Marxist Literary Analysis: 'A Wall of Fire Rising' by Edwidge Danticat

This essay provides a Marxist analysis of Edwidge Danticat's short story, 'A Wall of Fire Rising,' set against the backdrop of the Haitian Revolution. It examines the lives of a poor Haitian family, Guy, Lili, and their son Little Guy, and their struggles within a society marked by class divisions and economic disparities. The essay explores the themes of alienation, false consciousness, and ideology, highlighting how the working class is exploited by the wealthy landowners, the Assads. It delves into how the characters' aspirations and desires are shaped by their socio-economic conditions, and how their consciousness is influenced by the dominant ideology. The essay analyzes the family's fascination with the hot air balloon owned by the wealthy, which symbolizes their limited understanding of their oppression. Ultimately, the essay examines the story's critique of capitalism and the characters' limited ability to challenge the existing power structures, concluding that the revolutionary spirit is weak in the story.

Running head: A WALL OF FIRE RISING
A WALL OF FIRE RISING
NAME OF THE STUDENT
NAME OF THE UNIVERSITY
AUTHOR NOTE

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‘A Wall of Fire Rising’, is one of the short stories from the collection of Edwidge
Danticat titled ‘Krik? Krak!’ The chosen short story for this particular purpose, ‘A Wall of Fire
Rising’, is set against the backdrop of the Haitian Revolution against the French Colonial rule. In
this particular analytical essay, the discussion shall be focusing upon the analysis of the chosen
short story against the Marxian theoretical premise with special focus on concepts such as
alienation, false consciousness and ideology. In the following sections of the discussion the
focus shall be on providing a brief summarized account of the story and the analytical part
against the backdrop of Marxian theoretical premise with special focus on concepts such as
alienation, false consciousness and ideology shall be provided.
The short story, ‘A Wall of Fire Rising’ is based upon the lives of a nucleated family
consisting of three members Guy being the man of the house, Lili being his wife and their son
Little Guy. The family of three leads a life with limited means, they reside in a shanty at a
marginalized location in the Haitian countryside in an impoverished neighborhood. Little Guy is
a school student, his mother a home-maker and his father indulges in odd jobs to ensure that the
family runs well. One day Guy was supposed to share a piece of news on his return, but the
enthusiasm of Little Guy to share his piece of news had tended to overwhelm that of Guy. Little
Guy had broken the tidings to his parents with a lot of excitement as he had got the opportunity
to play the role of the Haitian Revolutionary Dutty Boukman who had fought for the
independence of his nation from the yoke of French colonialism. Little Guy had with all the
fervor enacted the part he was supposed to play at his school and the act was highly appreciated
by his parents. The family led a very frugal life consisting of humble meals of corn mush and the
large government installed television at the local sugar mill for entertainment, which was used

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for watching news. After the television program used to get over, the congregation of the people
used to complain about the government. However the fascination of Little Guy and his parents
had been captured by the Hot Air Balloon, which rose high up in the sky, owned by the Assad
family of Lebanese Haitian origin. It was imported from America. The Assads were rich, they
were the owners of the sugar mill, and they had the liberty to purchase expensive commodities.
Finally, one day Guy gets to break the news to Lili that he wished to for a long time but couldn’t
do so because of interruptions from their son, which was about his frustration for not getting a
permanent and decent job at the sugar mill of the Assads, instead he had secured the job of a
toilet cleaner. Guy had also expressed his wish to get their son a job at the sugar mill so that he
could secure a better position by the time he grows up and procure all the bourgeois comforts of
the world. Lili refuses and Guy also agrees as the job at the sugar mill was all hard work and
very less money which would not let their son break away from the shackles of poverty. The
imagination of the couple was highly dominated by the hot air balloon of the Assads as their idea
or consciousness about a good life was limited to procurement of materialistic requisites of life
which was mainly economic in nature. One day Guy tries his hand at flying the hot air balloon
and he falls to his death. His dead body lied on the ground facing the sky with his eyes wide
open through which he saw the balloon fly away into the horizon. On being asked if his wife Lili
wanted to close his eyes, she replied no, as her husband loved to fly high up in the sky
(Danticat).
Having provided a synoptic view of the short story, the analytical part focusing on
relating the story to the Marxist premise of alienation, ideology and consciousness shall be
provided. The story makes the division between the rich and the poor very manifest which is
tantamount to alienation. The poor people of the Haitian countryside worked in the sugar mill of

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the Assads and thus enabled them to get richer while they themselves remained poor. The fruit of
the labour of the poor people were being alienated from them as they themselves did not benefit
much from it rather the Assads procured the maximum amount of benefit out of the labour of the
workers. The Assads owned the hot air balloon due to the labour of the workers enriching them
while the workers ate frugal meals and for entertainment only had the government installed
television at the sugar mill. With regard to the factor of ideology and consciousness it can be said
that in every society a hegemony functions and that contributes to the stability of the society
(Tyson). In this particular story the hegemony exhibited was that of reconciliation to the
bourgeois interests and bourgeois way of life. Guy was frustrated as he did not get a permanent
job at the sugar mill and it was because of the consciousness that prevailed in the society among
the common people that life was all about getting a stable job at the sugar mill. Guy and Lili
were occasionally mesmerized by the revolutionary speeches that their son enacted creating a
sense of counter consciousness in the minds which was contrary to the bourgeois way of life but
the realities of life made them return back to their fascination for the hot air balloon of the
Assads and a life of materialistic bounty secured through economic power. The attempt to create
a consciousness through ideological hegemonization that the bourgeois way of life is false
consciousness and the true consciousness lied in bringing about a revolutionary change in the
society to do away with the capitalistic dominance was very weak in the story, exhibited only
through the play of Little Guy (Ritzer & Stepnisky).

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References
Danticat, Edwidge. "A Wall of Fire Rising.”." Krik? Krak (1996): 51-80.
Ritzer, George, and Jeffrey Stepnisky. Modern sociological theory. Sage publications, 2017.
Tyson, Lois. "Marxist criticism." Critical Theory Today: A User Friendly Guide (1999).