Children of the Sea

The first story in the book Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat is called "Children of the Sea". It is a story written from the perspective of a young Haitian man attempting to flee the country by reaching the United States on a boat, and from the perspective of his love, and the other is young Haitian woman who is living in Port-au-Prince.

Image:" Butterfly II" by greeneyedharpy

I have read several of the stories in Krik? Krak! so far, but this story stands out in my mind and continues to haunt me. The characters are both writing in notebooks to each other, even though they know the other will probably never be able to read it. He writes about his experiences on the boat, while she writes about her life in Haiti. There are many topics that I can go into in regards to this story. I can talk about the pain, and oppression these characters have gone through, I can talk about the other characters in the story and how their lives impact the main characters, but all of those things are not what haunts my mind whenever I think about these characters. What haunts my mind are the black butterflies, and the undying love that they have for each other. 

We are told by the girl early on in the story that "Butterflies can bring news. the bright ones bring happy news and the black ones warn us of deaths." Since her love has left she has been waiting for the butterflies to come, she believes that the bright ones will mean that he has survived and reached America, while the black ones will mean that he has died. When we read his perspective, we learn that the boat is starting to leak, and more and more things are being thrown overboard in order to keep them afloat. The audience is unsure of exactly how long he is at sea for, but we know it must feel like forever. He says "At times I wonder if there is really land on the other side of the sea. Maybe it is endless. Like my love for you."

We are unsure of his fate by the end, in his last entry he tells us that the other people on the boat have ordered that he throw his notebook overboard in order to lighten the boat. In order for something so light to be thrown overboard, it becomes obvious that the boat must really be in danger of sinking. Begins to accept the idea that soon he might be dead, and he begins to ponder the existence of an afterlife that he once saw in a dream. With his last sentence he writes to her, "I know my memory of you will live even there as I too become a child of the sea."

In her last entry, she tells us that what she feared has come true. She writes "now there are always butterflies around me, black ones that i refuse to let find my hand." We learn that a boat has sunk of the coast of the Bahamas. In her heart, she believes he is dead, but by trying to avoid the black butterflies, it is the faint hope that he is still alive. With her last sentence, she echos what he said previously "behind these mountains are more mountains and more black butterflies still and a sea that is endless like my love for you."

I believe that although young, these characters were meant for one another, and proof of that is how they both describe their love as being endless like the sea, even though they were unaware the other had written the same thing. I myself am currently in a long distance relationship right now, which can be difficult at times, but I cannot imagine how truly heart wrenching it must be to be completely unaware of the well being of the one that you love. I cannot imagine how it must feel to have to cope with the fact that you might never see this person again. When I read all of the phrases in this story that described these characters love for another, I could feel both the love and sorrow behind the words. 

There are many horrifying things in this story, such as murder and rape. However those things of violence to not stand out to me as much as the love between these characters. That is why instead of analyzing the darker themes, for this entry I choose to just examine the emotion behind their writing because to me, that is what makes it more powerful than everything else in this book I have come across so far.