Juxtaposition To Characterize Krakkok

In Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, many people suffer physically and mentally. Edwidge Danticat, the author of “Krik? Krak!”, uses the daily life of Haiti to describe the depression that the people feel during the day. Melancholy is defined as something that isn’t as lighthearted as someone would expect it to be. In Haiti, the definition of “Krik? Krak!”is similar to a hello.The definition of “Krik? Krak!” is used when someone is telling a story, he asks Krik? and the listeners answer Krak!, which ties to Danticat’s book because it’s a series of short stories. In the book, Krik? Krak!, a series of short stories, the author Edwidge Danticat utilizes juxtaposition to create melancholy characters that in return create the overall mood of depression throughout the book. The specific examples that best display melancholy characters creating an overall sense of depression are a mother, an undecided daughter, and a depressed father. In the second short story, “Nineteen Thirty-Seven”, Manman, one of the main characters of the story, is suffering through depression because she's being beat and starved in the prison of Port-Au-Prince. Her daughter, Josephine, goes and visits Manman but she thinks that Manman is

The girl thinks that her father should die because of the way he treats her. “he spat in my face. i wish those macoutes would kill him. i wish he could catch a bullet so he could see how scared he really is” (Danticat.11). Although she thinks her father hates her, in the end of the story, she changes her opinion about her father. “today i said thank you. i said thank you, papa, because you saved my life…” (Danticat.28). This character’s change from hating her father to accepting him shows how depressing life is in Haiti because there are many people who die for different