By Tabitha Lopes
Story Structure and Narrative Format
Danticats, The Dew Breaker, is a larger than life text that relies on the intelligence and engagement of the reader. Due to the short story cycle Danticat chose to convey her novel, it creates an interdependency on each of the narrators to give context to each of the other stories (Goldner 155). Ellen Goldner writes in her essay “Ways of Listening” that through the differentiating and changing narrators, we are sought to realize the interconnectedness of our stories. “If Danticat inspires different groups of readers to increase their awareness of one another, then the story cycle can invite them to imagine all readings as decentered, and all readership as open to the influence of others.” (Goldner 151). Birgit Spengler echoed this statement in her essay, which talked of similar themes to Goldner, by putting an “emphasis on the relationality of human lives” (Spengler 190). To deconstruct Danticat’s story structure, The Dew Breaker is a collection of narratives that come together in a subtle way. The subtlety in connections across stories leaves the reader in an integral position to the story, to be the witness to each narrative and act as the missing link (Spengler 191).
Spengler’s essay deals with a concept called “Violence of Derealization” coined by Judith Butler. The basic premise is that, “a form of violence effected through omission, which permits the continuity of suffering through neglect” (Spengler 190). Spengler argues that an effective way to combat the violence of derealization is through art, saying that art “has the potential to render the lives of seemingly distant people visible as well as grievable and, therefore, offers a means to understand” (Spengler 190). Danticat’s emphasis on telling multiple narratives, opposed to following one storyline throughout, directly combats the violence of derealization by giving attention to as many stories as possible. Furthermore, the interconnectedness of the novel shines attention on the many dimensions of this complex story.
Trauma/Historical Context
The Dew Breaker is a collection of trauma narratives based on the violence inflicted on Haitians in the 1960’s under the regime of François Duvalier, known as Papa Doc, and his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier. These narratives, which Goldner argues have gone unnoticed by Western audiences, are told in a fragmented way that makes the reader bear witness, not just to the violence inflicted but to its ripple effects and “the difficult process of reconstruction” (Spengler 192). Spengler and Goldner’s essays play off of each other, each supporting statements and ideas the other is saying. “The reader faces the challenge of realizing these connections and thereby comes to a more encompassing understanding of violence and its potential effects.” (Spengler 192). Forcing us, the reader, to think makes us understand the “whole” more when we are the ones putting the pieces together. It draws off the idea that morals can be lost on the reader when simply told to them. The engagement this book demands is the very tool that allows its lessons to be as powerful.
Spengler makes a critical point about the testimonies being told throughout The Dew Breaker: “Violence therefore constitutes a ‘dimension of living’ rather than an isolated act of aggression” (Spengler 193). Other than the last chapter, titled “The Dew Breaker”, we never get explicit depictions of violence, it’s more stories about coming to terms with the violence inflicted (Spengler 203). The effects of violence go beyond the isolated incident. Danticat does a great job at creating characters whose past trauma has bleed into their present lives. “The Bridal Seamstress” is a narrative that shows how violence haunts its victims, producing that ‘dimension of living’ instead of a single event. Beatrice, the bridal seamstress, lives with the physical scars on her feet that remind her of the crimes inflicted upon her by the Dew Breaker. Similarly, her mind has been scared by the trauma and it affects her perceptions and ability to cope. From Beatrice’s perspective the Dew Breaker has never left her alone, “No one will ever have that much of your attention. No matter how much he’d changed, I would know him anywhere” (Danticat 132). The reader, being a witness to more than just Beatrice, sees Aline go and investigate the house, only to find nobody is living there. However, Beatrice is being honest in her statement because that is how the trauma makes her feel, and her feelings control her reality. While this might make Beatrice look delusional, it insinuates that violence has the power to command victims’ lives long after it has been inflicted.
