The Dew Breaker, Read "the Book of the Dead" Summary

Ka Bienaimé'south father, Papa, is missing. She is sitting side by side to two men: the manager of the hotel where she and Papa are staying, Flavio Salinas, and a constabulary officer, Officer Bo. Ka is Haitian, but was built-in in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and has never been to Republic of haiti. She explains to Officer Bo that she and Papa are in Florida on their way to Tampa to deliver a sculpture. Ka is not an artist "in the mode [she'd] like to be," only has created many wooden sculptures of her begetter. She describes her father every bit six'v", with "thinning common salt-and-pepper hair" and a scar across his cheek, which he got during the year he spent in prison in Haiti.

The opening of the volume resembles something from a thriller or offense novel. The fact that the story begins with Papa already missing heightens the sense of mystery for the reader. In that location are clues in this passage that Papa will exist a cardinal (if not the central) graphic symbol in the book. The fact that Ka has chosen to make a sculpture of him highlights his significance, and the scar he got as a prisoner prompts intrigue near his background.

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Ever since Papa fell off his bed and knocked out his teeth while having one of his "prison house nightmares," he has had to clothing dentures. Officer Bo asks if he has whatsoever mental illnesses, and Ka responds that he doesn't. She doesn't have pictures to give the officer because Papa dislikes having his pictures taken, e'er putting his hands in front of his face to hide the scar. Officer Bo asks if there is whatsoever reason why Papa might have run away, inquiring if he and Ka had a fight. Ka reflects on the fact that the sculpture she fabricated of Papa depicts him kneeling and looking downwards, as she imagined he would have looked in prison house.

The time Papa spent in prison house has conspicuously had a great bear upon on his life. Information technology colors both his physical advent and his beliefs, making him ashamed of having his photo taken due to his scar. It is obvious that Papa is haunted past his time in prison, and that this haunting extends to Ka, as well. This is seemingly why she is so fixated on using her father as a subject in her sculpture exercise.

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The previous night, before Papa disappeared, he commented that their hotel room was "like paradise." The sculpture Ka made has cracks forth its surface, which she chose not to shine downward because she thinks they are "beautiful […] similar the wood's own scars." At present she worries that they make the sculpture look poorly made. She is going to deliver it to Gabrielle Fonteneau, a well-known Haitian-American actress. Ka'southward friend, whom she knows from the school where she is a substitute art teacher, showed Gabrielle a picture of Ka's sculpture and convinced her to buy information technology.

The sculpture Ka fabricated obviously comes from a deeply personal identify, and reflects her ain intimate, private feelings about her male parent. At the aforementioned time, the fact that Gabrielle Fonteneau is interested in ownership information technology indicates that the sculpture is too significant for Haitians more generally. Through the sculpture, Ka has memorialized non only a moment in her father'south life, but a moment in Haitian history.

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Gabrielle is currently visiting her parents in Tampa. Ka imagined that Papa would enjoy meeting Gabrielle because he watches lots of television. Still now Papa has disappeared, along with Ka's rental car. Ka chain-smokes while waiting for news of him in the hotel room. She lies in Papa'southward unmade bed, which notwithstanding smells like him. When the Castilian-speaking maid enters and then chop-chop exits, Ka is reminded of the overly deferential way her mother, Anne, treats non-Haitian clients in her beauty salon.

It is obvious from this passage that Ka feels protective of both her parents. She may be their daughter, but she is aware of their vulnerabilities and the struggles they perchance face up equally Haitian immigrants to the The states.

Around midday Ka calls the salon, but an employee tells her that Anne is notwithstanding at Mass. She calls her parents' house and leaves a voicemail request Anne to call her back urgently. A few hours later Anne does so, sounding panicked. Ka explains that when she woke upwardly that morning, Papa had disappeared. Anne assures Ka that Papa volition come back. Ka so calls Gabrielle, who thanks her for travelling to evangelize the sculpture. She adds that she loves information technology considering the figure looks "regal and humble," similar her own father. Gabrielle invites Ka and Papa to lunch the next 24-hour interval, and Ka promises that they will be there.

Ka and Gabrielle take never met before and seemingly live quite different lives (because that Gabrielle is a famous actress and Ka is an creative person who is, in some sense, struggling with her career). At the same time, they are continued by their Haitian heritage and the particular similarities between their fathers. This passage could indicate that Gabrielle's begetter also spent time in prison.

Papa loves museums, and whenever he has time off from his barbershop he goes to the Brooklyn Museum. He particularly adores the Ancient Egyptian rooms, claiming that Aboriginal Egyptians are like Haitians because "they know how to grieve." These trips to the museum are when Papa seems most alive.

Papa seems like a gentle person, just peradventure as well a troubled one. His obsession with Aboriginal Egyptians appears to emerge from his ain grief and unresolved issues with the past.

