Examples Of Struggle In Edwidge Danticat's Krik Krak

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Have you ever had to struggle in life with something that you eventually overcame, but struggled to leave it behind, as if it was strapped to your back dragging you down with shame and guilt? Well in “Krik Krak” by Edwidge Danticat, a book of Haitian short stories, Danticat tied together multiple examples of daily struggles within the Haitian community. Struggles that many people in America will never deal with and in some cases would not be able to handle. In Danticat's novel, many of the short stories highlight hope, which will forever remain unattainable, this is due to severe oppression, coupled with this realization, when Haitians begin to overcome this oppression it is followed by the feeling of shame. First, we can look at the beginning of “Krik Krak'' we can see many examples being brought up to us of needed hope by characters, near the beginning of the book in chapter 3 “Wall of Rising Fire” we can see this need of hope for a brighter and more fulfilling life, but ultimately it is not capable to achieve. The novel states, “I just want to take that big balloon …show more content…

The author states, “Some of the names sent a wave of sighs and whispers through the group. Occasionally, there was a loud scream. One woman near the front began to convulse after a man’s name was called. It took four people to drag her out of the pew before she hurt herself.” (#147) In this scene we can see many people from Haiti that fled to the US coming together in a church-like community (Pew), and they talk about the sad misfortunes the other civilians and friends back in Haiti have had to face or have sadly passed away, this shows the connections they still have with the people they yearned for in Haiti and the unforgettable shame they have for leaving a loved one, and their people has never been