Story-Telling

I think Danticat's method of using stories as a mirror for events happening in her own life is very effective.

For example, Granme Melina's Rapunzel-like story (on page 69) of "a beautiful young girl whose mother, fearful that she might be abducted by passersby, locked her inside a small but pretty little house by the side of the road while the mother worked in the fields until dusk." Danticat explains how this story was really a reflection of how Granme Melina must have felt, who was in her 90's and just waiting to die, or to be let out of the house.

Danticat does this again on page 116 when she recalls another of Granme Melina's stories about the old horse and the goat. It's a reflection of her current situation with her brothers; she and Bob are on one team and their brothers Kelly and Karl are on another. Because Edwidge and Bob were born in Haiti and lived their lives without their parents, and Kelly and Karl were born in America and lived everyday with them, they were strangers to each other. Technically, Edwidge and Bob were the oldest, but Kelly tells them, "they say you two are older than me...but it's not true. I'm the oldest." Because he was older than Karl and never knew Edwidge or Bob, he was accustomed to being the oldest child in the house. With the horse and goat, the goat assumes he is older than the horse by saying "Can't you see I have a beard and you don't? Aren't beards a sign of old age?" Danticat follows this by saying "Kelly's time with our parents was his beard."

The use of stories to reflect real-life situations is helpful in these instances to explain how Granme Melina and Kelly were feeling. It is also helpful in showing the reader the culture in which Danticat grew up in and the importance of story-telling. Both stories evoke a sense of understanding and empathy within the reader for these characters as well. With Rapunzel, I felt bad for Granme Melina, and with the goat, I felt bad for Edwidge and Bob but understood where Kelly was coming from. It's a great example of the importance of symbolism and stories in understanding something that might not otherwise be so easily explained.