“The Dew Breaker” Character Study

For my project, I chose to make character-based potion bottles based on Edwidge Danticat’s “The Dew Breaker.” Plot-crucial characters I felt like I had a good grasp on in terms of characterization are who I focused on, and that narrowed down to Anne, Ka, and the Preacher. I was going to include Dany, as well, and had a concept planned out for him, but his potion had to be cut due to time concerns. It seems to have turned out pretty well, however, and restricting the potions to one family could also be a way of containing the ideas more effectively.

I chose potion bottles over other concepts because I knew it would keep me engaged, as it has an element of the fantastical to it, but also because I had the potential to create these “potions” in reality until I made the concepts too outlandish to recreate. Colored pencil and digital editing had to suffice, but I think at least two of the potions did come out pretty well.

The “ingredients” section was meant to describe the personalities of the characters as well as one crucial physical element from their lives as seen in the novel. They all hit different depending on how much you know about their stories, though Ka’s potion I think could use a different physical element. I wasn’t sure what to add save for remnants of her art, destroyed in concept and reality, that shattered her perceptions of her father; it seems life-altering, but it doesn’t have the same impact as Anne and the Preacher’s elements.

The “effects” section was meant to describe each character in terms of the art – how to tie a character to a potion aside from saying how the potion would affect someone who used it? I used it to secondarily describe the character’s personalities, adding little warnings when I could identify a strong trait that could “overwhelm” someone who took the potion (unfortunately, I only thought of this too late to add to Anne’s potion, mainly because I am very out of time and ideas, so I can’t edit her potion any more).

The most difficult piece, artistically, was definitely Ka. The bottle shape threw me off, I didn’t know how to blend the colors correctly to make the potion both blood-red and transparent, so it just came out off. The piece that stifled the project most was the Preacher. I was intimidated by having to execute my own concept, especially where it concerned the bubbles, glowing aura, and the tag made of parchment. It was all kind of a mess, but, once it was done, it definitely turned into my favorite piece. Anne gave me the most trouble conceptually. I couldn’t think of anything to put as her effects for the life of me – and I ended up focusing on her resilience because that’s what stuck in my mind most as part of her story.

Nic brought up a great point about the potions being a kind of wordless focus on the way that healing and care is seen in the novel. I think what he was getting at is that a person can be a remedy, or a support, when needed, and these potions being possibly equivalent to medicine could tie into that concept. Had I been thinking about that in a more centralized way, I might have chosen different characters, but I still think it’s a really interesting point to bring up.

Admittedly, the project is problematic in that it reduces people to objects – not only objects, but commodities. I didn’t think of this as I was initially creating the project, but it’s been on my mind more and more as I continue it. I want to say that this is meant as a thinking exercise and an art piece, above all else, and is not wholly what I think the characters “boil down to”. It’s but a snippet of what I perceived as a reader, and put into a context I thought I could handle in the span of the project’s run time.

Why does literature matter?

Literature was, is, and will continue to be a living, breathing entity. It shapes, and is shaped by, culture, and so it should matter to those in that culture. It can give readers a glimpse into the past while also providing cautionary themes to be mindful of in the present. But in the way that I care about it most, literature can give hope for a brighter future. If it shapes culture, that is what it must be coaxed to do, and it must constantly be moving forward. Literature matters because representation matters. Literature matters because people matter, and how they feel is relevant. Text, subtext, language – it can all work to make the world safer through bringing understanding and representation through literature.