The Dew Breaker

by

Edwidge Danticat

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Born to landowning peasants in rural Haiti, Papa joins the Volunteers for National Security (Tonton Macouts) as a young man. He is disturbingly skilled at the torture and executions required as part of this job, and he thus earns a fearsome reputation. A greedy and selfish man, he enjoys the perks that come with his position of power, growing fat from eating decadently and taking many female lovers. At a certain point, he dreams of leaving Haiti and immigrating to the US, although it is not clear whether this is because he is morally troubled by his work as a Volunteer, or if he plans to continue working for the regime by thwarting revolutionary activities abroad. As an older man, Papa claims that he never wanted to hurt anyone, but the book raises doubts about how reluctant he really was. After killing the preacher, Papa meets Anne and lets her believe that he was a victim of the Duvalier regime, not a perpetrator. He and Anne escape to New York together, and this begins the second, radically different stage of Papa’s existence. In Brooklyn, he lives a quiet life, running a barbershop and being a loving husband and father. He is obsessed with the Ancient Egyptians, particularly their grieving rituals, which is perhaps a way for him to process his own past. Although Papa is totally transformed into a nonviolent, peaceful man, he never truly reckons with his past because he keeps it hidden. Yet the scar that runs across his face is always a reminder of the violence he enacted upon others.

Papa Quotes in The Dew Breaker

The The Dew Breaker quotes below are all either spoken by Papa or refer to Papa . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Grief, Memory, and Erasure Theme Icon
).
The Book of the Dead Quotes

I was born and raised in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and have never even been to my parents' birthplace. Still, I answer “Haiti” because it is one more thing I've always longed to have in common with my parents.

Related Characters: Ka Bienaimé (speaker), Papa , Anne Bienaimé/Landlady
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:

My father has never liked having his picture taken. We have only a few of him at home, some awkward shots at my different school graduations, with him standing between my mother and me, his hand covering his scar. I had hoped to take some pictures of him on this trip, but he hadn't let me. At one of the rest stops I bought a disposable camera and pointed it at him anyway. As usual, he protested, covering his face with both hands like a little boy protecting his cheeks from a slap. He didn't want any more pictures taken of him for the rest of his life, he said, he was feeling too ugly.

Related Characters: Ka Bienaimé (speaker), Papa , Anne Bienaimé/Landlady
Related Symbols: Papa’s Scar
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:

I’d used a piece of mahogany that was naturally flawed, with a few superficial cracks along what was now the back. I’d thought these cracks beautiful and had made no effort to sand or polish them away, as they seemed like the wood's own scars, like the one my father had on his face. But I was also a little worried about the cracks. Would they seem amateurish and unintentional, like a mistake? Could the wood come apart with simple movements or with age? Would the client be satisfied?

Related Characters: Ka Bienaimé (speaker), Papa
Related Symbols: Papa’s Scar, The Sculpture
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:
The Book of Miracles Quotes

Anne had closed her eyes without realizing it. Her daughter knew she reacted strongly to cemeteries, but Anne bad never told her why, since her daughter had already concluded early in life that this, like many unexplained aspects of her parents’ life, was connected to “some event that happened in Haiti.”

Related Characters: Ka Bienaimé, Papa , Anne Bienaimé/Landlady
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:

Besides, soon after her husband had opened his barbershop, he’d discovered that since he'd lost eighty pounds, changed his name, and given as his place of birth a village deep in the mountains of Leogane, no one asked about him anymore, thinking he was just a peasant who'd made good in New York. He hadn't been a famous “dew breaker,” or torturer, anyway, just one of hundreds who had done their jobs so well that their victims were never able to speak of them again.

Related Characters: Papa , Anne Bienaimé/Landlady
Page Number: 76-77
Explanation and Analysis:

What if it were Constant? What would she do? Would she spit in his face or embrace him, acknowledging a kinship of shame and guilt that she'd inherited by marrying her husband? How would she even know whether Constant felt any guilt or shame? What if he'd come to this Mass to flaunt his freedom? To taunt those who'd been affected by his crimes? What if he didn't even see it that way? What if he considered himself innocent? Innocent enough to go anywhere he pleased? What right did she have to judge him? As a devout Catholic and the wife of a man like her husband, she didn't have the same freedom to condemn as her daughter did.

Related Characters: Ka Bienaimé, Papa , Anne Bienaimé/Landlady, Emmanuel Constant
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
The Dew Breaker (Circa 1967) Quotes

He’d wound you, then try to soothe you with words, then he’d wound you again. He thought he was God.

