Sometimes, people can’t picture how poor life can be for others. Where is the hope? Suzette in New York Day women describes one aspect of life in Haiti as “In Haiti when you get hit by a car, the owner of the car gets out and kicks you for getting blood on his bumper” (Page 128). In the novel Krik? Krak!, Danticat is trying to send the message that when humans are abused, killed, and have such a poor quality of life, they find hope in symbols, superstitions, and future generations.
Abuse and a poor quality of life results in humans to obtain hope in symbols. When Josephine’s mom, Manman is in prison, Josephine is alone at home and watches over the Madonna, a valuable belonging to her and her mom. “My Madonna cried. A miniature teardrop traveled down her white porcelain face, like dew on the tip of early morning grass. When I saw the tear, surely I thought my mother was dead” (Page 29). Josephine strongly believes in the Madonna, and finds hope through this symbol by determining the state of her mom. Furthermore, she sincerely hopes that the Madonna tells her that her mom is alive, and hopes that the Madonna doesn’t shed a tear. In addition, hope is also found through symbols in Children of the Sea, when the female narrator writes to the male narrator. The female narrator writes of butterflies and what they symbolize. She writes him “besides, manman says that butterflies can bring news, the bright ones bring happy news and the black ones warn us of deaths” (Page 5). Undoubtedly, manman has hope in butterflies and strongly believes in what they symbolize, which is happy news and death. We can see how manman finds hope in bright butterflies, which she believes are good news and finds hope in. When little hope is to be found, humans find it through superstitions. …show more content…
After Grace gets her passport, her mom, Ma, wants to celebrate Grace’s achievement with bone soup, a common soup in Haitian culture. Ma’s pride in her bone soup is elucidated after seeing an application of Grace’s passport. “We can celebrate with some bone soup, she said. I am making some right now. Ma believed that her bone soup could cure all kinds of ills” (Page 140). Ma clearly finds hope in the soup in the fact that she believes it can cure all kinds of ills. This is a superstition, but yet Ma unmistakably has hope in what the bone soup can accomplish in terms of curing different types of ills. Hope in superstitions are also evident when Grace and Caroline talk about how they have seen their dad in their dreams and how they have always worn black panties. “We had never worn the red panties that Ma had always bought for us over the years to keep our father’s dead spirit away. We had always worn black panties instead, to tell him that he would be welcome to visit us” (Page 152). Hope in superstitions is unmistakable in the fact that Grace and Caroline have always worn black panties, hoping that their father will come back to visit them. When the current generation loses hope because of a poverty-stricken life, they find hope in the future generation. After Grace passes her citizenship test, Ma, her mom sounds very satisfied, as if this brought Ma hope.
Abuse and a poor quality of life results in humans to obtain hope in symbols. When Josephine’s mom, Manman is in prison, Josephine is alone at home and watches over the Madonna, a valuable belonging to her and her mom. “My Madonna cried. A miniature teardrop traveled down her white porcelain face, like dew on the tip of early morning grass. When I saw the tear, surely I thought my mother was dead” (Page 29). Josephine strongly believes in the Madonna, and finds hope through this symbol by determining the state of her mom. Furthermore, she sincerely hopes that the Madonna tells her that her mom is alive, and hopes that the Madonna doesn’t shed a tear. In addition, hope is also found through symbols in Children of the Sea, when the female narrator writes to the male narrator. The female narrator writes of butterflies and what they symbolize. She writes him “besides, manman says that butterflies can bring news, the bright ones bring happy news and the black ones warn us of deaths” (Page 5). Undoubtedly, manman has hope in butterflies and strongly believes in what they symbolize, which is happy news and death. We can see how manman finds hope in bright butterflies, which she believes are good news and finds hope in. When little hope is to be found, humans find it through superstitions. …show more content…
After Grace gets her passport, her mom, Ma, wants to celebrate Grace’s achievement with bone soup, a common soup in Haitian culture. Ma’s pride in her bone soup is elucidated after seeing an application of Grace’s passport. “We can celebrate with some bone soup, she said. I am making some right now. Ma believed that her bone soup could cure all kinds of ills” (Page 140). Ma clearly finds hope in the soup in the fact that she believes it can cure all kinds of ills. This is a superstition, but yet Ma unmistakably has hope in what the bone soup can accomplish in terms of curing different types of ills. Hope in superstitions are also evident when Grace and Caroline talk about how they have seen their dad in their dreams and how they have always worn black panties. “We had never worn the red panties that Ma had always bought for us over the years to keep our father’s dead spirit away. We had always worn black panties instead, to tell him that he would be welcome to visit us” (Page 152). Hope in superstitions is unmistakable in the fact that Grace and Caroline have always worn black panties, hoping that their father will come back to visit them. When the current generation loses hope because of a poverty-stricken life, they find hope in the future generation. After Grace passes her citizenship test, Ma, her mom sounds very satisfied, as if this brought Ma hope.