Genre
magical realism
Setting and Context
Detroit, close to the present time
Narrator and Point of View
Narrator: Fabiola
Point of view: first person
Tone and Mood
Tense, despairing, speculative
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Fabiola Toussaint; Antagonist: Dray, police brutality
Major Conflict
Fabiola leaves Haiti with her mother to move to her cousins in Detroit. Her mother is not allowed to pass the border, so Fabiola has to fight alone with this new world and the harsh reality about her family's secrets.
Climax
Kasim gets killed in a plot that Fabiola devised to remove Dray from her family by getting him arrested. Enraged, Dray enters their home to kill Fabiola, and right before he does, Papa Legba comes to the rescue.
Foreshadowing
"My first meal in America is one that I make for myself and eat by myself. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come."
-Fabiola will soon learn the harsh reality of life in Detroit. Right from the start, she experiences coldness from her family, and it takes her by surprise at how opposite it is from her life in Haiti.
Understatement
"I felt as if I was just a pebble in the valley."
-Fabiola upon her arrival to America
Allusions
"Our dear parents in heaven never knew a world without Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier and his father, François Duvalier."
-Fabiola about the Haitian dictator
Imagery
Imagery of Papa Legba and his songs that drive the plot and guide Fabiola.
"The singing man on the corner named Bad Leg provides the lyrics.
Paradox
"It can either man endless possibilities or dark, empty hope."
-Fabiola about the second choice of Joy Road she was given to by Papa Legba.
"I'm a resident alien"
-Chantal about her thoughts on displacement
Parallelism
"There are footsteps upstairs. A door slams. A toilet flushes. A faucet runs. A door slams again. Then, nothing."
-Fabiola
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"I'm the Fourth Bee"
-The cousins call themselves the bees because of their unwavering strength when it comes to protecting their family.
Personification
"Death has always walked close..."
-death is personified throughout the novel
