Uncle Joseph

"My uncle did not look resigned and serene like most of the dead I have seen. Perhaps it was because his lips were swollen to twice their usual size. He looked as though he'd been punched. He also appeared anxious and shocked, as though he were having a horrible nightmare.

When was he last conscious? I wondered. What were his final thoughts? When did he realize he was dying? Was he afraid? Did he think it ironic that he would soon be the dead prisoner of the same government that had been occupying his country when he was born? In essence he was entering and exiting the world under the same flag. Never really sovereign, as his father had dreamed, never really free. What would he think of being buried here? Would he forever, proverbially, turn in his grave?"
(Page 250)

This passage really stayed with me for a few reasons. America, for many people living in different countries, really is a beacon of light or hope, or a land of fortune compared with their own misfortune and underprivileged lives. As a reader and an American, I really thought that once Uncle Joseph fled Haiti and got to America he would be safe. I feel saddened by what happened to him. Not only was he treated like a number and not a person, but he never even got a chance to see his family one last time. It's also a shame that he never wanted to leave Haiti and was finally forced to, and died in the process. I think Uncle Joseph's death was the most tragic because it was so unexpected, unjust, and happened in such an undignified way.

Splicedness

The passage I want to bring up is sort of long, but it is pages 181-182 at the start of the chapter titled "Hell." Here, Danticat is sharing yet another story told by Granmè Melina about a man who finds himself in Hell. The story ends abruptly on page 182 with a quick transition from the last line of the story to where it moves on at "The next morning, Monday, at four a.m.," and so on.

This "splicing" of literature is a technique used by Danticat a lot which keeps her story interesting. It's an interesting way to see the story she was told as it interrupts the story she is telling, and that keeps her still distant and separate from her emotions towards the situations. Especially with a tale about Hell where it is defined as being "whatever you fear most" when the following line talks of Maxo and his family going somewhere reluctantly.

where is edwidge?

"Beating the Darkness"

this chapter features a narrative on the events of the october 24, 2004 when United Nations soldiers and local riot police joined forces in trying to eradicate the murderous gangs from Bel Air. the thing that struck me about this particle passage, is that edwidge is nowhere in the events that took place. and yet, her retelling of what happened is intriguingly detailed and clear.

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i think perhaps the most gripping line from that whole section, is on page 171. it reads: "Looking over the trashstrewn alleys that framed the building, he thought for the first time since he'd lost Tante Denise that he was glad she was dead." for me, that is so heavy. what a thought for her uncle to be having. in my opinion, a thought like that is so personal, that it can only come out of some kind of deep love, nurtured and cultivated over a great time. i feel like, to be thankful for someones absence in life, can only be created from an incredible sense of hopelessness. and this is what's going on within the mind and emotions of danticats uncle, though she's writing it.

i want to know how she knew that was what he was thinking, because of how outside of herself a moment like that is.

did he admit this extremely personal moment to edwidge? or is this part of the imagination that comes with the creative license given to all writers?

late post for jessica: writing prompt

Pick a memory and give it a voice. Talk to it as if it were a person.

APS for Jenna

Brother, I'm Dying, page # 41
"However, time was of the essence, so he had no choice but to travel without her, even though he feared that he might die and never see her again."

What did the white man say? page # 44
"The best place for me to make my announcement would have been at the family meeting the week before. This is probably what both my parents would have accepted, and preferred, rather than spitting something out adn scurrying off. But that night I couldn't look into my father's face and--though I knew it would come very natually to him and my mother both--ask taht they be happy for me."

Where's the Title?

I wanted to bring to attention the actual part in the book where the title gets its name.

"My uncle heard a crackling as my father's phone was picked up. 'Hello," my father said, his voice creaking anxiously. No good news could ever come at this hour of the night, he told himself.
My uncle pressed his lips as close as he could to the mouthpiece to whisper these three words: 'Frè, map mouri.' Brother, I'm dying.
'What's wrong?" my father asked.
'Gòj,' he replied. Throat."
-p. 41

I believe Jackie brought up the simplicity in the words, such as "Brother, I'm dying" or "My wife is dead." I believe this is really important to notice, especially here when the reaction isn't as emotional as one might expect. What fascinates me is how Danticat uses her translations as yet another barrier to separate herself from the book as we have seen throughout. I see her using the exact language first with the simple translation following as this split shows us the situation as it happened and the situation as we would understand. Unless the reader is familiar with the language, the translations are important after that brief moment of being left in the dark as we try to unfold what the Uncle was saying.

