Monday, October 26, 2009

"Papa Doc" Duvalier and the Dew-Breaker

Today, we began to discuss the many ways in which The Dew-Breaker references the history of Haiti and particularly the repercussions of dictator "Papa Doc" Duvalier's reign on the Haitian people. All the characters in Danticat's book of linked stories suffer from their associations with the violence of Duvalier's Haiti and attempt to understand how to live with the decisions they made in a society where every individual was either "hunter or prey," as Ka's father describes it in the first story of the collection. I gave you an outline of Papa Doc's place in Haitian history in class, but I'm providing you with the following links to get more acquainted with him as you read The Dew-Breaker. Please post any comments on the book or the interplay of history in the lives of the characters in Danticat's book below.

List of Duvalier links:
Papa Doc's Wiki page

Another article on Duvalier reign

Site about Haitian history

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3 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 26, 2009 at 1:58 PM

    Molly Bauer
    Right now I am having trouble kind of understanding the book and who the different narrators are for the different chapters. I know it keeps switching and each time I feel like I get more confused. I think its interesting though to see the different sides and how they build off of each other. I'm excited to see what will come with the next few chapters and if anything more will be revealed. I'm also glad we spoke about the history in class today and that it is posed on the blog because it definitely makes this book more realistic for me. Knowing the history has helped me understand the background of the book and some of the history references made.

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  2. AnonymousOctober 26, 2009 at 3:33 PM

    So far I've read the first three stories in the book, and I found an interesting link between them. They all seem to incorporate some kind of loss.

    In "The Book of the Dead" Ka loses the image of her 'prisoner' father, something very important to her from a very young age.

    In "Seven" the reunited married couple seem to have lost their connection, or part of it. The last line really emphasizes this, "They could carry on their public wedding march in silence, a temporary silence, unlike the one that had come over them now."

    And in "Water Child" Nadine seems to have lost a lot. She's somewhat estranged from her parents, and her ex-boyfriend. The has a shrine dedicated to her aborted child. I get the feeling that the loss of her child is what has caused her to keep a distance from everyone.

    This may not even be that important, it's just something I felt as I went from one story to the next, loss after loss, it was a little depressing. I'm curious to see if the theme continues.

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  3. SarahOctober 27, 2009 at 5:41 PM

    I agree with Molly that after reading a bit of the history, the story takes on a different meaning given some of the contextual information. In "The Book of the Dead," I can see how Ka's father may be a victim, despite Ka's reaction. Although at this point in our reading we don't know much about the story of when her father was a prison guard, in knowing what it was like during the reign of Papa Doc, I can still see him as not being an entirely evil man.

    I can understand Ka's reaction. Her father lied to her. I can imagine that there is nothing worse than figuring out that this image that you've created of your father is wrong, and about such a huge part of his life. To his defense, maybe he didn't really have much choice to be a prison guard. (Then again, I don't know the full story yet.) It would seem that you had two choices, either join the side of Papa Doc or risk exile or death.

    I mean, Papa Doc declared himself the president for life, even though a re-election was prohibited. There must be something tremendously wrong with a place that the people cannot react to someone making such a statement. Only fear would create such a place where a person wins one million votes to one.

    However, lying to your own children about your history? Is it shame, or paranoia? We know that their family didn't get close to anyone else in the Haitian community. Was Ka's father afraid that he couldn't trust even his own daughter?

    On another note, how could Papa Doc,someone who trained as a doctor and saw the hardships of humanity, turn his back on his fellow man? I mean, when I first read the beginning of the Wiki entry for Francois Duvalier, it seemed like an entirely different person. I was amazed and terrified after reading about him.

    Sarah F

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