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= From The Ashes Rose the Women = Symbolism and metaphors are the vital attributes of Danticat’s works, and we can see their impact in the story “1937”. While reflecting upon the horrors the Haitian women faced during the time of Ton Ton Macoute, she uses mythical symbols to associate the powers the women hold against the atrocities. Despite intense suffering and constant abuse, the women of Haiti had something beyond the tyrants’ reach: Hope. “1937” revolves around the notion of hope that the women had and uses mythical stories and metaphors to put light on how they faced injustice and tried to battle them to preserve their memory and remember history. Danticat plays along with this infamy but portrays the women as angels that were able to endure the atrocities against them. Mythical beliefs were the reason for these women’s banishment and death, and Danticat uses these same myths to give them power. The reality intertwines with fiction in “1937,” where the women’s endurance is connected to the power of a mythical being.

The opening paragraph of “1937” mentions the most important symbolism of the story: Madonna. The crying of the idol passed down through generations resembles the pain of everyone that held it at some point when the narrator says, “When I saw the tear I thought, surely, that my mother had died” (Danticat 29). The tears of Madonna represent the tears of women themselves, shed one drop at a time, saving them for every time a woman suffers. The word “Madonna” for a statue is also an intriguing aspect. “Ma Donna” in Italian means “My lady” and is often referred to Virgin Mary. By implying that Madonna’s tears mean the death of the narrator’s mother, Danticat is hinting that it’s a message from God that her mother is in extreme pain, if not dead yet.

Further into the story, when the narrator (Josephine) asks her mother if she flew, the mother’s response shows the power the women hold. The mother replies, “All the women who came with us to the river, they could go to the moon and back if that is what they wanted.” (43). The metaphorical wings the women possessed are the wings of hope, using which Danticat implies that it was hope that was never lost, and it is what’s keeping them alive for the next day, and hopefully would be passed down to her daughter after she’s gone. The representation of wings is a tacit implication of retaliation against the crime. The mother’s response that it is upon women to fly also shows endurance. To fly to the moon and back as their wish is the power they hold against the horror implicated upon them. Although they were forced to run from their homes, their hope helped them fly away, preserving their memories and pain amidst the chaos that suppressed their freedom.

Madonna and the wings can be linked to the religious connection, and with the rituals the women perform, this connection is even more vital. Towards the end of the story, Josephine remembers when her mother says to the river, “Here is my child, Josephine. We were saved from the tomb of this river when she was still in my womb” (35). Associating the river with the tomb, the mother is signifying that they gained a new life after coming out of the water, which is an indirect analogy to the resurrection of Jesus. The river also serves as the holy water on which they were baptized the day they jumped out of it, making it both the tomb and a birthplace. So, they visit the river every year to thank it for the new life that, although started with blood, provided them the wings enabling them to fly. Or perhaps the river acts as a fire that burned them down, and they rose from the ashes like phoenixes: in a completely new body, but their memories preserved.

Danticat uses the myths and beliefs to describe the strength of the women who were outcasted in the same belief that they possess the supernatural ability to fly. By using this irony in the story, she provides the readers with the knowledge of history in such a manner that it is easier to understand and empathize with the women of the time. Furthermore, she instills that although the women were innocent and helpless, they were not powerless. On the contrary, they fought with every strength they possessed and were able to pass the trauma and their memories to the younger generation in the hope that someday their children would “fly” over the injustice they faced.

Work Cited

Danticat, Edwidge, "Children of the Sea," in ''Krik? Krak!,'' Soho Press, 1991.