Learning is fun and what better place to start than having a good read!
Here is an awesome and comprehensive review of Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker, done by one of my fellow classmates Motilal Boodoosingh.
In her book The Dew Breaker, Edwidge Danticat examines Haiti’s history of violence and the effects on both the perpetrator and the victims. The episodes, or as I prefer to call them, short stories, for each can be read independently and as such, centres on a “Dew Breaker, ” who as a henchman of the Duvaliers’ regime, Ton Ton Macotes, tortured and terrorized Haitians. The Title “The Dew Breaker,” as the name implies, refers to those who breaks the serenity of the grass in the morning dew and is also a Creole nickname for torturer. Thus, one could expect a visit from a “Dew Breaker at the crack of dawn as the Duvalier regimes sought to eliminate any opposition to their dictatorships.
In these stories Danticat examines the Haitian experience of emigration and the culture shock that accompanies it, but more importantly, she paints a horrific picture of the Dew Breakers past from the point of view of those he had tortured. I also think that the Dew Breaker is a critical commentary of the continuing political unrest and division in Haiti.
In the introductory story The Book of the Dead we are introduced to Ka and her family. Ka sculpts a bust of her father capturing an ugly scar on his face and with him thoughtfully gazing at his hands. They are on a journey to deliver same to a buyer. The statue disturbs Ka’s father because he feels he does not deserve to be celebrated in art and he destroys it. He then reveals “You see Ka, your father was the hunter, not the prey” (page 20 The Dew Breaker), thus revealing the secret that he has not always been the good father and husband, landlord and barber, a quiet man who fled Haiti to escape torture from the Duvaliers, but was himself a torturer and not a victim.
I would like to point out that The Book of the Dead in Ancient Egyptian lore, refers to a collection of charms, spells, etc., that were placed with the deceased to make passage to the afterlife easier and help redeem sinful acts. The name Ka means angel as her father indicated when he said “She was Ka, their good angel”.
In this regard, I see both the title of the story and the name of the daughter as symbolic of “the Dew Breaker” seeking to atone for past deeds and hoping for redemption.
The second story, Seven, seems at first to be unrelated to the first. It is about a man whose wife arrives from Haiti to New York after seven years of separation. He is living in a basement with two other men from Haiti. He works two jobs, one as janitors at Kings County Hospital and the other at the Medgar Evers College. The thread that connects is that their landlord is the Dew Breaker. As the book progresses we will see the connection of the characters with other events.
In Water Child we meet Nadine who works in a hospital. She has her mother and father in Haiti who lives in extreme poverty, her father is very ill with prostate cancer and she sends most of her money to them. Danticat thus emphasises the local poverty and the familial ties that repatriates US Dollars to Haiti which constitutes a significant impact to its economy.
Nadine is unmarried and lives alone. When she tries calling her boyfriend and finds that the number is no longer in service she muses “He should be home resting now, preparing to start his second job as night janitor at Megdar Evers College.” This makes the connection to the previous story. Danticat also highlights the hardship that the immigrant endures to make ends meet.
The Book of Miracles tells in part of Ka’s family at a Christmas Eve Mass and their encounter with a lookalike Haitian Ton Ton Macoote. Constant, whose picture is displayed in a wanted poster “for torture, rape murder of 5000 people” (Dew Breaker page78) near her mother’s Beauty Saloon is the subject. He is seated in a prominent position in the church. This story demonstrates the lasting effect of the terror that even the mere resemblance of a Dew Breaker can evoke and also underscores the ease in which the former torturers can assimilate into society. As the priest says during Holy Communion, “How Lucky we are that Jesus was born to give of his flesh for us to take for ourselves.” Ka’s mother Anne thinks “how lucky we are that we are here at all and that we still have flesh.” (The Dew Breaker page 80-81). This, to my mind, paints a vivid picture of the flayings that were inflicted by the members of the Duvalier military.
