Amidst the tragedy in situations of suffering, can beauty and hope still be found? The novel Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat tells about the many stories of Haitians and the variety of suffering and hope that is in every situation. Danticat illustrates the idea that victims of tragic situations find illusions to be the beauty in their suffering to distract themselves from harsh reality. The story of “Night Women” shows how suffering parents try to protect their children’s innocence from pain with illusions of beauty. The mother of a young son who works as a prostitute feels shame in her occupation. She finds her job of being intimate with men to be disgraceful, so she lies to her son about her reprehensible work: “Should my son wake up, I …show more content…
This pleasant illusion of angels gives the son hope amidst his poverty-stricken life in Haiti and protects his innocence as well. However, the illusion his mother feeds him is a lie. The mother admits her lie by saying, “...I see in the folds of his eyes a longing for something that’s bigger than myself. We are like faraway lovers, lying to one another, under different moons.” (73). The mother shows she is suffering since she must lie to her son about her services so he can keep his innocence and thinks her son deserves a better life than what she can provide for him. Despite her suffering, she still lies to protect him from the harsh reality that is her work. Ultimately, her lies of the angels becomes the son’s illusion to distract him from the reality of his mother’s career. In the story “Between the Pool and the Gardenias”, a woman who has had miscarriages finds beauty in the illusion of having her own child and family. Marie is a woman who wishes to have children but has experienced multiple miscarriages instead. She finds a dead infant near a sewer and