Claire of the Sea Light

“So her birthday was also a day of death, and the freak wave and the dead fisherman proved that it never ceased to be.” 

Claire Limyè Lanmè Faustin first appears here as a girl caught in the midst of tragedy and joy. Her birthday is a day of celebration and a day of mourning. As her father rushes home after he witnesses yet another death on the little girl’s birthday, it reminds him of the emotional extremities of her existence. Claire’s introduction to the reader surrounds her with tragedy, foreshadowing what is to come. 

“On the day of the motto taxi accident, though, the fabric vendor was the sole owner of that tragedy.” 

Nozias witnessing the car accident introduces an interesting perspective on grief. From his point of view, sadness and tragedy are tangled together with ideas of ownership. They are not simply abstract terms, but they can be possessed and disowned. For a man who has lost a wife and struggled to raise his daughter while being incredibly poor, this transactional idea of grief seems natural. To him, his emotional state is tied to his material state and only by solving the latter can he even attempt to solve the former.