Fifth Writing Assignment

            For class we had to write about Edwidge Danticat's The Dew Breaker. There were some things that I was able to relate to in the story, but there were also many things that in no way, I was able to relate to because I am just not in Ka's shoes. First off, I am not of the same gender as Ka. I feel that if she were a male, her story may have panned out a bit more different in some aspects. She also comes from a different culture than me. Ka and her family are Haitian's that live in New York. One small thing I can relate to is that I live there also. What is interesting is that they are originally from Haiti. So in her story, they come from a far away place to start a new life. When I was younger I was told that we were moving, this basically made my entire world crumble. I had to adjust to a new place, meet new people, and say goodbye to some of my old friends. Thankfully we only stayed in our new house for a couple of years, and realized that our family was just too far away. We decided to move back which made me happy, but at the same time I realized that I had to go through the struggle of reestablishing myself again. This is close to what Dany does in one of the stories, but the reasons are much darker and serious. By the end of one of the stories, Ka grows to have a bitter feeling towards her father because she feels she was deceived by him. Though I do not have any bad relations with my father, I can still relate to the fact that she felt deceived. When I moved back to my old town, I had to try and reconnect with some of my old friends. It was then that I realized that many of them had changed for the worst in my opinion. I had to go through many obstacles to try and find the right group to fit into. One of my best friends from past years completely changed when I tried to reconnect with him, another friend basically used me and never really cared about what I had to say, which left me feeling bitter even to this day. This though seems to be where the comparisons end. Parts of the story deal with redemption, murder and the loss of family members. Though there are small things I can relate to with those, they are on a much smaller scale than what the story holds.