1937

The burden of being Haitian weighs upon Josephine. Amidst the backdrop of a fractured history, she struggles to maintain a relationship with her mother that encompasses the larger legacy of Haitian women.  Born at the expense of her grandmother’s life, Josephine is imbued with a great resilience. For her, the Madonna’s sole tear is “too much crying” to express her mother’s suffering. Her inability to connect with her mother is microscopic of the general disconnect between the colonial and native history of the Caribbean.

Danticat’s decision to characterize Josephine by her confusion rather than her bitterness helps the reader identify with her.  Her feelings for her mother’s rituals and traditions are full of wonder and naiveté. Nonetheless, her observations to the situation at hand make it evident that she understands the hopelessness surrounding her. She bears witness to many injustices: Her mother’s imprisonment, the harsh treatment in jails, and ultimately her mother’s death.  As she notes of her mother “she had never talked very much about the future. She had always believed more in the past.” Yet the story ends with a glimpse of hope, as Josephine asserts that perhaps she will see her mother in the afterlife.

            Josephine mentions Americans at one point in the story. They “thought us how to build prisons,” she states, summarizing the foreign affliction in Port-au-Prince. She doesn’t portray men in a very flattering light. Perhaps the best way to describe her is cautious and weary. And in the end the best the reader can hope for her is to look to the future with hindsight of her mother’s culture. 

Danticat, Edwidge. Krik? Krak! NY: Vintage Books. Print.