English essay for Junior College Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

English for Junior College - Essay Example When it came to my parents, the older I became, the more they were fading from me, until all I could see were the last few moments spent with them by the river. The rest blended together like the ingredients in a too-long-simmered stew: reveries and dreams, wishes, fantasies. Is that what it would also come to with Sebastian?" (Danticat 245). The author uses dreams to as symbolic in the novel to develop themes such as identity. In most of her dreams and thoughts, Amabelle contemplates the tragedies and traumatic experiences in her past life. Since her life was a nightmare, Amabelle uses her dreams for comfort. On page 310, she says, â€Å"I looked to my dreams for softness, for a gentler embrace, for relief from the fear of mudslides and blood bubbling out of the riverbed, where it is said that the dead add their tears to the river flow.† Therefore, it is only through sleep that she can escape the reality that her life is a nightmare. Danticat uses dreams to remember the past and also to expand on the characters. It is clear from the novel that characters who dream to escape from their realities only end up facing their past particularly in their dreams. Amabelle and Sebastian are examples of such characters. Amabelle mostly dreams of the death of her parents while Sebastian dreams of the death of his father in a hurricane. In her dreams Amabelle recounts her parents deaths, â€Å" I thought that if I relived the moment often enough, the answer would become clear, that they had wanted either for us all to die together or for me to go on living, even if by myself." (Danticat 309). The characters are escaping reality by finding comfort in their dreams. Despite the fact that the characters are still revisiting their dreams, they are trying to move on as people. Moving on allows the characters to grow and develop. Amabelle and Sebastian open to each through dreams. The two use dreams to share their experiences and problems.