Balloon of Freedom: Symbolism in 'A Wall of Fire Rising'

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An image that was common in this story was the hot air balloon. The hot air balloon represented freedom for Man, who was trying to leave the unreasonable poverty that his household was experiencing. This sign of freedom is very first introduced to the reader when Guy, his spouse Lili, and their boy all go down to the sugar mill to hear the evening news that is displayed for them. This is a little place of pleasure that they have actually found because they do not go and sit with everyone else, "where in the past year they had actually found their own wonder.

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" I thought it was fitting that Danticat separated Man and the balloon with barbed wire. It was like he wasn't expected to be complimentary. "As Person pressed his hand through the barbed wire, she might distinguish the look on his face that he was thinking about sitting inside the square basket while the calm rainbow surface area of the balloon itself drifted above his head", this was foreshadowing that he would wind up because balloon of liberty one day.

Before Man leapt out of the balloon, he was asking Lili how she believed a guy is judged after he is gone. She reacted with "A man is evaluated by his deeds, the kid never goes to bed starving." Man took this as an approval to go forth with his search for freedom. Guy is not judged after death based on the act of eliminating himself, he is judged based on his deeds and actions while he was alive.

I was definitely caught off guard when he jumped out of the balloon. Why didn’t he take his family with him!? When Lili and Guy were lying in the grass together he said “Sometimes I just want to take that big balloon and ride it up in the air. I’d like to sail off somewhere and keep floating until I got to a really nice place with a nice plot of land where I could be something new. I’d build my own house, keep my own garden. Just be something new.” I was left wondering what his little family would do to survive now. He was the main provider and Lili was always building him up and trying to make him feel like a man. I was also confused as to why Guy would want to put his son on the list to work at the mill if that’s not what Guy even wanted to do in his life. I would have thought he would feel the same way as his wife in that he would want a better life for their son instead of just working at the only mill in the area.