Life Narratives as a Tool for Healing

In Missing Sarah, Maggie De Vries says she is writing “to make it real for herself” as well as “to make it real for you” (Prologue XV). This suggests that there is an aspect of healing to writing life narratives, even if one is relieving the tragedy they are trying to escape. Perhaps Dany Laferriere also wrote to heal in The World is Moving Around Me, when he writes “as long as I am writing, nothing moves. Writing keeps things from breaking down” (183). This quote makes it sound as if he used writing as a kind of therapy to heal from the traumatic event he witnessed, somewhat like Maggie de Vries.

This then leads me to a list of questions: does writing help “ground” people, calm them, or help them understand or organize their thoughts? Or is it the notion that one can “escape” reality, pausing their remembrance of a haunting tragedy, like Laferriere, that leads them to write?

In help make sense of these questions, I found a journal article called Utilizing Narrative Methodology in Trauma Treatment with Haitian Earthquake Survivors, that also uses life narratives as a tool for healing. It is a study done by David Lane, Keith Myers, Maurice Hill, and Donna lane, after the 2010 Haiti earthquake that uses storytelling and life narratives as a “culturally sensitive” way to help Haitians cope. The article claimed through previous research that storytelling allows people to make sense their lives, and is vital to making sense of trauma. So, they used the cultural importance of storytelling to help Haitians heal. The study had participants follow a story that called Gold Stone – that contains the main traumas of a natural disaster such as death and loss – while sharing their own traumatic experiences. They then would try to identify a meaning behind their personal stories, “reconnecting with their sense of self to establish wholeness” and finally  “write” what their life could be like after the trauma. The study was rather successful, showing that individuals that has undergone the study had significantly less PTSD symptoms (Hill, Lane, Lane, Myers).

This study can help us make sense of why people write life narratives, as well as how life narratives can be used to heal. Both Missing Sarah and The World is Moving Around Me may be written just as much for the purpose of healing than for what their main focus suggests: countering stereotypes. The study can also help us to make sense of why writing is so important; not only is it a way to communicate with others, but it is a way for people to “come to grips” or understand themselves.

Sources:

Laferriere, Dany, and David Homel. The World Is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2013. Print.

Lane, David W., Keith J. Myers, Maurice C. Hill, and Donna E. Lane. “Utilizing Narrative Methodology in Trauma Treatment with Haitian Earthquake Survivors.” Journal of Loss and Trauma 21.6 (2016): 560-74. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

Vries, Maggie De. Missing Sarah: A Memoir of Loss. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2008. Print.

The Western Perspective of Haitians Vs. Laferriere’s

Dany Laferriere’s memoir, The World is Moving Around Me discusses the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti. Laferriere makes a point in his memoir to counter the western stereotype of the Haitian people. This stereotype being, poor, violent “wild men” who believe in voodoo (Laferriere 75-76). In contrast, Laferriere believes them undeserving of this “curse” (76) and describes their “energy and dignity”(76), perseverance, and hope (32), after the earthquake, as well as in their everyday lives. I researched two news articles, published right after the earthquake happened, from popular western sources to see how the Haitian people were being portrayed in relation to the western stereotype and to Laferriere’s description of them. Both sources held similarities that backed up the stereotype.

The two articles I found – one from BBC News, and the other from the New York Times written by Simon Romero and Marc Lacy – mostly reported quotes, perspectives, and statistics (such as the death toll of UN personnel) related to western culture instead of Haitian. In fact, besides mentioning Haiti’s tendency for natural disasters, and the devastation this catastrophe was for it (primarily because of Haiti’s extreme poverty, bad construction, and political state; or as Romero and Lacy put it, “Haiti’s many man-made woes”), they barely mentioned Haitian people at all. When they did, it was from a western perspective, describing the chaos and panic happening around them, not the resilience and spirit of the Haitian people like Laferriere describes.

For example, both the New York Times and BBC News quote Henry Bahn, an official of the United States Department of Agriculture, saying “Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken”; and another quote by Rachmani Domersant, an operations manager with the Food for the Poor charity, said “You have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go. There are people running, crying, screaming” (BBC News). Contrary to these reports, Laferriere wrote, “I expected to hear screams and cries, there was none of that” (15). Both sides, Laffaire’s and the western perspectives, gives two different ideas of Haiti. So, to what extent does each account accurately portray the people of Haiti? And, does the western stereotype effect the way Bahn and Domersant saw Haiti?

BBC News also briefly mentions that “there have also been some reports of looting overnight”, further supporting the crime and violence stereotype of Haiti.

I also feel it worth noting that both sources paint western countries in a virtuous light as they send aid to Haiti.

Both BBC News and The New York Times report information that paints Haitian people in a contradictory way to Laferriere description. This could suggest that Laferrier’s memoir, in addition to it being a trauma narrative of the earthquake, it is meant to bring to light the virtues of a group of marginalized people (Schaffer and Smith); Haitians who are negatively stereotyped in western eyes.

Sources:

“Haiti Devastated by Massive Earthquake.” BBC News. BBC, 13 Jan. 2010. Web. 05 Nov. 2016.

Laferriere, Dany, and David Homel. The World Is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti

Earthquake. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2013. Print.

Schaffer, Kay, and Sidonie Smith. “Conjunctions: Life Narratives in the Field of Human Rights.” 27.1 (2004): 1-24. University of Hawaii Press. Web.

Romero, Simon, and Marc Lacy. “Fierce Quake Devastates Haitian Capital.” The New York

Times. The New York Times Company, 12 Jan. 2010. Web. 5 Nov. 2016.