Related Characters: Papa
Page Number: 199
Explanation and Analysis:

And yet he had not been completely defeated. The wound on the fat man’s face wasn’t what he had hoped, he hadn’t blinded him or removed some of his teeth, but at least he’d left a mark on him, a brand that he would carry the rest of his life. Every time he looked in the mirror, he would have to confront this mark and remember him. Whenever people asked what happened to his face, he would have to tell a lie, a lie that would further remind him of the truth.

Related Characters: Papa , The Preacher
Related Symbols: Papa’s Scar
Page Number: 227-228
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Dew Breaker PDF

Papa Quotes in The Dew Breaker

The The Dew Breaker quotes below are all either spoken by Papa or refer to Papa . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Grief, Memory, and Erasure Theme Icon
).
The Book of the Dead Quotes

I was born and raised in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and have never even been to my parents' birthplace. Still, I answer “Haiti” because it is one more thing I've always longed to have in common with my parents.

Related Characters: Ka Bienaimé (speaker), Papa , Anne Bienaimé/Landlady
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:

My father has never liked having his picture taken. We have only a few of him at home, some awkward shots at my different school graduations, with him standing between my mother and me, his hand covering his scar. I had hoped to take some pictures of him on this trip, but he hadn't let me. At one of the rest stops I bought a disposable camera and pointed it at him anyway. As usual, he protested, covering his face with both hands like a little boy protecting his cheeks from a slap. He didn't want any more pictures taken of him for the rest of his life, he said, he was feeling too ugly.

Related Characters: Ka Bienaimé (speaker), Papa , Anne Bienaimé/Landlady
Related Symbols: Papa’s Scar
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:

I’d used a piece of mahogany that was naturally flawed, with a few superficial cracks along what was now the back. I’d thought these cracks beautiful and had made no effort to sand or polish them away, as they seemed like the wood's own scars, like the one my father had on his face. But I was also a little worried about the cracks. Would they seem amateurish and unintentional, like a mistake? Could the wood come apart with simple movements or with age? Would the client be satisfied?

Related Characters: Ka Bienaimé (speaker), Papa
Related Symbols: Papa’s Scar, The Sculpture
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:
The Book of Miracles Quotes

Anne had closed her eyes without realizing it. Her daughter knew she reacted strongly to cemeteries, but Anne bad never told her why, since her daughter had already concluded early in life that this, like many unexplained aspects of her parents’ life, was connected to “some event that happened in Haiti.”

Related Characters: Ka Bienaimé, Papa , Anne Bienaimé/Landlady
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:

Besides, soon after her husband had opened his barbershop, he’d discovered that since he'd lost eighty pounds, changed his name, and given as his place of birth a village deep in the mountains of Leogane, no one asked about him anymore, thinking he was just a peasant who'd made good in New York. He hadn't been a famous “dew breaker,” or torturer, anyway, just one of hundreds who had done their jobs so well that their victims were never able to speak of them again.

Related Characters: Papa , Anne Bienaimé/Landlady
Page Number: 76-77
Explanation and Analysis:

What if it were Constant? What would she do? Would she spit in his face or embrace him, acknowledging a kinship of shame and guilt that she'd inherited by marrying her husband? How would she even know whether Constant felt any guilt or shame? What if he'd come to this Mass to flaunt his freedom? To taunt those who'd been affected by his crimes? What if he didn't even see it that way? What if he considered himself innocent? Innocent enough to go anywhere he pleased? What right did she have to judge him? As a devout Catholic and the wife of a man like her husband, she didn't have the same freedom to condemn as her daughter did.

Related Characters: Ka Bienaimé, Papa , Anne Bienaimé/Landlady, Emmanuel Constant
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
The Dew Breaker (Circa 1967) Quotes

He’d wound you, then try to soothe you with words, then he’d wound you again. He thought he was God.

Related Characters: Papa
Page Number: 199
Explanation and Analysis:

And yet he had not been completely defeated. The wound on the fat man’s face wasn’t what he had hoped, he hadn’t blinded him or removed some of his teeth, but at least he’d left a mark on him, a brand that he would carry the rest of his life. Every time he looked in the mirror, he would have to confront this mark and remember him. Whenever people asked what happened to his face, he would have to tell a lie, a lie that would further remind him of the truth.

Related Characters: Papa , The Preacher
Related Symbols: Papa’s Scar
Page Number: 227-228
Explanation and Analysis: