The Dew Breaker is a collection of linked stories by Edwidge Danticat, published in 2004. The title comes from the Haitian Creole name for a torturer during the regimes of François "Papa Doc" and Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.
The book can be read either as a novel or collection of short stories. It is divided into nine portions: The Book of the Dead, Seven, Water Child, The Book of Miracles, Night Talkers, The Bridal Seamstress, Monkey Tails, The Funeral Singer, and The Dew Breaker.
Summary The Book of the Dead A Haitian sculptor (Ka) and her father travel from Brooklyn to Florida, to the home of a formerly-jailed and tortured Haitian dissident and his daughter, Gabrielle Fonteneau, a television actress. They are delivering the sculptor's first sale, a statue called “Father”. The sculptor wakes up in a motel room on the morning of the delivery, and discovers her father, also a Haitian refugee, has disappeared with her sculpture.
Seven A short and seemingly completely unrelated story to the first, Seven is about a man whose wife arrives from Port-au-Prince to NYC. They've been separated for seven years, a number the man despises. He lives in the shared basement of a two-storied house along with two housemates, Michel and Dany. In preparation of his wife coming, he cleans his room as Michel advises, throws some items he knows his wife would hate away, then notifies the landlady of his wife's arrival. The landlady tells the man that if his wife was clean there would be no problem. The man returns to the basement to have a more thorough conversation with Michel and Dany about his wife. The man tells Dany not to mention to his wife any of their nights out or the women the narrator has brought back home. The man changes his phone number and hangs pictures that his wife had sent to him up on his bedroom wall.
The wife arrives and while going through customs, has her luggage and gifts searched and much is thrown away. All that is left with her is a small, light suitcase. She is finally reunited with her husband. Her husband works two jobs, a night janitor at Medgar Evers College, and a day janitor at Kings' County Hospital. He leaves his wife to go to the first job. At noon he calls to see what she is doing, and she lies and tells him she's cooking. The wife turns the radio to a Haitian station which talks about the recent death of Patrick Dorismond, a fellow Haitian who was killed by the NYPD. She spends the whole week inside, too afraid to venture out. In her spare time, she writes letters back to Haiti. One to her family and another to a man whom she had an affair with after her husband left for NYC. The weekend comes and the couple walk around Prospect Park until evening. The husband reminisces on the bride and groom carnival theater that they partook in while in Haiti. The two married after a day of knowing each other. At the end of the carnival celebrations, they each burned their clothes and marched on in silence. They yearn for this temporary silence now, instead of the permanent one that has come over them.
Water Child In this chapter of The Dew Breaker, Danticat touches heavily on themes of voice. Nadine is a Haitian woman working as a nurse in the ICU of a hospital in Canasarie. Nadine keeps to herself and tends not to socialize much with the other nurses at the hospital, despite their constant efforts in reaching out. Josette, another Haitian nurse is the only one she somewhat associates with, and not necessarily by choice. The story's underlying tone of sadness reflects in the fact that Nadine is hiding from everyone that she went through with an abortion after being impregnated by a man named Eric. Eric is mentioned in Seven as one of the male roommates. This abortion plays a large role throughout the story, tying back to one's voice because Nadine has never shared with even her own family that she was pregnant. Her parents who still reside in Haiti write to her once a month and constantly try reaching out to talk to their daughter as well as thank her for the money she sends to help with her father's medical expenses. Not only is she caring for her family in Haiti, she is constantly caring for the patients in the hospital. Many of which have undergone laryngectomies and are no longer able to speak. This may be why she felt she was unable to bring a child into the world. Supporting a child financially would be difficult with her sending half of each of her paychecks to her parents and with her keeping to herself, she does not have much of a support system.
Nadine takes special interest in a patient named Ms. Hinds, a young woman who had suffered from cancer and was left unable to speak. One day, the two have an interesting interaction after Ms. Hinds is held down by multiple nurses due to her thrashing about in an upset manor. Nadine exclaims, “Let me be alone with her,”. After the other nurses file out of the room, she asks Ms. Hinds to explain what is wrong in which she replies with a pen and paper that she is a teacher, asking why they would send her home in the condition she is in. She goes on to tell Nadine that she is like a Basenji a dog that does not bark. This goes back to the theme of voice. Are we really human and living if we are not able to use our voice? Nadine has outlets to express her voice, however, something holds her back from reaching out to those who care about her.
The Book of Miracles Narrated by Ka's mother Anne, The Book of Miracles chronicles the family's car trip through NYC to get to Christmas-Eve mass. When they arrive at the church, they have a run-in with a lookalike of Haitian criminal Emmanuel Constant. Constant is known for his involvement, and leadership, in a paramilitary group called the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH). Anne is a very faithful woman and struggles with her daughter Ka's flippant demeanor and fears what could happen if her daughter were to formally acknowledge that this man was Constant. The potential presence of Constant coupled with the religious setting brings to light Anne's own guilt and fear of living a lie, both with her relationship with her daughter and as a member of the Haitian community in NYC.
