At the age of twenty-six, young for a writer, Edwidge Danticat has many honors credited to her name. Aside from publishing two books, the novel Breath, Eyes, Memory and a collection of short stories, Krik? Krak!, she has also received much critical acknowledgment. Her novel earned her recognition by the New York Times as one…
Tag: Haiti
Children of the Sea by Edwidge Danticat: Setting
Haiti: The Early Years Although Danticat had been living in the United States for fourteen years by the time ‘ ‘Children of the Sea” was first published, the story draws upon her experience of having spent her early years in Haiti. With generations of experience in poverty, dictatorship, and oppression, Haiti’s population knows hardship well….
Children of the Sea: Literary Devices
Point of View and Narration “Children of the Sea” is narrated in the first person by two distinct voices. The first belongs to a young man who is fleeing Haiti on a leaky boat. The second voice is that of the man’s lover, a young woman who remains in Haiti with her family. The story…
Children of the Sea by Edwidge Danticat: Themes
“Children of the Sea” follows two Haitian narrators in the tumultuous days following the coup that deposed President Aristide. Justice and Injustice One of the most important themes in “Children of the Sea” is justice. From the reader’s perspective, the overwhelming injustice of the narrators’ situation is highlighted by the events the author chooses to…
Children of the Sea by Edwidge Danticat: Characters
Celianne Celianne is a young woman of fifteen who is on the boat with the first narrator. She is pregnant, rarely eats, and “stares in space all the time and rubs her stomach.” Celianne has been raped and impregnated by the soldiers who had come to her house to arrest her brother. During the voyage…
Children of the Sea by Edwidge Danticat: Summary
The story opens with an unnamed narrator, a young Haitian revolutionary, thinking of his girlfriend. He is on a small boat that has set sail for Miami, Florida. He is going into exile because he is wanted by the Haitian government. These details are disclosed by the young woman, who is the second narrator of…
The radicalism of the Haitian Revolution
The Haitian revolution is the years of conflict during 1791 to 1804 between the white settlers and the enslaved black population. The French colony of Saint-Domingue was the center-stage of this revolution, which resulted in the mass murder of thousands of white people and led to the liberation of Haiti from the grips of colonialism….