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La’Kecia Osborne
Dr. Kristin Girard
English 102
14 November 2016
“Life and death are important. Don’t suffer them in vain.”- Bodhidharma
There is a difference in being alive and living, to be alive is merely existing; while living,
means experiencing. Joy and pain, smiles and frowns, memories and imaginations are all things
that can be learned and acquired through experiences throughout your life. Although a man may
be able to be alive without living, one cannot live without being alive. However, as with life is
the inevitable death. Death is a part of life because it signifies the end of life, it is a cease and
desist of existence. Most people live their whole life wondering, “what’s the purpose of their
lives?” Through Danticat’s use of Guy’s suicide in “Wall of Fire Rising,” she shows that
sometimes the goal in life may be fulfilled through death. Though Guy’s death, he gives life to
his dreams. His death ignited the flame within his son to deliver emotion and depth to his acting.
The lines Little Guy is given to practice can also be used as a foreshadow of his father’s death
and his personal loss and growth that are yet to come. Danticat’s use of fire in the title, the past,
and the present also play a significant role in the focus of life, death, and the purpose of
fulfillment mission in between.
Guy is a poor man who wants nothing more than to be a better than his father was and
have something to pass on to his son. He is a dreamer who loves looking at the sky and dreams
to go abroad to create a better life and have better job opportunities for himself and his family.
Guy states that he has been studying how the hot air balloon at his job cleaning toilets and how it
can be used as his path to get away. He says it has taken him many years of waiting only to
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become a man who cleans toilets. He wants to give his son a life that will be better than his own.
He proclaims to his wife that he can fly it and she shuns him for not being content that their son
eats every night already. She also asks if he believes so much in himself will he take his family
with him or leave them behind. Seeing as to how his whole desire of a better life is for his
family, he couldn’t bear to leave them behind, so as the balloon assents he leaps to his death.
Through this act, Guy has reached what he feels is the limit with his beliefs. He has shown his
family and anyone else who is watching that anything can be accomplished if you put your heart
and mind into it. However, because he couldn’t leave his family, he kills himself rather than
continuing his dreams for himself. This is where the difference between selfishness and courage
is substantiated. Guy used fire to get his balloon into the sky. The balloon represents his dreams
of going someplace else, by it continuing to fly on after his departure; it shows his dream living
