A Wall Of Fire Rising By Edwidge Danticat's Short Story By Native Haiti

The Nation of Haiti has been plagued with excessive bad luck when it comes to external invasion. Whether it be larger countries taking control, or outsiders brought in as slaves, Haiti has endured many hardships. These issues, while very common in a lot of countries, are exposed in a short story by a native Haitian. In “A Wall of Fire Rising”, Edwidge Danticat illustrates a myriad of historical issues in Haiti from the 17th to the 20th century through a series of events in one family’s life. One such issue would be The Haitian Revolution and the consequences that came of it. This particular revolution was meant to rid the country of its dependency upon slavery; however, it did very little to procure the exact solution that the natives

It’s stated more than once in this story that a true and honest living is not easily come by for any native of Haiti and they earn very little money when a job is available. The people are paid an insubstantial wage, live in shantytowns, and often times go to bed with their stomachs distended from a voracious and unforgiving hunger. In The Norton Mix Introduction to Literature, Danticat shows these significant consequences of the Revolution through stating that when it got really bad for the family, they would boil ground sugar cane so that it would get rid of the hunger pangs that often tormented the children of the poor (p. 229). The way they live shows the negative effects of the Revolution by showing that although they are technically free, they are still oppressed through economic conditions and puny and sporadic

In “A Wall of Fire Rising”, it states that the son of the Assad family, “was into all manner of odd things” (p. 230). It mentions the rich having a varying interest in many hobbies and shows the peasants in the shantytowns struggling to survive and not having any other activity besides trying to find viable work. The point is made quite clear that the distribution of wealth in this country could not even be considered a distribution at all. The money did not circulate, except in the case of whatever a poor family could afford, which was not much. This was not a country where you could work your way into power without even a step up. If anything, this country could be considered more authoritarian, in which those in power stayed in power until someone tried to overthrow them. In the case of the poor indigenous, this would prove increasingly difficult with no work and a strenuous