Brathwaite's "Dream Haiti"

     Like we have seen several times in other stories, this passage is written from a first person point of view giving a perspective of what it was like to be on the ground (or ship, in this situation) in Haiti during these times. Similar to the Mary Prince story, we are getting a journal of sorts from the narrator, detailing their thoughts and feelings about what is going on in their lives. This character in particular seems to have fear, worry, and anxiety he is dealing with and we are seeing it dealt with as this story progresses. He says, "so that i fe/fe/feared i felt (it felt something like that) that I wd fall and tumble down into the valley." At times, it feels like we are reading the writer's thoughts as they come to him, as sometimes there is a lack of coherent, linear thought progression. The story reads more like what is thought is immediately written down. As seen in the quote, the verbiage and spelling was also authentic. This story follows a postmodern idea of the author coming to terms with himself and his thoughts.   

    Another thing we see in this story is references to historic events. These events seem to affect the way our writer views the world. He writes, "when someone shouted the way Sancho Panzo must have shouted for Columbus on the twelve October 1492." It is interesting to see references to historical events in other historical literature, because it follows the idea that, even then, word traveled and these Haitian people recognized that their situation had arrived because of previous events that involved other people.

-cs

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