What makes Edwidge Danticat's "autobiography" different than the other texts we have covered in class is that she immediately claims that she has written the book for her father and her uncle, simply because they can't. I suppose you could argue that Douglass composed his work for someone else (abolitionist propaganda), but he never openly admitted to that fact. Danticat has literally decided to put everything out there in honor of her family. However, I would also like to argue that Danticat has put everything out there for herself as well, especially for the regions of her heart that are still aching from all the pain she has suffered and how much death she has encountered.
Danticat's autobiography begins with the quote: "To begin with death. To work my way back into life, and then, to return to death. Or else: the vanity of trying to say anything about anyone."
-Paul Auster
The Invention of Solitude
The first segment of this quotation is simply a nod toward the idea of purging emotions of pity and depression. There is no doubt that Danticat has suffered much, and I am sure she has felt multitudes of self-pity during many occasions of her life. Danticat writes about many deaths, meaning that she tells the stories of these deaths in order to purge the feelings she has associated with them. For Marie Micheline, for Tante Denise, for Uncle Joseph, for her father (assuming that he dies, for I have not actually read that far quite yet), she must purge what she feels. She will, of course, never forget what these individuals have done for her. She will never forget how much she misses them, but she will learn to live again. She will "work her way back into life." Eventually, of course, she will "return to death," whether it be her own death, or more deaths that she will encounter in life, deaht is always lurking behind every corner. Life and death is really a game of chance. Fate rolls your dice every day.
The last piece of the quotation alludes to the idea that nothing should ever be told about another person until they have lived a full life, until they have seen everything they have been put on Earth to see. "Vanity" in the quote does not indicate pride, a synonym we typically associate with the word, but rather indicates pointlessness or hollowness, a lack of value. The individuals who have died in Danticat's lifetime become valuable in their passing. They have legacies. Their stories NEED to be told, or else they can potentially be forgotten, something that Danticat clearly does not want to have happen.
Danticat's autobiography begins with the quote: "To begin with death. To work my way back into life, and then, to return to death. Or else: the vanity of trying to say anything about anyone."
-Paul Auster
The Invention of Solitude
The first segment of this quotation is simply a nod toward the idea of purging emotions of pity and depression. There is no doubt that Danticat has suffered much, and I am sure she has felt multitudes of self-pity during many occasions of her life. Danticat writes about many deaths, meaning that she tells the stories of these deaths in order to purge the feelings she has associated with them. For Marie Micheline, for Tante Denise, for Uncle Joseph, for her father (assuming that he dies, for I have not actually read that far quite yet), she must purge what she feels. She will, of course, never forget what these individuals have done for her. She will never forget how much she misses them, but she will learn to live again. She will "work her way back into life." Eventually, of course, she will "return to death," whether it be her own death, or more deaths that she will encounter in life, deaht is always lurking behind every corner. Life and death is really a game of chance. Fate rolls your dice every day.
The last piece of the quotation alludes to the idea that nothing should ever be told about another person until they have lived a full life, until they have seen everything they have been put on Earth to see. "Vanity" in the quote does not indicate pride, a synonym we typically associate with the word, but rather indicates pointlessness or hollowness, a lack of value. The individuals who have died in Danticat's lifetime become valuable in their passing. They have legacies. Their stories NEED to be told, or else they can potentially be forgotten, something that Danticat clearly does not want to have happen.
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