Active Themes

Papa reappears at sunset and immediately complains almost the fume in the hotel room. Ka notices that the sculpture is missing, and Papa says he needs to talk to her about information technology, considering he has "objections." When Ka demands to know where the sculpture is, Papa says he volition have her to information technology. As they make it the motorcar, Ka thinks that Papa must be suffering from a mental illness. She remembers being a child and realizing for the showtime fourth dimension that Papa could die.

Although before Papa appeared to exist enlightened of and addressing her parents' vulnerabilities, hither this is less the case. She is then stunned by Papa's behavior that she assumes he must have developed a mental illness, reminding her of the world-altering moment when she commencement became enlightened of his mortality.

Papa stops the car on the side of a highway, correct next to a human being-fabricated lake. He sits on a bench in front of the lake and Ka joins him. Papa confirms that the sculpture is in the lake, and although Ka tries to remain composed, she panics every bit she realizes that information technology has probably broken apart in the water. Usually Ka thinks that anger is a "wasted emotion." As a child, her parents never got angry with her. Notwithstanding, now she feels intensely angry at Papa. He says that he wants to tell her why he named her Ka, a story she has heard many times before.

Perhaps what prevents Ka from exploding with anger at Papa is the fact that he clearly has an important reason why he objected to the sculpture. As the artwork'southward bailiwick, he has a merits on it that no i else does. At the same time, the manner in which he stole and destroyed it without Ka's knowledge is conspicuously securely hurtful.

Papa explains that in Aboriginal Arab republic of egypt, a ka is "a double of the body," which accompanies the trunk as a guide in the afterlife. Papa compares a ka to the soul. When Ka was born, Papa felt that she was his "expert angel," and thus chose this name. Switching from English to Haitian Creole, Papa explains that when he first saw Ka's sculpture, he wanted to be buried with information technology and take it with him to the afterlife. He asks if Ka remembers when they read The Book of the Expressionless together. Ka has problem remembering because she institute the book boring.

Ka and Papa are obviously very close, but they likewise accept pregnant differences. Ka does non seem to share Papa's involvement in the Ancient Egyptians, and is somewhat resentful that he is telling the story about why he chose her proper noun yet over again. Ka seems to have a less spiritual view of the world—and this may be related to the fact that she has not experienced the same kind of grief equally her father.

Of a sudden worried, Ka asks if Papa has brought her here considering he is dying. She immediately thinks nigh how she would change her life if she found out her father was terminally ill. Papa doesn't answer straight, just instead asks if Ka remembers the description of how expressionless people are judged in The Book of the Dead. The person's centre is placed on a scale, and if information technology's too heavy they cannot enter the side by side globe. He then says: "I don't deserve a statue." He recalls that when they would go to the Brooklyn Museum during Ka's childhood, she would always notice the pieces missing from the Ancient Egyptian statues. He says he is like those statues, and Ka laughs at the idea that he is comparing himself to an Aboriginal Egyptian.

Ka's feelings about her father's foreign behavior alternating betwixt deep concern and dismissive laughter. This reveals how totally clueless she is nigh what is motivating him to act this way. Her thoughts almost how she would change her life if she knew Papa was dying highlight how greatly decease affects people'south approach to life. Whereas at moments Ka feels scornful toward her father, she would likely be more patient and forgiving if she knew he was dying.

Ka waves her arms when she laughs, and now Papa aggressively grabs her wrist, hurting her. When he sees her expression, he apologizes and says he didn't hateful to hurt her, adding: "I did not want to hurt anyone." He then repeats that he doesn't deserve a sculpture, proverb: "Your male parent was the hunter, he was not the casualty." Ka asks what he means, and then of a sudden realizes that his answer is going to explain why he and Anne accept no friends and never discuss Haiti. She thinks this also has something to do with her mother's religious devotion.

The Dew Billow is a book full of twists, and arguably this is the nigh of import 1. Although Papa has revealed that he was, in some sense, a perpetrator rather than a victim, the details of what this actually ways remain very unclear. In a sense, the mystery surrounding Papa'south confession reflects Ka's inability—or unwillingness—to fully procedure what it ways.

Papa says that he wasn't sent to prison; rather, he worked in the prison house, and it was one of the prisoners who gave him his scar. He says that he killed the man who gave it to him, along with many others. Ka wonders if Anne was also a perpetrator of violence, and so wonders if every fourth dimension she goes to Mass, Anne is praying for Papa. She remembers a ritual from The Book of the Dead called "The Negative Confession," in which the dead have a chance to claim that they only did good deeds.

Ka's reflection about the "negative confession" highlights an important aspect of Papa's moral wrongdoing illuminated hither. Non only did he commit murder multiple times, but he gave a false negative confession, implying that he was a good person—and a victim—rather than a perpetrator.

Ka asks nigh Papa's nightmares, and he replies that they are traumatic dreams about what he did to other people. She asks if Anne knows, and Papa says that she does. He told her the truth after Ka was born. Ka drives them back to the hotel, and when they become there Papa assures her that he is still her father, still Anne's husband, and that he "would never do these things at present." Afterwards calling Officeholder Bo and Salinas to explicate that Papa has been plant, Ka calls her female parent and asks how she tin dear him. Anne realizes that Papa has told Ka the truth, and tells her that Papa had been wanting to tell her for a very long time.

