In her memoir Brother, I’m Dying, Edwidge Danticat writes the Haitian immigration experience into existence through memories of her childhood. While violence, instability and natural disasters have long been frequent occurrences in Haiti, Haiti is also Danticat’s homeland. It is a place of love and inspiration for Danticat, but she struggles with political dilemma she finds herself in as an American citizen born of Haiti. Dandicat gives the reader an intimate sense of Haiti’s fight for freedom through the creation of an everlasting portrait of the two father figures in her life; her dad and uncle. Danticat’s memoir functions as a way to not only expose the United States immoral immigration policy toward Haitians, but to reveal the struggles
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Danticat tells us that she has constructed the story from the "borrowed recollections of family members. . . . What I learned from my father and uncle, I learned out of sequence and in fragments. This is an attempt at cohesiveness, and at re-creating a few wondrous and terrible months when their lives and mine intersected in startling ways, forcing me to look forward and back at the same time" (25-26). Danticat's grandfather, Nozial, fought against American forces that came from the Jim Crow South. Uncle Joseph even delved into the gruesome things that he saw. “White men ...kicking the thing on the ground as though it was a soccer ball to one and other with the round tips of their boots. Taking small steps to stand the same distance away as other bystanders, my uncle finally saw what it was: a man’s head” (246-247). It proved to be such a dangerous place that Joseph was warned to never leave the small village near Leogane on main roads because American soldiers often captured Haitian peasants. The use of violence by American troops, racist tendencies, and the United States-trained Haitian military ensured a legacy of imperial, dehumanizing American policy toward Haiti. This would take centuries for Haiti to even attempt to overcome. Therefore, Danticat's …show more content…
This holds true to the death of Uncle Joseph in an INS detention camp to which he was sent when he asked for asylum after being threatened with death in Haiti. All of his documentation is misleading, to which neither Edwidge or Joseph has control over. Her uncle is seen as “Alien 27041999” in the eyes of a bias American, making the supposed “facts” on the document misleading and false. It was proven so when Danticat wrote, “In spite of my uncle’s eighty-one years and his being a survivor of throat cancer, which was obvious from his voice box and tracheotomy, when answering whether there were age and health factors to be taken into consideration, Officer Reyes checked No” (223). The United States’ imperialistic attitude has clearly made things worse for Haitians, though they believe that it is aiding them. What it came down to was that they were killing innocent people because there was not only a cultural barrier, but they did not genuinely care about the well being of Haitian citizens. The presence of the United States represents loss, pain, and heartache, rather than hope and prosperity to the
Danticat tells us that she has constructed the story from the "borrowed recollections of family members. . . . What I learned from my father and uncle, I learned out of sequence and in fragments. This is an attempt at cohesiveness, and at re-creating a few wondrous and terrible months when their lives and mine intersected in startling ways, forcing me to look forward and back at the same time" (25-26). Danticat's grandfather, Nozial, fought against American forces that came from the Jim Crow South. Uncle Joseph even delved into the gruesome things that he saw. “White men ...kicking the thing on the ground as though it was a soccer ball to one and other with the round tips of their boots. Taking small steps to stand the same distance away as other bystanders, my uncle finally saw what it was: a man’s head” (246-247). It proved to be such a dangerous place that Joseph was warned to never leave the small village near Leogane on main roads because American soldiers often captured Haitian peasants. The use of violence by American troops, racist tendencies, and the United States-trained Haitian military ensured a legacy of imperial, dehumanizing American policy toward Haiti. This would take centuries for Haiti to even attempt to overcome. Therefore, Danticat's …show more content…
This holds true to the death of Uncle Joseph in an INS detention camp to which he was sent when he asked for asylum after being threatened with death in Haiti. All of his documentation is misleading, to which neither Edwidge or Joseph has control over. Her uncle is seen as “Alien 27041999” in the eyes of a bias American, making the supposed “facts” on the document misleading and false. It was proven so when Danticat wrote, “In spite of my uncle’s eighty-one years and his being a survivor of throat cancer, which was obvious from his voice box and tracheotomy, when answering whether there were age and health factors to be taken into consideration, Officer Reyes checked No” (223). The United States’ imperialistic attitude has clearly made things worse for Haitians, though they believe that it is aiding them. What it came down to was that they were killing innocent people because there was not only a cultural barrier, but they did not genuinely care about the well being of Haitian citizens. The presence of the United States represents loss, pain, and heartache, rather than hope and prosperity to the