In the book Krik Krak, there are many stories about Haitian women who experience challenging situations. For example, the book presents stories about women who deal with prostitution, failed pregnancies, love, incarceration, and death. None of these stories have any relations to each other except the fact that they all present a woman as a significant character.
The author, Edwidge Danticat, uses women in her stories to show how women are related through the problems they face. For instance, in the epilogue, Danticat mentions the importance about woman and their mothers and grandmothers who made the way for them. For example, the narrator states, “Your mother who looked like your grandmother and her grandmother before her. Your mother had two rules for living. Always use your ten fingers, which in her parlance meant that you should be the best little cook and housekeeper who ever lived.” In this statement, Danticat was showing the reader how significant women are in family. Danticat refers to a mother daughter or grandmother and granddaughter relationship throughout the book. For example, in the story, “Between the Pool and the Gardenias,” Danticat writes about a woman who finds a dead baby and out of desperation to be a mother she keeps the baby as her own. In the story, “Nineteen Thirty-Seven,” a woman named Josephine experienced the death of her mother who was killed in a prison. All these stories show the role woman play in family.
Overall Krik Krak was an enjoyable book to read with many heartbreaking but inspiring stories about the struggles of Haitian women. Each story had a deeper meaning that caught my attention. For example, the story “Children of the sea,” was not only about the attack of the tonton macoutes, but it was a love story between two teenagers. Danticat’s usage of metaphors and imagery really gave me a better understanding of this reading. Danticat succeeded with writing an interesting piece of work.
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