Davis: Forging Community in Edwidge Danticat’s Krik?Krak!
Rocio G.
Davis completely dissects the way Edwidge Danticat provides short stories in
order to promote collective identity in this essay. First he points out the
cultural interpretation regarding a variety of short stories by ethnic writers.
The dynamic of providing history as a road the essence of gynocentric relationship
between mother and daughter as the vehicle for which it travels is enlightening.
In the form
of storytelling, collective short stories in ethnic novels from writers such as
Danticat, promotes survival especially in women. The cultural history behind
each writer can be felt as the reader is engulfed in a rich story about
hardships and happiness that promotes self-affirmation for the ‘daughters’ of
the stories and individual empowerment for the ‘mothers’. Danticat turns to her
own roots, for example, from her own experiences with family, community, and
the struggles to identify with her ethnicity in the intertwined Haitian culture
and connecting her life in the United States.
Rocio
points out that the validity of the past, examination of similar paths and
recognition from fellow women is the utmost importance in the reason why ‘games’
are played among women in Danticat’s stories. The hidden meanings and ability
to have a voice becomes evident in the symbolism used through stories mainly
about leaving Haiti and the search for a future outside of the ‘home’ each
character recognizes with.
The “desire
to come to terms with a past that is both personal and collective: this type of
fiction often explores the ethnic character and history of a community as a reflection
of a personal odyssey of displacement, and search for self and community.”
Danticat showed the struggle of women to preserve the bonds of their Haitian
community, and through the life in the United States while maintaining the link
to the mother country. The need to find familial and historical connections
with the group that is identified with becomes relevant among Danticat’s
characters. Danticat blends this idea with the solid structure with history,
although her works are fiction, in order to preserve the familiar bonds between
women essential for their survival.
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