blind Privilege
As a little kid, I was never able to finish my meals. My parents would always try to guilt trip me by saying “Don’t waste your food, there are people who are starving and could eat that.” I always thought it was just one of the things parents tell kids to get them to do what they want, but growing up I realized that it’s true. I never struggled or had to worry about whether or not I would be able to eat, so I thought that neither did anyone else. This privilege that I viewed as a hot commodity was something that many people didn’t have and it stopped me from realizing that. In the novel “Krik? Krak!” by Edwidge Danticat, and the article “Peculiar Benefits,” by Roxanne …show more content…

Her family visited Haiti during the summers. During her visit to Haiti, she discovered “The difference between relative and absolute poverty”(Gay 1). Absolute poverty is an individual’s inability to obtain materials to sustain life, which is constant throughout Haiti. Gay, who grew up in America where absolute poverty is almost completely nonexistent, was shocked at the rate this was present in Haiti. As she traversed through Haiti for the first time she experienced people crowding their family vehicle begging for anything that could help them survive, followed by beautiful beaches and young men in uniforms. She explains how “it was hard for a child who grew up in cul-de-sacs, to begin to grasp the contrast between such inescapable poverty alongside almost repulsive luxury”(Gay 2). Due to the much greater situation Gay grew up in, she couldn’t comprehend how two polar opposite situations could exist …show more content…

In America, it’s the opposite, there is nearly a complete absence of absolute poverty, and it is a much safer environment which is “something that she very much took for granted”(Danticat 142). In comparison to the safer life that Caroline grew up with, her sister was born while their mother and father still resided in Haiti. When she was born, there was a constant worry that she may die from colic or hunger, so her mother sold grilled peanuts, jugs of water from the public fountain, and charcoal in hopes of scoring enough for their next meal(Danticat 166). Because of the life Caroline grew up with, she is oblivious to her privilege of safety, something the rest of her family had to work, and nearly die

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