Wall Of Fire Rising

Desmond Tutu shares, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite of all of the darkness.” Tutu is a South African social rights activist that has inspired people to oppose apartheid, the separation of blacks and whites in South Africa. Hope can be found in devastating situations. Edwidge Danticat, in Krik? Krak!, continues this idea. She illustrates the struggles of poverty and the oppressive government Haitians face. In eleven beautiful, painful short stories, she depicts the grind Haitians endure in their own country and in America. Through motifs of flight, Danticat conveys that hope amid tragedy motivates people discover freedom. In the story “Nineteen Thirty-Seven”, the image of flight represents the ability to find freedom
In “A Wall of Fire Rising”, a hot air balloon and flying symbolize the hope for freedom. The reader is introduced to Guy and learn that his family is impoverished. Guy doesn't have a secure job, so his wife, Lili, tries to “suppress gas and kill the vermin that made poor children hungry” (49). One day, Guy and his family go to a sugar mill. Guy’s son, Little Guy, rehearses lines for a play in which he plays the role of a revolutionary leader that inspired many and provided them hope. While Little Guy is rehearsing by himself, Guy wanders to the sugar mill owner’s hot air balloon. He wants to fly the balloon high into the sky like the rich owners of the sugar mill. Later, Guy and Lili converse and he tells her about his desire to fly. She is skeptical; however, he reassures her and says, “[God] gave us reasons to want to fly. He gave us the air, the bird, our son”(57). Flying is Guy’s escape from poverty. He wants to free himself from the constant hunger and instability because he wants his son to have a life without those hardships. The air, the bird, and Little Guy are sources of beauty and hope for Guy. Guy believes God gave the world hope as motivation to reach freedom. Towards the end of the story, Danticat embeds the longing for freedom in the reader’s mind through describing Guy’s need to fly repeatedly. She describes, in his point of view, “Sometimes, I just want to take that big
In one story, “Night Women”, Danticat delineates the life of a prostitute in Haiti. Danticat explains that the woman has a son that she works to provide for. The woman doesn’t want her son to understand that she is a “night woman”. He remains oblivious and sleeps peacefully while she works. The mother describes, “He is like a butterfly fluttering on a rock that stands out naked in the middle of a stream. Sometimes I see in the folds of his eyes a longing for something that’s bigger than myself” (73). The son, like a butterfly, is the beautiful hope found in the mother’s shame and oppression that result from prostitution. She hopes for a safer, more respectable life for her son. By nourishing the future generation she hopes for freedom from the degrading society she knows. Moreover, in the stories following, Danticat continues the idea of hope for the future generations. In the epilogue, Danticat connects the stories by portraying hope through flight and writing. She explains the importance of writing, that it passes the hope for freedom from the past generations to the future. Writing is essential to maintain hope. She reflects, “You thought that if you didn’t tell the stories, the sky would fall on your head” (195). The sky represents freedom, infinite opportunities, and hope. The feeling of the sky falling resembles the