The story begins with Ka and father on a road trip to Florida to the house of Gabrielle Fontanue, a celebrity TV star who too has her heritage in Haiti. Ka is delivering a sculpture she molded after her father to Gabrielle's which was made possible by a mutual friend. She takes her father along as he is a great admirer of Gabrielle. The story takes an awry turn when her father disappears with the sculpture during one of their stops. Ka reports to the police and informs her mother which makes her uneasy due to her strange behavior.
After some time, Ka's father returns on his own but the sculpture is missing. Ka is furious upon learning that her father had thrown the sculpture in the lake. He entreats her to listen to his reason for doing so which she reluctantly agrees. He reveals that he had not been a freedom fighter as they were led to believe but was in fact a stooge of the regime. He was not the victim but a perpetrator who murdered and tortured numerous others. He had to destroy the sculpture as he could not risk anyone recognizing him. He informs that he had revealed this truth to her mother after fleeing Haiti and her birth. He exclaims that he didn't deserve a statue. Ka is rightly overwhelmed with what is revealed to her.
Ka and her father goes to Gabrielle's to apologize and is embarrassed at the sudden turn of the situation. Upon returning she talks with her mother and asks her how she could live with such a man to which her mother replies that they both make him a better man. Ka, however is not sure as she feels betrayed; her life had been a complete lie. She contemplates whether she too is implicit in her father's crimes. She has to learn how to forgive in order to move on and heal but she is skeptical if such a task is even possible.
The story deals with various sombre themes of atrocities, human nature, atonement, guilt and the possibility of redemption. The story is related through a first person point of view. This helps the reader to get into the protagonist's psyche and is made privy to her innermost feelings and emotions, especially during the revelation of her father's dark past. The reader is able to fully empathize with Ka and her desperate situation and is as confused as her on deciding the best way out of her turmoil.
Ka is the protagonist of the story as well as the narrator. Her struggles are mostly internal which makes her question her own self and her part in her father's crime. She considers herself to be an amateur sculptor. It is also revealed that she has insecurities regarding her skills. She is very excited to know that a celebrity is interested in her sculpture. She hopes to bond with Gabrielle Fontanue on their shared Haitian heritage. This feeling also comes from the fact that her family for most of their time in the USA had tried to remain aloof whenever they could help it. She feels alone and yearns to make genuine connection with other people of which she was deprived. This notion is however thwarted when her father reveals his past to her and she is embarrassed in front of Gabrielle. This becomes a secondary concern as she has a much bigger problem which deals with her very existence. Hence, she goes through a vast inner struggle to try and reconcile herself with the devastating revelation of her ancestry.
Ka's father is one of the main supporting characters who drives the story forward. It is his past that makes an impression on his daughter's psyche. He lives a secluded life with his family in America with no friends or relatives. He finds solace in visiting the museum with his daughter which might have influenced her in becoming a sculptor and perusing about Egyptian history and their customs. He is enticed with the ways of ancient Egyptians, especially regarding how they treated their dead by preserving them. He is a complicated character with a questionable past who has made anew life in the USA. It is implied that he suffers from a guilty conscience as he is unable to let go of the past. The question arises that can such a character even be redeemed? How implicit are his family members in his heinous acts of crime?
Ka's mother on the other hand is depicted as a timid migrant woman who works in a hair salon and keeps to mostly to herself. She does her work diligently and wants little to do with anything else. She is not able to fully assimilate into the new culture as depicted by her loose hold on the English language. Ka notices the connection between her mother and father that keeps them in agreement to an abnormal level. She hopes that this new life will be able to redeem her husband and hopefully she would be the reason for his redemption. Gabrielle Fontanue acts as a foil character to Ka as she is a successful star with same heritage. She is self assured, vibrant and proud of her Haitian heritage. Her family is pleasant and serves as a contrast to Ka's highly dysfunctional family burdened by immense guilt.
The writer uses various symbols allusions to depict the story giving it an added depth. The title itself is an allusion to an Egyptian legend of the same name. The ancient Egyptians customarily preserved their dead which is symbolized through Ka's father's guilty conscience pertaining to his previous identity and life. He is unable to let go of his past and the victims of his war crimes are preserved in his mind. Similarly, there are various allusions to Egyptian gods and legends throughout the story. The sculpture itself serves as a symbol of Haitian past struggle. Firstly it is the struggle of the struggle and perseverance in the face of despotism but it eventually corrupts to signify the very atrocities and destruction committed during the revolution.United States of America also serves as a symbol of safe haven and a beacon of liberty where people are given second chances. However, it also raises the question that if second chances should be provided to the people, regardless of their past deeds.
The short story by Danticat deals with heavy and complex subject matters. It leaves the ending uncertain as the protagonist is left in tough situation that puts in jeopardy her own parentage. Will she be able to reconcile her ideals with the disturbing deeds of her father? Will she be able to forgive her father for putting them in such precarious situation? Or will she go into complete denial or perhaps abandon her father for him to suffer? This also raises existential questions of whether the children have any part in correcting the wrongs of their parents. As the famous maxim goes, "The sins of the father are to be laid upon the sons". Are the children of sinful fathers intrinsically obligated to participate in sharing their blame by the very fact that they were born to such fathers?
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