The Dew Breaker 3 Thematic Topics
Daniel Arcega Mrs. Emerick IB English HL II November 3, 2021 How our relationships with others can help us Danticat uses the characters' relationships in The Dew Breaker in order to illustrate how people can be changed by their relationships with others. The main example of this comes from the relationship of the titular character (known as Papa) and his family. Through the first and last chapters, "The Book of the Dead" and "The Dew Breaker", we learn about Papa's past. He was a horrible man who took pleasure in carrying out terrible missions for a terrifying government. He used his power and influence to get what he wanted and killed any who got in his way. Danticat uses his actions and his physical appearance to characterize him as a monster. By the time we see him in "The Book of the Dead", he is a completely changed man. He is soft-spoken, and visually disturbed by violence. After he explains the truth of his past to his daughter, she is conf...