In the novel Krik? Krak! By Edwidge Danticat, the author conveys the message that when living in extreme poverty during a war, hardships and deprivation of the necessities of life will lead to a loss of innocence. Danticat shows this in many ways throughout the course of this book, highlighting the negative effects war and poverty have on young children, teens, and adults. Her poetic language in her novel emphasizes her use of symbols and motifs to express the tragedies and sorrow her characters are experiencing in her book. In Danticat’s first story “The Children Of The Sea,” she explains how the main character, a teenage girl begins to lose her innocence after being exposed to the amount of war and death in Haiti. The readers begin to see …show more content…
the corruption and hopelessness in the people living there. The main character, a young girl, describes the scenes she is witnessing as she and her family leave the city. “On our way to Ville Rose, we saw dogs licking two dead faces. One of them was a little boy who was lying on the side of the road with the sun in his dead open eyes.” (Pg.17 Children Of The Sea) This young girl is still in her teens and she is being exposed to death and war and not stopping to help, to grieve, and hardly even blinking at the horrible sights of the aftermath of war. Haitians are so used to seeing the afflictions that corruption and warfare cause that they never stop what they are doing, and instead carry on with their day and act as if nothing is wrong, showing a loss of innocence. “We saw a soldier shoving a woman out of a hut, calling her a witch. He was shaving the woman’s head, but of course we never stopped.” (Pg. 17, Children Of The Sea). People living in an environment with so much death and fighting begin to grow accustomed to the sound of gun shots firing, people murdering each other for no reason, and dead bodies lying in the street. In one of Danticat’s later chapters “Night Women” in her novel Krik? Krak! She demonstrates how the poverty in Haiti is affecting the people that live there. She does this by describing how a prostitute, the main character in this chapter, is trying to provide shelter, food, and care for her son and herself. “Tonight I am much older than the 25 years that I have lived. The night is the time I dread most in my life. Yet if I am to live I must depend on it.” (Pg. 71 Night Women). In Haiti there are limited ways to make money to support yourself and your family, and the options are even more limited for women. Most of the time the only option women have is to go into prostitution to provide for themselves. “And as long as there is work they will not have to lie next to the lifeless soul whose scent still lingers in another woman's bed.” (Pg.73 Night Women). Danticat describes how these women are sacrificing themselves to support their family and to keep them from starvation and death. She explains how most of these women do not wish to be prostitutes but for their family and themselves they are put through awful and horrifying experiences. The main character in the story “Night Women” tries to protect her young child from the horrors of the world and the horrors of what she must do to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. “One of my suitors gave it to him to plug into his ears so he can stay asleep while mommy works” (Pg.73 Night Women) This woman fears that one day she will not be able to keep her son from the horrors that she faces in her everyday life. She tries to protect her child’s innocence and by doing so gives up her own. Finally, Danticat shows how a loss of innocence can be established through the horrors of war and its negative effects on kids, teens, and adults in her story “The Missing Piece.” In this story a guard named Raymond tells the main character how he acquired his limp.
“The shots were coming fast. I was afraid. I forgot the password. Then one of Toto’s bullets hit me on my leg and I remembered. I yelled out the password and he stopped shooting.” (Pg. 90 The Missing Piece). The guards are so young and so afraid that they begin shooting before they know if the person is an enemy or a friend. The gradual lack of shock they show at seeing death and murder clearly shows their loss of innocence . “The one who shot at him. He was tall and skinny and looked barely sixteen” (Pg. 100 The Missing Piece) The youth in these guards who are supposed to be trained killers expresses the horrible things that are happening and how the experiences they are facing are teaching them that war is natural. However, even with all the corruption they are being exposed to, some can still enjoy the little things life offers. “Thats Raymond, Who loves leaves shaped like butterflies.” ( Pg. 104 The Missing Piece). Raymond who has seen the awful and horrific sights of the aftereffects of war still enjoys life’s gifts like the leaves, which not only shows his youth, but how even after he has experienced a loss of innocence that he can still appreciate other things in his
life. In conclusion, in the novel Krik? Krak! The author Edwidge Danticat, describes and brings awareness to the hardships and sorrows that Haitians are facing. She highlights the horrors that are happening as a result of poverty and of war. In the novel Krik? Krak! the author sends the message that one can lose their innocence during periods of poverty and war when lacking simple life needs.
Edwidge Danticat novel, The Farming of Bones, provides readers with an understanding of the relations of Haitians and Dominicans by chronicling the Haitians escape from the Dominican Republic following the parsley massacre and emphasizing the importance of remembering the past. Though it is a work of fiction, Danticat is able to present characters and plot points that illustrate the racial and ethnic relations between Haiti and The Dominican Republic that led to the spread of antihaitianismo. The main themes of the novel explores the impact of nationalism and the formation of ethnic/racial formation through the characters actions which allows the reader to understand the ethnic/racial tension occurring at the time on a much personal level,
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
In Grendel by John Gardner, the protagonist Grendel is portrayed as innocent, due to his lack of communication with everyone including his mother. This causes him to believe that he is alone in the universe and that he is a God which is when he begins to lose his mind and innocence.
