The Wall Of Fire Rising Summary

Imagine yourself somewhere that's much less civilized and orderly than the United States, somewhere that has a corrupt social system, and somewhere that large percentages of the population live in poverty and chaos. Can you survive in a place like this, and can you remain hopeful that one day something will change and alter your destiny? Krik? Krak!, written by Edwidge Danticat, is a fictional book that explores the lives of different characters through an assortment of stories in a place like this. The setting of the stories are mostly in Haiti (Ville Rose and Port-au-Prince), likely during and after the 1970s, while a few are in New York and are about the lives of Haitian families after they came to the United States. The stories in Krik?

Krak! are about Haitians trying to understand their relationship with Haiti, their family, and their friends, amidst of Haiti’s political and economical troubles. Danticat has a lot of firsthand information and knowledge of Haiti because she grew up there during the late 1900s. The title of the book, Krik? Krak!, came from the Haitian storytelling tradition, where krik means to ask to tell a story and the listeners respond with krak! Throughout the book, the Haitian political climate had a detrimental effect on the characters because the characters were forced to be separated from their friends and families, live in a cycle of poverty, and endure the inequality and corrupt social system.
The Haitian political climate in the story, “Children of the Sea,” forced the characters to flee their hometowns and be separated from their friends and families. “Children of the Sea” came to be, with two lovers writing each other letters after being separated. The male narrator is the female narrator’s lover, who was forced to flee on a boat because he was part of the Youth Federation. He wrote about the conditions on the boat, his thoughts of dying, and that there was this pregnant women named Célianne on the boat. The female narrator stayed in Haiti with her family for a while, so she wrote about what she did as a pastime and the events in Haiti, like a group of students getting shot. She said that:
a group of students got shot in front of fort dimanch prison today. they were demonstrating for the bodies of radio six. that’s what they are calling you all. the radio six. a lot of people think you are dead like the others.
(Danticat 7)
This proves that it would be really dangerous and imprudent if the male narrator had not fled. He could have gotten shot by the macoutes, like the others who were on the radio show (Youth Federation). The male narrator staying would also put his family and loved ones in jeopardy because someone could see them together, mention his connections with them, and get them all arrested. Haiti’s political climate forced the male narrator to leave because people naturally want to hide from their fears, death, and try within the best of their ability to keep their family safe.
In addition to forcing people to leave their hometowns, Haiti’s political instability also forced a large percentage of Haiti’s population to live in a cycle of poverty.

In the short story, “The Wall of Fire Rising,” a poor Haitian family, consisting of Guy, Lili, and their son, Little Guy, lives in poverty. This family lives in a one room shack, gathers their meal from scratch, and seldom has their own lamp light. They get excited when Little Guy gets a role as a revolutionary character in his school play, and when Guy gets extra work cleaning bathrooms in a mill. Meanwhile, Guy starts losing hope and dreams of flying the hot air balloon in the mill he works in. Little Guy practices his lines he has to say in his play. Little Guy’s lines in the play are that “There is so much sadness in the faces of my people. I call on the mighty and the weak. I call on everyone and anyone so that we shall all let out one piercing cry that we may either live freely or we should die”(Danticat 71). Even though these lines were about slave rebellion, Guy became emotional after he heard it and probably related it to the poverty he and his family is living in. He doesn’t see any way out of it, besides the hot air balloon and ending his life. Jumping out of the hot air balloon gives something Little Guy can look up to because his father rather jump out of the balloon than continue to live in poverty and be reminded of himself as a poor, struggling man. This is how Haiti’s political instability

forced the characters in the book, Krik? Krak!, to live in poverty and how strongly it could have affected the mindsets of the characters.
Another factor caused by Haiti’s political climate was that the characters in Krik? Krak! had to endure inequality and a corrupt social system. Haiti’s political dictators (Papa Doc and Baby Doc) probably made the social system corrupt and unfair toward women. The epilogue, “Women Like Us,” mentioned about how the narrator looked very much alike and similar to her mother and grandmother. Her mother had two main rules. The first one was to be the best cook and housekeeper, and the second one was never have premarital sex and never tell your husband that you enjoy sex. The part that concerned the narrator most was writing. According to “Women Like Us,” “Writing was forbidden as a dark rouge on the cheeks or a first date before 18. It was an act of indolence, something to be done in a corner when you could have been learning to cook (Danticat 219).” This states that women weren’t meant for writing because they were supposed to cook and be the housekeeper. The inequality comes into play here because women or girls who write get looked down upon and punished. That is socially wrong because women are supposed to be able to do what they want to do and they shouldn’t get looked down upon for doing something they enjoy. The narrator in “Women Like Us” endured inequality from Haiti’s corrupt social system.
Not only did Haiti’s political climate affect female writers, it affected the lives of a variety of characters in the book Krik?

Krak! One effect that it had on the characters in Krik? Krak! were that it separated friends and families, like in “Children of the Sea.” Another effect was that the characters were forced to live in poverty, like in “A Wall of Fire Rising.” The last effect was that women endured inequality and suffered from the Haitian social system because they were restricted to only do certain things. Haiti’s political climate was and is extremely unstable and insecure, and I am grateful that I grew up and live in the United States. The United States is more civilized and orderly, and I have everything I need here for a decent

living.