A Connection

verba volant, scripta manent -- spoken words fly away, written words remain."

“To write vulnerably is to open a Pandora’s box. Who can say what will coming flying out? When I began, nine years ago, to make my emotions part of my ethnography, I had no idea where this work would take me or whether it would be accepted within anthropology and the academy.” The Vulnerable Observoer: Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart. Ruth Behar. 1996

Ann Page this book brought tears

"I wanted very much to be in New York with my father, so I closed my eyes and imagined myself there. I am sitting on the edge of his bed and we're watching the Price is Right on television. Unsure of the answers, we guess wildly but still get all of them right anyway. This makes my father so happy that he rises out of bed and starts to dance. At first he dances like a ballerina in slow motion, but then he increases his pace until he's jumping up and down, bouncing on and off his bed." p. 207
I think this passage is especially beautiful because of the raw emotion that is expresses. Edwige so desperately wishes her father to be well again, and in this passage she images he has become well enough to dance. I think that all people who have lost someone can relate to those moments in time when you dream of them being well. Those brief and beautiful moments when all is as it was when it was perfect.

This part is because I just loved this book... The most touching line of the book..
"I think now that my father waited for me to leave. That he did not want me to hold Mira with one hand and his corpse with the other." This line also sums up the entire journey of the novel.

Logic vs. Feeling

....hmmm, pertinent? Wednesday's quote: "Better to be without logic than without feeling." Bronte. What do you think?

Ann Page

"A few weeks back [Richard] was coming home late one night when someone flagged down his car, ordered him to roll down the window and pressed a gun to his temple. He heard the slow clicking of the trigger and quickly identified himself. When he heard Richard's name, his would-be assassin begged his forgiveness saying, 'Chief, I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was you. You buried my mother a few months back.'" pg. 151

"Another hour went by with no shooting. A few church members arrived for the regular Sunday-morning service. 'I think we should cancel today,' Maxo told his father when they met again at the front gate. 'And what of the people who are here?' asked my uncle. 'How can we turn them away? If we don't open, we're showing our lack of faith. We're showing that we don't trust enough in God to protect us.'" pg. 173-74

"Besides, he was still hoping that the situation might somehow be resolved. He could talk to the dreads,...and explain. After all, before they were called dread or even chimeres, they were young men, boys, many of whom had spent their entire lives in the neighborhood. He knew their mother, fathers, sisters, brothers, uncles and aunts." pg. 182

The intersection of political/personal, public/private:

"During his life, my uncle had clung to his home, determined not to be driven out. He had remained in Bel Air, in part because it was what he knew. But he had also hoped to do some good there. Now he would be exiled finally in death. He would become part of the soil of a country that had not wanted him. This haunted my father more than anything else." - Pg. 250, Brother, I'm Dying

This passage illustrates, for me, the way that the political intersects with, and interrupts, the personal in Danticat's autobiography. This passage sums up the way that the political issues in Haiti had a profound effect on Joseph Dantica's life. Although he was not personally involved in the political battles (both real and metaphorical) that took place during his life time, Edwidge Danticat's uncle was forced to become a part of them through actions of other people. He was forced to be buried in New York, after spending his whole life refusing to move there. He was forced out of his own home, out of his own life in many ways, because of political actions. In a very real way, politics interrupted his personal life, his own actions, the actions of those around him.

Language and Death

Throughout the text death is expressed through language. I suppose that's rather obvious because its a text, however how it is expressed is interesting. When someone is dying or has passed away Edwidge's family expresses it without using excess words. "Brother I am dying." "My wife is dead." This then led me to think about whether or not our society uses and over abundance of words to discuss death, as though somehow to make it easier?
Perhaps this is a bit of rambling..but I was certainly struck with the almost abruptness the topic of death is brought up.