Summary Of A Wall Of Fire Rising

The story “A Wall of Fire Rising” written by Edwidge Danticat has many similarities to the short story “Volar” written by Judith Ortiz Cofer. In “A Wall of Fire Rising” a poor Hattian family struggles to make ends meet on a daily basis. The father who is named Guy dreams of flying away in a hot air balloon to a better place where he can provide more for his family. Guy wants a better life, and his only escape of reality is through his son’s line recital for a play. Feeling hopeless, Guy makes an ultimate choice to escape reality by committing suicide by jumping off a hot air balloon in midair. Similarly in “Volar” a young girl dreams of escaping reality and having the perfect body image of a superhero named “Supergirl”. The girl dreams of having

The family lives in a humble one room home, the father works on and off in a sugar mill as the story mentions “it was almost six months since the last time Guy has gotten work there. The jobs at the sugar mill were few and far between” (96). Lili is a stay at home mother which tends the needs of her husband and young son. Little Guy is the son, and is the star character in a play. The characters are not out of the ordinary, it’s a small family trying to make ends meet. Likewise in the story “Volar” the characters are a family of three, a father, mother, and daughter. The main difference between both stories is that in “Volar” there is a superhero character which is a vision through the dreams of the young girl of herself going through changes, or as she states “my legs would grow long, my arms harden into steel, and my hair would magically go straight and turn a golden color. Of course I would add the bonus of breast, but not to large” (1). This superhero character is the girl’s way of escaping reality and into something more self-pleasing. In “A Wall of Fire Rising” the hot air balloon represents an escape from reality to the father whom is fed up with his poor living