“There was the initial euphoria of finding himself alone at college, free of everything, completely on his fucking own, and with it an optimism that here among these thousands of young people he would find someone like him. That, alas, didn’t happen. The white kids looked at his black skin and his afro and treated him with inhuman cheeriness. The kids of color, upon hearing him speak and seeing him move his body, shook their heads. You’re not Dominican.” (page 51)

This quote shows Oscars eagerness and excitement of going to college, envisioning acceptance but he is not accepted. He withholds optimism in hope of finding someone ‘like him’, which shows Oscar lacks a sense of relatablitity to those he was surrounded by.  Oscar sees Rutgers college as an escape of his reality in a sense. He is now on his own and ‘free of everything’, optimistic, yet at college is only further confined to the social prejudices that Dominican men are held to. At his college (Rutgers) the white kids, are far too nice, that it does not seem genuine to him. The students who are colored, do not accept Oscar to be “Dominican” enough, to their standards. His physical features identify him as Dominican but his language is anything but. His knowledge of books and fascination of Star Wars, furthered him from the ideal Dominican male. Oscar lacks the masculinity needed to be accepted into his own culture. Oscar in turn is torn between two worlds, and his identity is questioned.

“Unlike me, she was fine-boned, probably not as strong as she needed to be to survive in this era. But she was surviving, however painfully. Maybe she would help me learn how. ” (page 38)

     This quote comes from Dana as she describes Alice, her presumed ancestor. It best describes the fear Alice has from the previous events that have taken place. She compares herself physically to Alice and does not not see any physical commonalities, but rather the fear that the two have. She acknowledges that she is strong, for at a young age to see one’s father whipped and abused so harshly has to have some emotional repercussions, but she does not show it too much. Comparing the time she was in, or hallucinating to her own time period she thinks that Alice is ‘not as strong as she needed to be to survive this era’ , which was understandable for any individual. Although she knows that Alice has much to learn she wants to learn her survival tactics.
The way in which Dana describes Alice is very contradictory, as she states how Alice has much more to learn in order to survive yet ends it with stating how she hopes she can teach her how to survive. At Alice’s age, young children are naive and are not yet fully aware of the harsh realities. Although some more than others, Alice’s reaction to seeing her father whipped and dragged, was understandable and not dramatized. She was helpful as Dana needed her assistance to help her mother, which showed great strength. Alice hiding in the woods as the whites approached their house and yanked her parents out of bed was smart and showed she knew the brutalities that were to come.
I found this quote most significant because it demonstrates the strength needed to survive in that time period particularly to slaves. As well as show Dana’s feelings in that moment, she felt weak and fearful, similar to Alice. She knows in that moment that she is far weaker than her ancestors and is able to see the harsh reality that they faced.

“Punishment, often surpassing the human imagination in its grotesque refinements of barbarism and torture… was often the order of the day”( Fick , Making of Haiti 34)

I found this quote most significant because it depicted the brutal treatment that the slaves had encountered and what the harsh reality was for them. The actions committed to them far then human characteristics, so extreme it surpassed barbarism. Especially the fact of the matter that it states ‘ was often the order of the day’ that the slaves had to succumb to this constant brutality on a daily is what strikes me most. Which is in part of why this brought the slaves to revolt, in a harsh matter and made this revolution one of the most well known that catapulted the start of revolution amongst the western world.

The majority of the slaves were treated like ‘beasts of burden’ as if the slaves should have been grateful that they were alive. The slaves were overworked, especially during the sugar harvest working a multitude of hours that would be almost impossible for the average individual. As Carolyn Fick demonstrates, the elite white, were able to control and manipulate the social and political system to their advantage. They instilled this brutality to maintain a sense of control but within this process lost a sense of human compassion, this made them barbaric. As this absolute power that they held corrupted their sense of emotion, and compassion. This in turn resulted in the Haitian revolution and effected the world internationally.

“That if you now beheld them, your affections would become tender.” (act 5 sc. 1, line 23-24)

From this quote it is evident that this individual is stating, if said person were to see it for themselves, the individual would feel some sorrow or some emotion. If one were to see ‘them’, them being traitors of Prospero (Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian), one would empathize for their state of being assuming is not at its best. This quote comes from this spirit named Ariel, who is not human, thus the quote further demonstrates the spirit’s capability of feeling sorrow or remorse for these individuals that he is wary of.

Ariel has seen these individuals plot to kill one of the Kings, King Alonso shortly after arriving  on the island. So his perspective of these people is already altered and can see the corruption among-st the noblemen. These noblemen are very opportunistic and go after individuals when they are at their weakest or vulnerable, as they attempted to kill the king in his sleep. Yet with this perspective still feels for the pain and suffering that they experience due to Prospero’s magic and more. Prosperos vengeance stems so deep that he fails to see the inhumane nature of his spells and ill-doing. However a mythological creature sees the wrong in his actions and speaks up on it, he brings it to his masters attention, only to hopefully bring about justice. In return Prospero asks that Ariel relieve them of their suffering and later on admits to his actions and why he has done so in a grand unveiling.

“It is true that after they have been reassured and have lost all fear, they are so artless and so free with all they possess, that no one would believe it without having seen it. Of anything they have, if you ask them for it, they never say no, rather they invite the person to share it, and show as much love as if they were giving their hearts; whether the thing be of value or of small price, at once they are content with whatever little thing of whatever kind may be given to them. I forbade that they be given things so worthless…” (page 28, line 11)

I found this quote to be most significant because of Christopher Columbus’s interpretation of the natives of these islands in the Americas, which he called ‘Indians”. Columbus further describes their kindness and generosity as unimaginable, and unbelievable, claiming one would only believe it if the individual were to see it in person. This was quite sad to believe that in a sense, he had lived in a society where individuals always sought out something, it was unimaginable to have people so ‘artless’ and ‘free’ in his presence. Not only did the explorers take advantage of the generosity the natives had, they was so flabbergasted at their behavior. When Christopher and the other explorers had landed the natives had given the explorers god- like characteristics without much reasoning, they were described as ‘people from the sky’. This in turn gave the explorers more power without having to forcibly gain this power. The ease of it all only encouraged the explorers to exploit this, to the extent of which Columbus felt guilty and set restrictions to others, that they could not trade them worthless items for what they had given in return. The natives although unaware of the value of what they were trading, the natives saw these Europeans as symbols of gods and thus any item they provided held some sort of importance to them.