Breath, Eyes, Memory...Edwidge Danticat

Do some research on the Caribbean and Haiti, particularly. How do we get a view from this text for some of the problems that have plagued that Caribbean or Haiti specifically? Use examples and quotes from the text.


Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat takes place after the Haitian Revolution. The novel is said to break the silence that has monopolized and overtaken the Haitian culture and its rich history. The Haitian Revolution was from 1791 – 1804 and marked the violent time period which ultimately led to the elimination of slavery and the establishment of Haiti as the very first republic ruled by blacks, marking the revolt of 1791 as the only successful slave revolt in history. During the Haitian Revolution state laws were continuously being passed that added stipulations and denied slave entry from the Caribbean. As the American Studies association brings out in an abstract, “The passage of those measures signaled, as Alfred Hunt has persuasively argued, the beginning of the white South’s intellectual blockade, culminating in censorship of the U.S. mail and the suppression of civil liberties and freedom of thought.” (ASA) The novel was said to be the awakening of the Haitian culture that was suppressed during the Haitian Revolution. The novel reveals the hidden stories of the Haitian women and their struggle, how they were “brutalized by a continuing cycle of exploitation, repression, and denial and in doing so evokes the disavowals, blockades, and refusals with which Haiti was greeted by the young American Republic in narrative and foreign policy.” (ASA)

Looking at the women’s struggles in particular, we are able to see evidence from the text of some of the issues that they had to deal with; one of the major issues being rape. The end of chapter seven of the text states, “When they looked up from their plates, my mother and Marc eyed each other like there were things they couldn’t say because of my presence. I tried to stuff myself and keep quiet, pretending that I couldn’t even see them. My mother now had two lives: Marc belonged to her present life, I was a living memory from her past.” This passage touches on the fact that a lot of the Haitian women were being taken advantage of and raped by the Americans that were supposed to be there helping them, however this was just the façade that was presented. Rape to young Haitian women was so common during this time, that it had a lasting effect on all of the women who were directly and indirectly touched by it. It led the Haitian women to go to such extremes as testing to ensure and “protect” the virginity of their daughters.



Donaldson, Susan. "Recovering Haiti: Silence, History and Trauma in Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association, . 2009-05-24

White Noise...Don DeLillo

Do a researched blog on the meaning of “postmodernism.” Why is this a post modern novel? What components of the novel make it postmodern? Use quotes to support your answer.


Postmodernism is defined by Dictionary.com as “any of a number of trends or movements in the arts and literature developing in the 1970s in reaction to or rejection of the dogma, principles, or practices of established modernism…” Postmodernism depicts a historical period, beginning after World War II and continuing until today. It addresses certain concerns, affinities, and sensibilities. Based upon this definition, a lot of critics view the era of postmodernism in literature as a simple borrowing from older works. Despite this, White Noise written by Don DeLillo has served to the literary community as the standard example of a work that employs the postmodern attitude. The main traces of postmodernism within this novel lie in it being considered a sort of information overload, in which the protagonist Jack Gladney is surrounded by constant media stimuli and digital marketing imagery.

The majority of professors are currently using White Noise to introduce their students to the idea of postmodernism and the way it affects literature as well as other art forms. In an article written by Cornel Bonca entitled, “Don DeLillo’s White Noise: The natural language of the species” he mentions the effect that the novel and the discussion of postmodernism have on our students. His testimony reminded me of the class discussions that we have had concerning the novel. He said, “Yet the novel seems to draw out a certain buried awareness in my students that the most familiar aspects of their lives shopping malls, television, families, and the languages of these things-harbor deep and resonant mysteries. It affects them, I think, as a sustained defamiliarization of their own lives.” (Bonca)

A perfect example of how postmodernism is displayed in the novel is when Jack and Babette are looking at old photos and they are discussing their feelings about it. This is evident on page 30 of the novel where it describes that the two were looking at “children wincing in the sun, women in sun hats, men shading their eyes from the glare as if the past possessed some quality of light we no longer experience.” In a brief text by Leslie Whisenaut she sums it all up by stating, “DeLillo’s postmodernism here is best viewed in terms of another statement uttered by Jack, ‘When tradition becomes too flexible, irony enters the voicee.’ (p. 86), but the irony understandable in light of their promises of personal integration in the face of fragmentation, of inspirational meaning in the midst of misprison, of cosmic order in the moment of chaos.” (Whisenaut)



Bonca, C. “Don DeLillo’s White Noise: The natural language of the species”. (1996). College literature.

       June. Page 1. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3709/is_199606/ai_n8753398/

Whisenaut, L. “Postmodernism in: White Noise”. Angelfire.

       http://www.angelfire.com/rebellion2/whitenoise/pomo.html