Silence and Speech/ Symbolism
One strong theme across the research on The Dew Breaker is the silence that surrounds the violence and trauma witnessed through the narratives. Maria Rice Bellamy writes about the role of silence and speech in The Dew Breaker: “Silence thus reflects unresolved trauma, unsuccessful acculturation, guilt and shame, while speech, however difficult, facilitates healing and begins the process of resolving trauma and achieving healthy acculturation” (Bellamy 207). Perhaps the best example of this from the text is Nadine’s narrative in “Water Child”. Nadine carries heavy burdens; with the expectations of her parents and the trauma of a lost child, she buries her emotions to distract her from feeling them. Danticat pairs Nadine with a patient, Miss Hinds, who is literally bound to silence through her inability to speak. Nadine becomes the only person who can calm and understand Miss Hinds and a relationship is fostered. Nadine’s self silencing is not helping to resolve her trauma and her story ends with her staring at her reflection who she describes as the “unrecognizable woman staring back at her from the closed elevator door” (Danticat 68).
According to Bellamy the opposition to silence is speech, which can be exemplified through “The Funeral Singer”: “Danticat models a solution to the challenges Nadine experiences, demonstrating that silence and isolation can be remedied only by speech in community” (Bellamy 208). In this narrative, the three women come together to study, but end up bonding through shared heritage. Freda is the first to share, “I thought exposing a few details of my life would inspire them to do the same and slowly we’d parcel out our sorrows, each walking out with fewer than we’d carried in” (Danticat 170). Sharing their traumas is a way to release them, let them go. Nadine’s unwillingness to share or speak of her traumas kept her imprisoned by them (Bellamy 208).
Judgment and Forgiveness
The concepts of silence and speech create an interesting comparison when we go back to the first narrative, “Book of the Dead”, and take into account Ka’s father’s confession. Ka’s father is obsessed with the Egyptian tradition of weighing of the hearts because he himself is heavy with guilt and shame from his past crimes. “His confession, therefore does not absolve him from living with ‘the enormous weight of permanent markers’ (Danticat 34), but it does open up a way of working through the past” (Spengler 201). This explains how the speech associated with trauma is heavy, and everyone deserves to have a process of healing.
In The Dew Breaker, unlike the actual Book of the Dead, no judgment gets passed in Danticat’s novel. Ka’s silence, both at the end of “Book of the Dead” and “The Dew Breaker” leaves us in a state of uncertainty surrounding questions of change and forgiveness (Spengler 200). This positions the reader to first think with curiosity and empathy, creating a story with no definitive judgment. As Goldner wisely points out, it is not the reader’s job to forgive: “The ability to dispense, but also to withhold, forgiveness is an ennobling capacity and part of the dignity to be reclaimed by those who survive the wrongdoing” (Goldner 162). If Danticat wanted this story to be about forgiveness it could have been explicitly stated. That is not to say forgiveness is not an important theme throughout, because surely we see that in “Night Talkers” with Claude, but to reduce this novel to one simple theme would be an injustice to the complexity of the story. Danticat ends her novel, and titular plot, in a more ambiguous state: “At the end of The Dew Breaker Anne Bienaimé is left awaiting an answer to the unspoken question of whether Ka can forgive her father” (Goldner 162). The reader is left not in a position of judgment, but instead with the opportunity to engage with the trauma narratives of voices that have never been heard, by bearing witness to their truths.
Works Cited
Bellamy Rice, Maria. “Silence and Speech: Figures of Dislocation and Acculturation in Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker”, College of Staten Island, City University of New York, Vol. 71, No. 3, 207–210. 2013.
Danticat, Edwidge. The Dew Breaker, Vintage Contemporaries, A Division of Random House, Inc. 2004.
Goldner, Ellen. “Ways of Listening: Hearing Danticat’s Call to Multiple Audiences in The Dew Breaker”, John Hopkins University Press, Vol. 49 No. 2-3 Pages 149-178. July 2018.
Spengler, Birgit. “Art as Engagement: Violence, Trauma, and the Role of the Reader in Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker”, Oxford University Press, Vol. 8 No. 2 Pages 189-205. July 2014.
Sprockets and Springes 