I read two short stories from The Dew Breaker, Water Child and The Bridal Seamstress. Both stories were very interesting and I could see how Edwidge Danticat created a new and descriptive world for each. Although they were so different I noticed similar world building techniques the author used in both stories.
Water Child is a story about Nadine, a nurse in her thirties that works at an ear nose throat specialist clinic. She tends to keep to herself and is struggling with some tough life situations. She often receives letters from her parents begging to hear her voice, which she rereads daily but is reluctant to respond to. We learn that she helps support her parents by sending them money and eventually plans to pay them back completely for sending her to nursing school. You soon find out that she has an ex-boyfriend who was the father of her aborted child. On her dresser she keeps a water glass with a pebble in it and some memorabilia of her ex as a monument to her unborn baby. In part of the story she consoles a patient who is no longer able to speak while effectively describing to the reader what is would be like waking up everyday realizing you can no longer speak. Through out the entirety story you get short glimpses into Nadine's desolate life. Slowly learning more and more about her and understanding why she likes to be alone.
The Bridal Seamstress is about a young journalism intern who is send to interview an old bridal seamstress about her upcoming retirement. When she sit down to interview the women she learns a lot more then what she expected and realizes she may get more then a simple article about a retiring seamstress out of it. Halfway through the interview the old women suggests that the two of them take a walk down the block. Exasperated by the women's unwillingness to complete the interview easily Aline, the journalist, protests but is forced to follow the old seamstress when she abruptly walks out of the house without another word. While walking the block the old women talks about all her neighbors and their various jobs and ethnicities until they arrive at one house in participial that seems to have some meaning to the women. By then end of the story you learn that the man who lives in that house is a prison guard on the run from the law that once arrested and whipped the old women back in her country. The women claims that the prison guard follows her whenever she moves because he is able to find out her address due to her bridal clients. Eventually she confides in Aline that she plans to retire from her job so she can move without sending updates on her new address so this man can no longer find her.
On both stories the author uses a strategy of slowly introducing bits of information through out the entirety of the story to build the world in which it takes place. Instead of describing everything at once we are left in the dark at first, but every once in a while we learn a new piece of the puzzle that takes us deeper and deeper into the world the author is building.
I also think the describing words she uses in both short stories really makes you feel immersed in the world she is created. You feel the pain of Nadine as she struggles with people alone and mistakes she has made in the past and you are figuring out the mystery of the bridal seamstress right along with Aline. The author really sets up the story and ends it with an interesting conclusion sentence.
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