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  • Essay / Struggles Against Poverty in “A Rising Wall of Fire” by Edwidge Danticat

    In the story “A Rising Wall of Fire,” Edwidge Danticat tells the story of the efforts that a Poor family living in Haiti must accomplish to make ends meet. Thanks to the story told in the third person, the reader has an outside view of each character's life. The father, Guy, struggles to find stable employment to provide for the needs of his wife, Lili, and his son, Petit Guy. When he finally gets a job at the sugar factory, his pre-established fascination with flying the sugar factory's hot air balloon increases. Towards the end of the story, he finally realizes his dream of flying in a hot air balloon, while committing suicide. Through the actions and dialogues between the characters, the author foreshadows Guy's death, which the reader can interpret as an act of freedom for himself or an act of abandonment towards his family. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In the story, although in the third person, the audience can see Lili's perspective on Guy's situation. As she devotes most of her time to their son, Lili and Guy cannot spend much time alone, which could be attributed to Guy's feelings of neglect. This is illustrated when Lili says, “I wish I had been more careful when you came in with the news” (152). This is a sign of how guilty she feels for neglecting her own husband. Danticat uses the literary device of foreshadowing in the story by sharing Lili's superstitions that are common in Haitian culture. For example, he states, “She almost didn't marry him because it was said that people with angular hair often had very difficult lives” (152). A technique of foreshadowing, it is able to allude to Guy's troubled life. Lili may not have wanted to believe this superstition at first, but in the end, she couldn't have predicted how troubled he really was. One of the times she noticed Guy's problems was when he was distant on their way to the candy store: "For the past few weeks, she had the impression that Guy was lost to her every time she he reached this point, twelve feet from the ball. » (151). She notices his interest in the ball and feels like she's losing it. She knows that the ball attracts her but she only discovers the reason later. At the end of the story, she doesn't seem as shocked as her son when Guy jumps from the balloon. She may have planned this through her actions and dialogues. Danticat uses the literary tool of foreshadowing in describing how Guy's actions correlate with his interest in the hot air balloon. Early in the story, Guy's fascination with the ball is introduced: "During the day, when the field was open, Guy would approach the basket, looking at it with the same kind of desire that most men show when 'they admire very pretty girls' (151). This quote first shows that he has some interest in the basket. He sees it with an alternative motive in mind that the reader wants to discover. He even neglects his own family each time that he is there at The Sugar Mill This neglect can be illustrated by the following quote: "As they approached the fence surrounding the field where the large wicker basket and the deflated balloon lay on the ground, Guy let go of the hands of his wife and the boy” (151). Guy shows this act of disengagement from his own family because of this strange fascination he has with the ball. The reader could interpret this as being more interested in. the opportunities that the ball symbolically carries than those of his own family. THE,.