Antenor's Journey To Escape Haiti

Antenor’s journey in search of the pursuit of happiness, leads him to escape Haiti on a small boat, we are unsure of the exact reason he leaves, though we are told that the current events in Haiti are filled with war and famine; he states, “The putrid mangos, emblems of diarrhea and famine, the war cries of the macoutes,..” the macoutes or Tonton macoutes were a paramilitary group, essentially death squads who systemically killed innocent people and the opposition leaders for the dictator Francois Duvalier during the 70s to mid-80s. As time passes Antenor almost falls asleep, but is unable to for he notices a man drowning and saves him, his name is Diogenes from the Dominican Republic. Soon after, another man from Cuba who’s floating on a “shipwrecked plank” name Carmelo is also saved.

Although, what manifests on the boat subtly and forthright with major overtone is the nationalistic, sexist, and color divide between the three nationalities; Antenor who is Haitian and like many by and large are of African descent while the Dominicans and Cubans are predominantly mixed races. Antenor’s goodwill comes with a great consequence Diogenes and Carmelo band together and steal his food. Antenor who comes off as passive is like the polar opposite of his Caribbean counter parts, he doesn’t seems to want to quarrel with them when the two take his food by force he just grumbles but doesn’t lose his cool. As they’re eating, we begin to understand Carmelo’s true nature; Carmelo speaks about creating his own “business” and speaks highly of his cousin who started out as a “lowly pimp” and now has his own dating service. My inference at this point is that Carmelo might be heading to Miami to start a prostitution ring. Carmelo states that, dating services are banned in