Throughout the collection, Edwidge Danticat insists on the importance of art as a means of coping with extraordinary violence. In “A Wall of Fire Rising,” “Seeing Things Simply,” and the Epilogue, Danticat demonstrates the power of theater, visual arts, and literature to transport Haitians away from their reality into a more beautiful, hopeful world. In the first of these stories, seven-year-old Little Guy, who lives in a one-room home with his parents, is cast as Haitian revolutionary hero Dutty Boukman in a school play. Watching their son practice his lines, Little Guy’s parents “felt as though for a moment they had been given the rare pleasure of hearing the voice of one of the forefathers of Haitian independence in the forced baritone of their child” (57). The experience of Little Guy’s performance momentarily transports the family away from their home in a shantytown to a moment of immense pride and historical importance, suggesting the importance of art as a hopeful measure against poverty and violence.

Princesse, the protagonist of “Seeing Things Simply,” is similarly surrounded by poverty and violence: Her story indicates that art can help to make sense of violence. As she walks past cockfights to her job as an artist’s model, Princesse is repeatedly harassed by an older drunk man who tries to lift her skirt.