My Krik? Krak! Assessment

The first short story in Dandicat's Krik?Krak! novel, we read a story called " Children of the sea." In children of the sea there are two separated characters who are in love with one another. The two lovers write love letters to one another that unfortunately are never read by the other. The female speaker writes in her letter in a manner as if she was talking to herself or venting to a journal entry. Her writing is very informal and unorganized. The female is writing about her frustrations in the fact that the world holds back her and the male character from pursuing their love and that she one day hopes that they will reunite, though it is unlikely. One of the things holding back their love is the girls father who is very controlling and watchful of his daughter. In the male figures letter, he writes about fleeting Haiti and being opposed to the Haitian government. He writes about how he hates the suffering he sees in Haiti. While writing his letter he describes that he is on a small boat or raft of some sort that is in the ocean fleeting Haiti while writing this letter to his lover. On the small raft, he meets a teenage girl named Celianne. She is pregnant and basically in birth with a child that took place through her being raped by a soldier. When Celianne's baby is bored prematurely and already dead, Celianne takes her own life by drowning herself in the ocean. It is at this point that the male begins to fear the fact that he will never see his female counterpart ever again. He writes about the rising levels in the raft and becoming a "child of the sea." Back home, the female lover sees black butterflies and wonders what they mean and if the mean the death of her lover. We are left wondering whether or not the male lover lived or not...


 Overall, I think that Dandicat did an amazing job at making the reader feel as if they are in between the two lovers. I sort of felt as if I was a messenger for the two. Reading how the male feels, and how the female feels showed me how strong love can truly be. Though they didn't know if they would ever see each other again, these two characters never gave up hope on their love. With rising waters in the raft in the middle of the ocean, the male figure admits that he worries he may never see his lover again. However, he then writes about how their love will live on whether he sees her again or not. When the female sees the black butterflies flocking around her, she thinks about her lover and if the butterflies signify anything. She seems as if she is in denial when she tries to avoid the butterflies, like she already knows that he has passed. It's as if the writer attempted to use the butterflies as foreshadowing the death of the male. Never do we find out what really happens to the couple. Hopefully later in the story we will...

-This story made me think about what love truly is and how love can still exist even though the lovers may not. Dandicat did an amazing job of introducing the reader into the center of the story and making the reader feel sympathy for the two main characters. -"Children of the sea" is a great read.