Water and the Ocean (Symbol)
Water is a symbolic force in the novel. Both Ma Lou and Richard turn to water for cleansing and renewal. Two years after the earthquake, Ma Lou visits waterfalls in Saut d’Eau where many go on pilgrimage to visit the goddess of the waters. This visit helps Ma Lou begin to heal and move forward after the earthquake. Growing up on the ocean, water represents a sense of freedom and home for Ma Lou. On his return to Haiti, Richard refuses to visit Ma Lou; instead he turns to the ocean for cleansing and comfort. Chancy uses the ocean, and water more generally, as a symbolic mother for the Haitian people, an island people. Although Richard is deeply disconnected from his homeland, he is still drawn to the ocean’s pull. As a mother would, the ocean seems to provide him with guidance and he walks out of the ocean with a sense of peace and clarity about the direction of his life. Yet there is a duality to this feminine entity, it can be both nurturing and destructive. During the earthquake, the ocean’s immense power comes up and swallows many who are on the beach, including Richard. Richard has spent his career exploiting and controlling water and, as if by divine punishment, he meets his death in it. As someone who has tried to run away from his home, the ocean forcefully drags him back, physically and metaphorically pulling him home.
Dissociation (Motif)
While the earthquake is called by many names, multiple characters refer to it simply as “the Event.” Rather than name it directly, the earthquake is hinted at as if it was too big and life altering to be named outright. The motif of dissociation comes up throughout the novel and directly relates to the theme of trauma. When Sara sees her daughters' bodies, she refers to them as “those husks” denying that they are her children. Only weeks later, Sara is forced to take care of Jonas, her last living child, alone. The knowledge that she is helpless to save him from slowly dying before her eyes is too much. She prepares herself for this unimaginable loss by separating Jonas, the child she loves, from the body before her. This is evident in her language: I “bathed the thing on the mattress” or she took “care of it.” While it sounds heartless, in reality dissociation is a symptom of, and survival mechanism for, dealing with trauma. In order to cope, characters must find a way to separate themselves from their reality, otherwise they would simply feel too much pain to bear. Taffia tries to do this with her own body after the rape. She attempts to ignore the child growing in her belly, referring to it as a “thing” that “clung to me for dear life.” She did not choose to have this child which is a daily reminder of the trauma and violation she experienced.
Leatherback Sea Turtles (Symbol)
Leopold is fascinated by the leatherback sea turtles he sees on the beaches of Trinidad as a child. With his Uncle George, they watch as the baby turtles hatch and make their dangerous journey across the sand and into the water. He learns that the female turtles always return to the nesting grounds of their mothers to lay eggs. However, the male turtles never return to shore. For Leopold, the absent relationship the male turtles have with their offspring is symbolic of his own relationship with his father. Coming back from seeing the sea turtles, Leopold excitedly tells his mother he wants to grow up to be a marine biologist and make her and his father proud. His mother responds that his father is long gone and never coming back. Just like the male sea turtles, Leopold’s father left the family and went off on his own. Leopold ruminates on his relationship with fatherhood while stuck in the elevator. Ultimately, he decides he wants to embody a different model of fatherhood for his own children and changes paths.
Werewolves (Symbol)
In the IDP camps, sexual assault is rampant. It is common to hear women screaming out at night as groups of young men enter their tents or shelters to attack them. The fact that the attacks happen under cover of night lend the attackers a sense of mystery and people start referring to them as werewolves. In the mornings, crowds gather around the most recent victim’s tent, examining the torn open side as if it had been made with claws and fangs rather than men wielding knives. Calling these attackers and rapists werewolves is symbolic of the dread and power they wield over people’s lives in the camp. They are predatory, stalking out prey in the night. The earthquake brought out the best and worst in people. For these men, it is the latter. They have lost their humanity and are inflicting terror and pain on people who have already suffered.
Revelations (Allegory)
Didier’s chapter is interspersed with Bible passages from the Revelation of St. John the Divine. This section of Revelations describes how seven angels enact the wrath of God. They send seven plagues upon the earth to punish the wicked in preparation for the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ. Revelations describes how water turned to blood and a great earthquake caused Babylon to crumble. The story of Revelations, and the end of the world, is an allegory for the earthquake in Haiti. Port-au-Prince seems to crumble within seconds leaving blood soaking the streets. For Didier watching the destruction of his home and country, the earthquake feels like Armageddon. Chancy explores a question that many ask in the face of suffering, why us? The Jehovah’s Witness whom Didier invites into his home calls Haiti a place of the devil: to her, Haiti is Babylon. This contrasts with Ma Lou’s understanding that there is no rhyme or reason to who survived, that the innocent died along with the guilty. If Didier and the people of Haiti did just experience their own personal Armageddon, Didier concludes that afterward this is no reward, no Second Coming of Christ. Rather he and others are stuck in a nightmarish limbo while the rest of the world continues on cold and uncaring.