Poverty is a worldwide epidemic, creating undesirable living conditions for many people on a daily basis. Some of the most touching stories in literature have an overlying theme of poverty. A wide variety of these stories are often set in Asia. Connor Grennan’s novel Little Princes was set in Katmandu, Nepal. In his book, Connor tells the story of his gargantuan trek across Nepal in an attempt to return seven missing children, all of which belong to a Nepali orphanage he volunteered in. These children were all victims of ruthless child trafficking. Connor’s time in Nepal was laden with obstacles and undesirable living conditions. Therefore, Little Princes presents a dystopian world as a result of poor conditions of the orphanage, the treacherous nature of the mountains and the poorly equipped hospital.
Themes in literary works are central, recurring ideas or messages that allow us to understand more deeply about the characters. It is a perception about life or human nature that is often shared with the reader. In The Catcher in the Rye, there are several themes that can be found in the words and actions of the narrator, Holden Caulfield. The dominating theme in this novel is the preservation of innocence, especially of children. We can see this throughout the novel, as Holden strives to preserve innocence in himself and others.
Have you ever pondered about when growing up, where does our childlike innocence go and what happens to us to go through this process? It involves abandoning previous memories that are close to our hearts. As we can see in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, we listen to what the main character; Holden Caulfield has to say about it. Holden is an average teenager dealing with academic and life problems. He remains untouched over his expulsion from Pencey Prep; rather, he takes the opportunity to take a “vacation.” As he ventures off companionless in New York City, we are able to observe many things about him. We see that Holden habitually states that he is depressed and undoubtedly, wants to preserve the innocence of others.
Through vivid yet subtle symbols, the author weaves a complex web with which to showcase the narrator's oppressive upbringing. Two literary
Loss of Innocence in Killing a Mockingbird Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather, the streets turned red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. " (Lee 9). This environment, as Scout Finch accurately describes, is not conducive to young children, loud noises, and games. But, the Finch children and Dill must occupy themselves in order to avoid boredom.
In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee tells the story of coming-of-age and the loss of innocence through the character Jem. Through recurring events, Jem is faced with the realization of society’s injustice, and is left questioning the world he lives in. During a time of rampant racial discrimination and prejudice in the south, Jem transforms from naivety to maturity.
They enter the war fresh from school, knowing nothing except the environment of hopeful youth and they come to a premature maturity with the war, their only home. "We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. We are not youth any longer" (page #). They have lost their innocence. Everything they are taught, the world of work, duty, culture, and progress, are not the slightest use to them because the only thing they need to know is how to survive.
War deprives soldiers of so much that there is nothing more to take. No longer afraid, they give up inside waiting for the peace that will come with death. War not only takes adolescence, but plasters life with images of death and destruction. Seeger and Remarque demonstrate the theme of a lost generation of men in war through diction, repetition, and personification to relate to their readers that though inevitable and unpredictable, death is not something to be feared, but to calmly be accepted and perhaps anticipated. The men who fight in wars are cast out from society, due to a misunderstanding of the impact of such a dark experience in the formative years of a man’s life, thus being known as the lost generation.
The way the characters change emphasises the effect of war on the body and the mind. The things the boys have to do in the act of war and “the things men did or felt they had to do” 24 conflict with their morals burning the meaning of their morals with the duties they to carry out blindly. The war tears away the young’s innocence, “where a boy in a man 's body is forced to become an adult” before he is ready; with abrupt definiteness that no one could even comprehend and to fully recover from that is impossible. The story is riddled with death; all of the dead he’s has seen: Linda, Ted Lavender, Kiowa, Curt Lemon, the man he killed, and all the others without names.
The speeches cause children to have revenge in their hearts and minds, and seeing the death of their friends and families are motivating them to fight. The war was coming, and the village needed more soldiers to keep the village safe. The boys were told to join the military or leave the village, but they knew there was only death once they leave the village. “‘Some of you are here because they have killed your parents or families, others because this is a safe place to be. Well, it is not that safe anymore.
The soldiers from this novel represent actual feelings about brotherhoods, misperceptions of war and the pointless fighting. They provide clear examples of these with their experiences from war. From sitting on their “boxes” and chatting, to the realization of a friend inside an enemy, these soldiers have been able to see the realities of war and have shared it with the rest of the world. People can now see how horrid it is to be in a war and now they try at all costs to prevent war. War is bad, that’s all there is to it. Not much more you can say about it except that. When viewing the death of innocent people, the question is asked once again, is it really worth it?
Elie’s loss of innocence and childhood lifestyle is very pronounced within the book, Night. This book, written by the main character, Elie Wiesel, tells the readers about the experiences of Mr. Wiesel during the Holocaust. The book starts off by describing Elie’s life in his hometown, Sighet, with his family and friends. As fascism takes over Hungary, Elie and his family are sent north, to Auschwitz concentration camp. Elie stays with his father and speaks of his life during this time. Later, after many stories of the horrors and dehumanizing acts of the camp, Elie and his father make the treacherous march towards Gliewitz. Then they are hauled to Buchenwald by way of cattle cars in extremely deplorable conditions, even by Holocaust standards. The book ends as Elie’s father is now dead and the American army has liberated them. As Elie is recovering in the hospital he gazes at himself in a mirror, he subtly notes he much he has changed. In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie loses his innocence and demeanour because he was traumatized by what he saw in the camps, his loss of faith in a God who stood idly by while his people suffered, and becoming selfish as he is forced to become selfish in the death camps to survive.