Water has the properties of a polar molecule, meaning that it is imbalanced in its electrons. The hydrogen ions in water are positive and the single oxygen ion is extremely negative. The extremely negative oxygen ion prevails over the positive hydrogen ion, masking the positivity. Many assume that Haitians live like an oxygen ion because it is what they see on the surface and they don’t acknowledge or view the hydrogen that exist. The novel Krik? Krak! is a collection of short stories written by Edwidge Danticat, who uses the symbol of water to illustrate the ideas that we can’t assume that Haitian experience is always negative.
The Haitian people find refuge in water. Danticat demonstrates this in “Children of the Sea”, where the boyfriend boards a boat away from Haiti. As he writes in his journal, it becomes apparent that he will not survive due to the boat slowly sinking into the abyss that is the sea. The boyfriend explains his situation but not a trace of sadness is detected. He accepts his fate of death, surrenders himself to the sea, and sends his love to his girlfriend back in Haiti. The last words he had written read, “Maybe this is why I dreamed of the starfish and the mermaids having the Catholic Mass under the sea. Maybe this was my invitation to go. In any case, I know that my memory of you will live even there as I too become a child of the sea.”(24). The boyfriend believed that dying would relieve him from the hardships he had endured, so instead of