Giving Voice to the Voiceless: Letters in “Children of the Sea”, by Edwidge Danticat

Abstract

[Abstract] The main aim of this BA dissertation is to analyze the use of the epistolary genre in a short story of North American/Haitian Diasporic literature: “Children of the Sea”, by Edwidge Danticat. The author organizes the story throughout a series of letters which two lovers “send” to each other: she, a young woman who lives in a dictatorial state; and he, a young man who is forced to flee his country due to political reasons. Danticat uses these letters to criticize the regime in which Haiti is under. By using this young couple as the writers of the letters, she gives voice to the voiceless. Furthermore, by making this couple anonymous (neither of their names are ever mentioned in the story), she gives voice to all those people who would otherwise have remained silenced in history