For my second project, I decided to write a monologue of Ka reflecting on her father after the revelation at the end of “The Book of the Dead” chapter. I found The Dew Breaker to be a very powerful book and I honestly was left in stunned silence at the end of it. It’s just so… wild, for lack of a better word, to see the stark difference between Ka’s father when he was still a dew breaker compared to Ka’s father as he’s first introduced to us in the book. It’s something I couldn’t stop thinking about, which is why I wanted to write my monologue on Ka and her thoughts about the revelation.
I hope this actually reads as a monologue. I’ll admit I’ve only written one once, so I’m a bit shaky with the finer points of it. However, I followed Dr Helms’ advice on doing something similar to Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess“, in the sense that I tried to set a scene for the monologue by giving it a location and a purposeful action for Ka to be doing in that location. This is where the idea of the convenience store came from (and why my blog post starts with a random picture of a convenience store) and, from there, I somehow bounced from water bottle condensation to dew breaker revelation trauma. Also gum and scars. And crabs and empathy. I had a bunch of miscellaneous weird tabs open while writing this one.
I was really fixated on the scar a bit because it’s something that Ka liked about her father, but I think now it will always serve as a reminder of the revelation for her. Much the same as how it reminds Ka’s father of his past as well. Scars are interesting like that, I think. There’s always a story behind them and you kind of wear it on your skin wherever you go. Like, I have a scar in the corner of my eye from where my brother pushed me when I was younger and he still feels guilty about it now, but that’s nothing compared to having a scar on your face from your wife’s step brother who you killed.
This stuff really makes me think which conveniently leads into why literature is important. You can tell these really powerful, impactful stories that are rooted in real life events. In this way, you can educate your audience and help them understand better. I didn’t even know this part of Haiti’s history before reading The Dew Breaker, but I can leave this course now educated and aware of it.
Sprockets and Springes 
I really like your idea to write a monologue. I think this was the perfect way to pull together the loose ends left by the story. I found that in the end I was left with a feeling of incompleteness. There felt like there was something left unsaid, something that maybe would have drawn the whole story together. With all of these horrific images of the father and getting to see Ka learning the truth about his past for the first time it felt like there should have been something merging the experiences. We are left not knowing what Ka dose next even though we are introduced to her first and there is a whole book left that could have explained something. I think that this monologue captured what Ka would have been thinking in the time. I love how you used the water bottle to spark her thinking. This made it more realistic for me reading it. I think you captured Ka perfectly. Great work!