Edwidge Danticat’s Krik? Krak! shows Haitian life story in a very realistic way, which she does not hide any pains of the people, and tell readers how the characters deal with their lives. There are several stories in the novel that make a very interesting comparison between Haitian women in America and Haitian women in Haiti. By telling those stories, the author expresses that even the lives are different in America and Haiti, Haitian people always remind themselves their origin.
Women’s lives in Haiti is poor, unhealthy, but they have their own happiness. For example, the prostitute in the Night Women chapter is a strong woman who raises her only child alone. She has to sacrifice her body and serving her customers, while her son is sleeping, for living. There are many judgments toward prostitutes in many countries, it is even worse to imagine the situation in Haiti. As the night woman watches the day men go to work, she does not respect their day job as well as they do not respect her. Furthermore, as a mother, the woman has to explain everything for her son in the future. I can see she struggles in her heart that “One day, he will grow too old to be told that a wandering man is a mirage and that naked flesh is a dream.” She knows that her son will have to know everything one day, but there is nothing she could do to save herself - she has to survive, as well as her son. On the other hand, the night woman has her own happiness, that all the time she have with her son. As she says “We are like faraway lovers, lying to one another, under different moons” She and her son have a very close relationship. After all the hardness in life, they have each other to depend on and comfort. This happiness might be a faraway dream for those Haitian women in America.
In both New York Day Women and Caroline’s Wedding, the author shows Haitian women do not have to struggle with money but struggle with the family relationship as well as the impactions from different cultures. The short story of New York Day Women tells a story that how a daughter learns about her mother and become more respectful. I know the daughter has a job and their family is wealthy enough from the contents that she says “Lunch period” and there is nothing about difficulties in canaries in the story. They have lived a long time in America, but the daughter just realizes that she knows too little about her own mother when she finds her mother works as a babysitter all those years to make money. Their relationship is clearly not as close as the night woman and her son.
The similar expressions of family struggles appear in the story of Caroline’s Wedding. Both of the narrator and Caroline have many complaints to the mother. The struggles of the family lead to a bigger topic, the impact of different culture, which is mainly discussed in the story. The younger generation of the family live very “American style”, they think more freely and does not limit by traditions. But the elder generation always talks about the past, the traditions, and insights to living as a Haitian. For example, Caroline who marry with Eric, an American, and goes to Eric’s house overnights. In the contrast, Ma would never agree Caroline do that. Even Caroline’s wedding with Eric is challenged Ma’s traditional mind that Caroline should marry a Haitian. The author tells this story in details of Caroline’s lives, those little things like drinking the bone soup that shows indirectly the conflicts between American culture and Haitian culture are shown.
Both of the women have their own happiness, either have a sweet son to live together or have no worry about money for living, I think both Haitian women in America and Haiti have their own benefits and pains. Those Haitian women’s situations remind me a phrase from a Chinese novel Fortress Besieged, that “The people outside the city want to come into the city, but the people inside the city want to go out of the city” People always want to find the best way to live. After all, people are never satisfied, but it is never right to throw away our shot.
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