The Immigrant Experience - Essay Example

ead it deals in a matured manner, and analyses the complex relationship between a mother and daughter, while exploring family relationships, female intuitions, and various other interrelated subjects, against the backdrop of sexual and political violence. At the end, the novel speaks of a possibility of emotional healing, even within the realms of death and destruction. The message that this book sends out, is that, for complete emotional healing one must go beyond all political reasoning, and allow the inner self to grow and metamorphose, while coming to terms with one’s traumatic past.

Dandicat dedicates her first novel to all the “brave women of Haiti, grandmothers, mothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, daughters, and friends, on this and other shores” (Dandicat, 5). This novel that portrays the travails of the lead protagonist Sophie, forges a link between the four generations of women within a family, by finding a common thread of suffering and abuse. This story with its strong political and emotional dimensions, delves into the mother-daughter relationship, and seeks to find solace at the end through various processes of self examination and self expression.

There is also the complex correlation of an individual with his mother land. This is evident in the story, when we learn that Sophie was conceived when her mother was raped by a member of the Tonton Macoute (political goons in Haiti) in a cane field, which allegorically also refers to the exploitation and abuse of Haiti, the motherland. The story also portrays a community that cherishes its heritage, which speaks of courage and survival, and a strong will to fight back oppression. This heritage is transmitted through their story telling, and we see this when Sophie’s grandma tells her “if you see a lot of trouble in your life, it is because you were chosen to carry a part of the sky on your head” (ibid, 25).

This tradition of storytelling to pass on the heritage is also evident in mythical