Untwine - Response

             Edwige Danticat does an amazing job of creating this almost addictive quality of intrigue and drama. To be honest, I can’t say for sure if this is a quality a lot of young adult novels have but I think Danticat worked this aspect to bring a fast paced life to her work. We start the story off in an everyday sense that turns extremely violent. I keep thinking about how Danticat does this. She turned a normal day into the worst day of the main character’s life within seconds of pages. She seems to do this by focusing on a single perspective that tries to empathize with every other character in the novel. Mostly empathize and then characterizing her passed away twin. The way Danticat creates meaning is by implying a close bond (that between twins in this novel) and then really writing out how close that bond was through description (most of this detail being given to the reader after her death) and through how other characters spoke of that bond; thereby inciting a lot of emotion. The twin who passes, Isabelle, has maybe all of five lines in the entire novel but we know exactly who she is in her death by how her twin sister talks about her and her conveniently close family members talk about her too; the memories we are given when Gisabelle is in the coma, all of these moments build Isabelle’s character indirectly. By the end of the novel though, I was tired of the quality that made the book so “addictive” to me in the beginning. I felt as though my heart strings were trying to be strummed when they had already twanged out of place.

            Danticat uses exposition in an interesting way. We get a good set up of a “normal” day in the lives of our main characters, the twins Isabelle and Gisabelle. Through this beginning exposition we also get the beginning of certain through lines to other media references, very much like allusions. One of them is the repetition of “we’re late, we’re late for a very important date. No time to say hello goodbye, we’re late, we’re late” (Danticat 13). I do believe this is a reference to a character in Alice in Wonderland. We get another perspective of our main character who lives, Gisabelle, from this perspective who seems to have been going through her own twisted “wonderland” now that her sister’s death has plummeted her through a rabbit hole to another life. We get another reference from the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty; “But I remain the other Sleeping Beauty, the one who will not be awakened by a kiss” (Danticat 92). Giving us a view of who Gisabelle’s character is through references to a Disney movie; which I believe is fitting for a young adult book. Both of these references to other media movies gives us an idea of who Gisabelle is and who she is becoming after he twin sister’s death. Danticat does a good job of continuing to create meaning through these references as Gisabelle continues to blame herself for making them late to her sister’s recital with the Alice in Wonderland reference. And continues having the reader understand more about Gisabelle’s love life through the reference to Sleeping Beauty. The rest of our exposition comes when we step away from the major plot line. And it is always relevant to Gisabelle and Isabelle’s relationship; it also supported the World building that Danticat does throughout the book.  

            I thought the moments when Gisabelle was in the coma were very important to the development of the novel. Because when she was in the coma Danticat gives us a lot of detail in the body and then segways into memories that Gisabelle has of her twin. This is where we are stuck in the coma with Gisabelle, because we see this World through Gisabelle’s eyes, and because of that we want to know so much more as Danticat teases us with information that Gisabelle could never find out unless she could wake up to ask the questions. One part of that information that incited a lot of emotion within me was the hint of this car crash being intentional. I wanted to speed read throughout the whole novel just to see if it was true and where Danticat was going with this through line. Danticat does indeed do something interesting; she shifts the blame of the car crash to the universe and away from this girl who apparently is a victim herself. By doing this, Danticat is using this platform of the novel to speak about the social issue of human trafficking. This little girl seemed to have been trying to get away from her abusive situation when she was riding in that car. When Gisabelle hears that the girl wishes she were dead rather than Isabelle, this strikes Gisabelle. And it also strikes the reader. The remorse the girl has dampens the vengeful spirit of the reader, even though the characters seemed to have wanted more. I enjoyed the sentiment that Isabelle was keeping Gisabelle in the coma to say goodbye to her; like walking her into the afterlife before Gisabelle had to wake up and come back into reality; a new person.