The constraining power of social class is a theme repeated in many of Danticat’s other tales. In “A Wall of Fire Rising,” a story in Krik? Krak!, a young couple living in poverty in Haiti dream of a better life for their young son, a gifted student. However, they disagree strenuously about what “a better life” means. The boy’s father, who works intermittently at best and has always dreamed of a permanent job at the local mill, wants to place his son on the waiting list for mill work so that “maybe by the time he becomes a man he can be up for a job.” The boy’s mother, on the other hand, is opposed to this; to her, a better life means education and a life beyond mill work and poverty. Placing the boy on the waiting list, she feels, will condemn