Symbolism in “A Wall of Fire Rising” by Edwidge Danticat

 

Edwidge Danticat is among the few writers who make extensive use of their early childhood experiences to write their different literature pieces. The author reckons the diverse incidences which transpired during her childhood and transition to adulthood. Danticat was born in the outskirts of Port au Prince city, Haiti, in 1969. The country is known to be a French colony, whereby the Haitians were forced to work in the sugar cane fields as slaves (McIntosh and Pierrot 127).

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The writer’s parents came into the United States to escape the political and socio-economic feuds in their ancestral land. Understandably, Haiti’s political climate was oppressive, giving the natives little opportunities to prosper in life. Denotatively, symbolism is the more extensive representation of an object and other-related scenarios using a known object (Tsur and Gafni 196). Therefore, I would want to argue that the balloon in “A Wall of Fire Rising” short story represents freedom, the socio-economic differences, a developmental enabling environment, societal privileges, nature of anxiety, and the colonization era.

Colonization and slavery are affiliated with an environment whereby colonized individuals seek freedom. In “A Wall of Fire Rising” short story, Guy, who is Little Guy’s father and Lili’s husband opines that he yearns to fly with the hot balloon to a safe place where he will build his house (Danticat 155).

The author presents a critical understanding that individuals who are colonized always yearn to become free and do what makes them happy. They are against the idea of being forced to engage in less productive and forced practices which contribute to the deterioration of their lives. Guy is anticipating that he will get a new home once he flees Haiti, his native country.

He does not know the exact place where he can stay. The author also makes the reader comprehend that people often view foreign lands as their “home” as opposed to their native and ancestral lands. Guy anticipates to escape Haiti and subsequently find a serene place to build a house and live peacefully. Connectedly, the air balloon characterizes freedom, which Guy and the majority of the colonized Haitians want to attain in life.

The hot air balloon critically represents the social and economic difference between the affluent and the poor in the community. Danticat reiterates that the dirigible is kept in the Assad’s sugar company and that it is the only family which has it in the entire city (155). The gasbag represents the richness, whereby it is only the affluent who can afford to purchase it. Arguably, the balloon distinguishes between the colonized and the colonizers, whereby the latter have maximum resources, which they use selfishly.