List of Duvalier links:
Papa Doc's Wiki page
Another article on Duvalier reign
Site about Haitian history
Sunday, October 26, 2008
History and "Papa Doc" Duvalier in The Dew-Breaker
In class on Friday, we discussed the many ways in which The Dew-Breaker references the history of Haiti and particularly the repercussions of dictator "Papa Doc" Duvalier's reign on the Haitian people. All the characters in Danticat's book of linked stories suffer from their associations with the violence of Duvalier's Haiti and attempt to understand how to live with the decisions they made in a society where every individual was either "hunter or prey," as Ka's father describes it in the first story of the collection. I gave you an outline of Papa Doc's place in Haitian history in class, but I'm providing you with the following links to get more acquainted with him as you read The Dew-Breaker. Please post any comments on the book or the interplay of history in the lives of the character's in Danticat's book below.
List of Duvalier links:
Papa Doc's Wiki page
Another article on Duvalier reign
Site about Haitian history
List of Duvalier links:
Papa Doc's Wiki page
Another article on Duvalier reign
Site about Haitian history
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4 comments:
For some reason, I feel compelled to take a break from all the reading and studying to post a little bit of info on Edwidge Danticat. I know of her from the left leaning "news magazine" (as Newsweek, Time, and the rest like to call themselves) called The Progressive. She writes a column semi-regularly about Haiti and the United States relations. You can see all of her most recent articles at:
http://www.progressive.org/edwidgedanticat
There is even one about why she "endorses" Barack Obama, although that was written when Hillary was still in the race so it is slightly dated.
From reading her columns in The Progressive, I've become interested in what has gone on in Haiti since the Duvalier's have been in power. It is a very sad and bloody history, but one that is very relevant still today. Not so long ago (2004), the United States was very active in pressuring the President Jean-Bertrand Aristide out of power, despite running the country in a much better manner than either of the Duvalier's. While he was hardly perfect (and what politician is?), this seems to be an example of bad foreign policy by the U.S. government. Also I remember hearing that Baby Doc, who is still a legal refugee in France, announced that he thought the Haitian people were ready for him to return and take power within just the last year or two. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that all of the stuff going on in the Dew-Breaker is hardly old news and is still very relevant to the political landscape now.
My interest on this particular subject brings me to my one criticism of the book. Much like Trujillo, the history of Haiti is so interesting and should really be described more in the Dew Breaker. If one of us picked the book up at a bookstore and read it, we wouldn't know what many of the subtle references to the ton ton macoutes were without looking them up. I'm guessing Danticat is pretty much THE Haitian writer, so maybe she thought that would be a bit too predictable and cliché to describe it all to us, but I can't help, but feel it is an opportunity lost. I also wish the short stories were not all so connected. The Interpreter of Maladies is great book (well the half of it I read before this class took up all my time!) written in the same vein of only short stories (except it is about a certain group of Indians living in the U.S.), but it does not connect all the characters together. It won the Pulitzer Prize like Oscar Wao and I would have to say it has better writing so it is worth checking out if the short story format intrigues you.
Here is an interesting article I remember reading on the history of Haiti from a few years back. It took me several minutes to track it down (a cyber-lifetime).
AKA: The Gloriously Fucked Up History of Haiti
Some quick quotes from the article:
"The French were still trying to explain the details of international law to the mob when they broke in, dragged Sam out from behind the potted plants, and tore him limb from limb. You don't get much chance to use that phrase, "limb from limb," and really mean it. But that's what they did. They were so proud of themselves they had a parade, with Sam's arms, legs, head and torso like Rose Bowl floats."
"This Trujillo was a classic 1930s fascist. He used more skin lightener than Michael Jackson and decided that he and his fellow Dominicans were Aryans, whereas those dirty Haitians across the border were nothing but a bunch of uncivilized blacks. Which is pretty ridiculous, because every Dominican I ever saw was a lot blacker than most blacks in the US are."
Here is the link.
- Christopher Bruckmann
Haiti does have a fascinating (and often brutal) history. Something really interesting to think about is how closely linked--both in terms of time period and in terms of ideology--the Haitian and American Revolutions were. The Haitian Revolution took place in the 1790s, and some of those involved in the uprising against colonial rule and slavery had actually fought in the American Revolution alongside the French. Here's an interview that references it: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3i3130.html
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