"Children of the Sea," is a short story in a book entitled Krik, Krak written by Edwidge Danticat. Danticat is a Haitian-American immigrant who frequently chronicles issues or even personal vendettas occurring in Haiti. Haiti is a country in such a depressing state of turmoil that not many people are aware of.
In "Children of the Sea," Danticat writes as two young Haitian lovers writing letters to one another. The boy is on an illegal boat hoping to find it's way to America while the girl remains in Haiti with her family. The boy is fleeing from the corrupt and propaganda filled terror that is the Haitian government. He writes of the hardships of life on a small makeshift boat, over crowded with people, sickness, and little to no food. She tells him of the terrible happenings in Haiti with people being slaughtered and tortured for speaking out against the government. As you read on you find that they are not receiving these letters which is truly heart wrenching and depressing.
Above all in this except is the lawless love the two share. Their unknowable separation makes their love the only thing and everything they have left to share. They fight to live on only for the one last hope they have which is each other.
Dantitcat writes in an a compatible essay, We Are Ugly, but We Are Here, that on small boats, such as the one the boy is voyaging on, people would throw themselves into the water after days of hardship and starvation, to sacrifice themselves to the Gods. They give up their life to God because they seek the love and power that a new life can give to them, while the boy Danticat depicts sees to it to stay alive for as long as he can because the love he shares with his girl in Haiti is more powerful that the love of God. When you have nothing, to have something, or someone, is more than everything.
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