Ka has not only been rocked past this dramatic revelation, simply she is now facing the reality that both f her parents conspired to go on such an enormous secret from her throughout her whole life. This is the kind of revelation that completely upends a person'south sense of themselves and the world. Information technology is difficult to imagine Ka beingness able to trust other people again after being misled past the people who supposedly love her most.

Ka thinks most how similar her parents are, how they are a "lodge of 2." Anne tells her that she and Ka "save" Papa, and that meeting Anne made him want to stop existence violent. Ka feels a loss of control similar to what happens when she is sculpting. She hangs up and decides she will demand to continue the conversation afterwards, perhaps in months or fifty-fifty years. The next morning time, Ka tells Papa that she thinks they should go to lunch with Gabrielle and tell her in person that the sculpture is gone.

Although Ka is horrified past her parents' deportment, here she behaves in a manner that is actually similar to them. She refuses to deal with the revelation near Papa immediately, and decides to put the conversation off. At the same time, her desire to tell Gabrielle nigh the sculpture in person suggests she is better at confronting the truth than her parents.

Ka and Papa are silent during the bulldoze to Gabrielle's business firm. As they pull up, Papa says that now Ka understands why he and Anne never went back to Haiti. Gabrielle's mother, Mrs. Fonteneau, answers the door and greets them warmly. The business firm is covered with Haitian paintings, along with a large portrait of Gabrielle. Mr. and Mrs. Fonteneau lead Ka and Papa out to the back terrace, where the table is laid. Mr. Fonteneau asks where Papa is from in Republic of haiti; Papa e'er gives a different answer when people ask this, which Ka now realizes is to avoid people identifying him. When Papa greets Gabrielle, who is wearing a striking dress, he says: "You are one of the most splendid flowers of Haiti."

The Fonteneaus' house represents a stark contrast to the human relationship the Bienaimé family accept with Haiti. In this house, in that location are reminders of the family'south homeland everywhere: in a sense, the house resembles a loving shrine to the state. Meanwhile, the Bienaimés have a much more difficult, strained relationship to Haiti. They do not visit, do non appear to celebrate their national identity in any mode, and Papa fifty-fifty lies about where he actually comes from.

During tiffin, Mr. Fonteneau asks Papa how long he has spent away from Haiti; Papa replies that it's been 37 years, and that he has not had "the opportunity" to go back. Mrs. Fonteneau says that they go often, effusively describing how much she loves beingness back. Ka reflects that, for Papa, returning would be like a nightmare. After tiffin, Mr. and Mrs. Fonteneau testify Papa around the garden, and Ka tells Gabrielle that the sculpture is gone. Gabrielle frowns and says that she'due south "very disappointed," as she wanted to give it to her begetter. She seems to suspect that Ka was never going to bring the sculpture in the first identify.

On top of having to deal with Papa'due south horrifying revelation herself, Ka must now blot Gabrielle'due south anger and disappointment without being able to explain that it's not her fault. This is but i of what are assumedly space negative ripple effects from Papa's former life and his endeavor to erase the truth of this life.

Gabrielle curtly excuses herself, and Ka watches Mr. Fonteneau and Mrs. Fonteneau hand Papa a handbag of lemongrass from the garden. She thinks most a chapter from The Book of the Expressionless that Papa would read to her to stop her being scared of monsters. She waves to Papa, indicating that it'south fourth dimension to get. As he walks toward her, he rubs the scar on his confront. She imagines that the last person Papa injure may take foretold (or cursed) that for the residuum of his life, Papa would hibernate or lie about his scar in shame.

Although Papa has attempted to erase his by, the scar on his face is a permanent, unavoidable reminder of information technology. This reminder might not be legible to other people (who believe Papa's lie about where information technology came from), but thanks to the scar, Papa himself is inescapably haunted past truth.

Papa and Ka wave goodbye to Mr. Fonteneau and Mrs. Fonteneau, who may not have understood why they came in the get-go place. When Papa smiles, his scar most disappears; as a child, Ka used to wish he would smiling always. Every bit they drive away, Ka feels full of dread and regret. She senses that Papa knows that "confessions practice not lighten living hearts." She had e'er imagined that the difficulties of Papa'southward life lay in the fact that he'd moved somewhere and then dissimilar from his homeland. Even so, now she realizes that the alien land of the US may have actually brought him relief. He sought refuge in the Ancient Egyptians also equally in Ka and Anne, who became "masks against his own confront."

This passage contains important reflections on the nature of identity, using the face as a metaphor for the truth of who a person is. Once again, Papa's scar is presented as a haunting reminder of his past. At the same time, information technology is not one that is always prominent. Papa's try to utilise Ka and Anne as "masks against his own confront" suggests that he has the possibility of redemption through his love for them, and through the happiness that momentarily causes his scar (and terrible history) to vanish.

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