What Anne struggles to keep secret is that Ka's father was a “dew breaker,” known otherwise as the Tonton Macoutes. These men made up a paramilitary group during the 1950s that formed in order to maintain the political administration of François “Papa Doc” Duvailer, and his son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvailer. The Tonton Macoutes were encouraged to use violence as a way to maintain the political power of the Duvalier's. According to an article titled The Tonton Macoutes: The Central Nervous System of Haiti’s Reign of Terror, it states that, “The militia [of the Tonton Macoutes] consisted mostly of illiterate fanatics that were converted into ruthless zombie-like gunmen,” one of these men being Anne's husband. “He hadn’t been a famous “dew breaker,” or torturer, anyway, just one of hundreds who had done their jobs so well that their victims were never able to speak of them again,” referring to Anne’s husband in The Dew Breaker. Now knowing this, we can see why Anne struggles so much in this scene because she thinks about how her daughter looks at Constant and how she might look at her father knowing he was once a man who participated in similar violent acts. All while also struggling with how Ka would view her for maintaining this secret of her fathers past.
Anne also conceals this history from her daughter and from members of the Haitian community in NYC. Danticat situates the family within a diaspora shaped by migration from Haiti beginning in the 1960s, including migration associated with the Duvalier regime. Nostrand Avenue, where Anne and her husband work, became an important center of Haitian community and small-business activity in New York. The contrast between Anne's place within this community and her husband's past contributes to the work's themes of guilt and isolation.
Night Talkers Itis quickly established we aree talking again about one of the men of the basement, Dany. Dany has traveled back to Haiti to visit his aunt Estina Esteme. He tells his aunt that he recognized his landlord as the man who killed his parents, who is also the father of Ka. Then Claude appears. Claude is also from New York but has been exiled back to Haiti for killing his father in a rage. Dany has traveled so far because he's found the murderer of his parents, only to find that Claude, a young man and patricide, has been accepted into the community he still feels to be so much a part of him.
The Bridal Seamstress In Danticat’s The Dew Breaker, the story titled “The Bridal Seamstress” portrays a Journalism intern named Aline Cajuste, and her interview with Beatrice Saint Fort. This interview highlight's Beatrice's retirement from being a bridal seamstress in the United States, after venturing from her home in Haiti. Early on, the reader will see Beatrice completes actions and responsibilities at her own pace. Aline must wait in the semi-bare living room while her interviewee gets changed, and once more while she makes coffee for the two. Aline is assigned to interview Beatrice on her last day of making wedding dresses for brides. The seamstress is very honest and blunt, especially when Aline asks questions regarding personal information.
Beatrice decides to take Aline on a walk down her block in order to better understand her, even after some protest. This walk down the block displays a visual insight to her life. All the houses are similar, but Beatrice describes the different residents inside. She describes each house by the person's nationality and occupation. For example, in one house lives a Dominican social worker. Aline and Beatrice stop in front of a house where a former correctional officer lives, Beatrice explains a brief history of knowing him in Haiti. The walk ends and the two women walk back to Beatrice's front porch, where there is a visual of her front steps and a tree with falling ash leaves. Aline pays special attention to the inside of Beatrice's home as well, looking for clues of personality traits. Her home lacks detail, giving Aline suspicion to Beatrice's history.
Inside, the interview proceeds, where Aline answers questions about her education and career choice. When she asks Beatrice about her plans after retirement, she reveals her plan to move and the history with the Haitian prison guard. She shows Aline the soles of her feet and explains how the prison guard once asked her to go dancing, and when she declined he arrested her. She explains the term, chouket lawoze, as Dew Breaker, the translation Danticat has settled on. Beatrice continues to explain the punishment, and how the guard continues to follow and live near her in the United States.
After learning this information, Aline leaves and investigates the home of the prison guard, because she does not fully believe Beatrice. She finds an untouched home, and Beatrice confirms this because she knows the man may not live there fully. Beatrice reasons he knows where she lives based on the letters she sends out to her brides, letters explaining her whereabouts for purposes of business. From reading the stories before and after “The Bridal Seamstress”, the reader can recognize the prison guard as Ka's father. There is a strong theme of memory throughout the chapter, based on Beatrice's inconsistency with remembering certain things. There is also the idea that Beatrice is longing for care or attention, and her punisher is not a real figure following her. The peaceful moments she has on the porch, and the ash leaves falling, could display an act of defiance she commits sitting outside on the block. Ideals of patriarchy, communication, and knowledge can also be considered.
Monkey Tails