A Wall Of Fire Rising Summary

Throughout Haitian history there has been unimaginable struggles that these people had to go through. In “Figures of Flight and Entrapment in Edwidge Danticat’s Krik? Krak!,” Wilson C. Chen summarizes the many different ways in which the Africans prevailed by transcending or “flying” through different Haitian stories and folklore. He defines and explains the different ways the word “flying” is portrayed, and the effects it has on others.
In the various themes of flight, one way can be referred to as actual physical flight, to fly in the air with wings. In “A Wall of Fire Rising” Guy took physical flight in the hot air balloon, soaring high above the rest of the village in hopes to fly away. Another way flight can be described as more figurative,

as in transcendence, ascension, or escape. Whether it be fleeing from bandage, or in search for a better life, Chen depicts every part in the story including Little Guy’s enthusiasm over his revolutionary speech and Guys internal misery. Little Guy’s speech emotionally offsets Guy in which might have attributed to his rash decision to take the balloon and fly away and to plummet to the ground.
Transcendence is also a major topic in African legends and tales, in the act of flying back to their homeland of Africa.

By many, those tales are to be believed as if these people were committing suicide as a form of transcendence. It was a part of reality, people could not bear to live the live they were living, so they decide to stop living it. Throughout time, African descendants were very steadfast in which they had power in deciding their fate, to be free, even if their physical bodies are not. One of the ways to be able to transcend from enslavement was by maintaining or keeping their culture prior to being captured and sold into slavery. Another was by their African religious vodou, which would give them spiritual power to be able to

escape.
But like everything in life there must retributions for our actions.

Chen explains the realistic matter of flight with consequence. In “A Wall of Fire Rising,” Guy elevates in his balloon, but knowing there is not anywhere to go, he jumps to his death. In doing so, both his wife and son are left standing over Guy’s blood-soaked body in shock over the fact that he is gone and left without them. Guy was ultimately able to escape the horrors of his life, but in doing so he left behind his family to have to find ways to cope and adapt to a life without him.
In an evaluation to the article, the author is able to determine the many “figures of flight” Danticat uses all through Krik? Krak!, by both citing the book itself and comparing it to other stories like folklore and legends of African culture. In doing so, Chen establishes credibility because of the inability to alter things like folktales and legends. It allows the reader to comprehend the point the author is trying to make. For example, the story of Daedalus and wanting to bring his son with him, but his son, Icarus, ends up flying too close to the sun; is contrasted to Guy’s dream of flying

independently.
When it comes to the article’s vocabulary, at times the words chosen are either very advanced or not very common in which the reader might have to look up what the author is trying to accomplish through their writing. Sometimes the word is not even a dictionary defined word like “diasporic predicament.” In this case, the most effective way the author could have made their point would be by simply defining what the saying is intended to mean. Because of the lack of explanation in the writing, the reader might not be able to fully comprehend or may even disengage in what the author is trying to portray.
The author creates very vivid imagery in all accounts of the different stories that are discussed. The works he chooses from primarily already have imaginable writing where the reader can picture the stories being told and is able to follow along with the argument. With a hot air balloon that flies over the village, or a woman weighted down with a body inside hers triumphantly crossing a river, being able to imagine the stories as if the reader were actually watching them, it allows them to better comprehend and maybe even relate to the authors argument.
Through the painstaking process of reading the horrific reality of Haitian culture, it creates a sense of awareness and respectability towards multicultural history. Their longing to be free becomes coherent by the stories of successful transcendence and others of tragic escape. The Haitian stories of flight, both physical and metaphorical, are to some degree accurate in depicting how life was in slavery and poverty. It was nearly impossible for people of those times to be content with their lives, because of how inhumane their lives really were. They were all in hopes of taking flight and liberating themselves from their entrapment.