In Night Talkers we meet two of the men who were living in the basement of the Dew Breaker in New York. Danny has returned to visit his blind Aunt in Haiti who brought him up after his parents were killed because of “politics” and he went to live in New York. He had recognized his landlord as the man who killed his parents but is so fed up of violence and sees the futility of revenge that he tells no one. Instead he returns to Haiti to reconnect with his Aunt. We also meet Claude who has been deported from the US after serving a term in prison. Claude had killed his father while heavily drugged. One significant theme in this story is forgiveness as was emphasised in the villagers accepting Claude in spite of the patricide. On being accepted, Claude says, “Even with everything I have done, everything that has happened to me, I am the luckiest fucker in this gaddam planet. Someone somewhere must be looking out for my ass.” (The Dew Breaker page 120-121). Another is the sense of fellowship and camaraderie as the entire village helps in Aunt Estina funeral.
The Title of the story, Night Talkers, is also a reference to the nightmares both Danny and Claude have because of their experiences.
The Bridal Seamstress tells of a former tortured woman who has found some degree of success as a maker of Wedding Dresses in the USA in that a magazine seeks to interview her. However, her timidity is revealed as she express her fear that she is being watched by the Dew Breaker. Her reminiscences that, “He asked me to go dancing with him (in Haiti). I had a boyfriend, so I said no. That’s why he arrested me. He tied me to some type of rack in prison and whipped the bottom of my feet until they bled … This man, whenever I rent or buy a house in this city, I find him, living on my street” (Dew Breaker page 131-132). This paranoia, whether real or imagined, demonstrates the long arm of the torturers even in the supposedly safe city of New York and also validates the impossibility of escaping the effects of the horrendous experiences that the victims suffered.
Monkey Tails recounts life in Haiti during Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier reign. It remembers the President Propaganda addresses on radio and television and the lavish lifestyle of him and his wife. This contrasts with the lives of the ordinary people where there are acute shortages of food and water and a vicious black market system. It also highlights the effect of fathers abandoning their families to join with the militia in order to save their lives or simply because of greed. While these episodes are told from a child’s point of view, which makes them heart rending, the infatuation of this little boy with the elder girls reminds us that children are the same everywhere. We soon learn that this is Michael, one of the young men who would later become one of the Dew Breaker tenants.
The Funeral Singer is the story three young Haitian women going to night school in order to get a High School Diploma to help in getting their “Green Card”. Both the language and cultural differences with American society are contrasted. One of the women may have been a victim of the Dew Breaker because “her husband had painted an unflattering portrait of the President which was displayed in a gallery show. He was shot leaving the show”(Dew Breaker page 123). In spite of the morbid title, this piece has a bit of humour as the young women try to assimilate in NY society.
The final story, The Dew Breaker, helps to unify the preceding episodes and also clears up the story of Ka’s father. We learn of his relationship with his wife, Anne, and that he was the murderer of a priest who was Anne’s brother. The origin of the ugly scar on his face is revealed as well as the circumstances of him and Anne getting together.
I also feel that throughout the book the Dew Breaker is never given a name because there were so many like him! The themes of family, redemption and forgiveness are explored but not at the expense of exposure of the brutality of the Duvaliers, regime.
While this book is a work of fiction, Danticat reminds us the characters closely mirror real people whose lives have been irreparably damaged by the long tradition of torture in Haiti. This book should call attention to all nations that Haiti needs help and they should make a beeline to assist.
On a final note, this paper was not intended as a summary or analysis of The Dew Breaker but rather as an incentive to whet your appetite to read the book. I can assure you that you will not be disappointed. The Dew Breaker is one of the best books I have read this year.
Motilal Boodoosingh is the author of the Vintage Cars Blog. Check out his blog for exciting information on the best vintage cars.
My sincere thanks to Motilal for sharing his review. It is greatly appreciated.
Facing ones demons is one of the hardest things to do, so that this act of courage by “Amabelle” is remarkable because, not many will not take this step. So I wondered, what could “Amabelle” be thinking and feeling at this time and I’ve attempted to document the possible psychological state of “Amabelle” in the following poem.
Lit Land 