Brother, I'm Dying

In the novel Brother, I am Dying displays an immeasurable account of exile and strife inflicted upon a seemingly 'good' family, told through the eyes of Edwidge Danticat. In Danticat's story there are three main points of exile presented, one being in Danticat's separation from her Uncle Joseph in Haiti when she left to be reunited with her parents and brothers. Before her departure from Haiti she had been living with her Uncle, a man that became a father to her for the ten years she was without her parents. This book instills upon the reader the personal levels of exile that exist within families. It reminded me of a close family friend who came to America at the age 17 from Cuba, and to this day, approaching her 88rd birthday she has not seen her brother who remains Cuba, unable to leave. Another point of exile exists in her Uncle's cancer that hindered his speech and ultimate source of communication between himself and Danticat. This is a bodily exile, a person exiled from his own voice, and then Danticat's feeling of exile toward her Uncle's inability.The third example of exile appears in the Uncle's exile from his beloved homeland; Joseph chose to stay in Haiti, whereas his brother and family chose to leave, therefore at the point of being kicked out into a land not of his own [America], and dying in captivity is absolutely horrible. I was not expecting the story Danticat told in Brother, I am Dying, it was truly heart breaking.