Everything Inside

“Seven Stories” is the most formally inventive of the stories in this collection: it contains an embedded narrative in the form of an excerpt from the essay Kim wrote and engages aspects of allegorical storytelling. Danticat’s use of the embedded narrative highlights The Impossibility of Truly Knowing Others. The use of allegory suggests that the violence and trauma of the unnamed Caribbean island on which the story takes place can be found on a number of similar islands in the real world.

The inciting incident in “Seven Stories” is the publication of Kim’s essay about her childhood friendship with Callie, who invites Kim to visit the island after reading it. The story includes a lengthy passage from this essay which includes a byline— “by Kimberly Boyer” (162)—and begins and ends with ellipses to indicate that the passage is only an excerpt from a longer piece. The inclusion of the byline and the ellipses adds a degree of verisimilitude, as if Kim’s essay had actually been published and required proper citation in Danticat’s story. However, the “reality” of Kim’s essay is challenged by the eventual revelation that it does not, in fact, contain the whole story of how Callie came to America. The essay is told from the perspective of seven-year-old Kim, who, unlike the adult Kim, does not understand that Callie is the daughter of an assassinated politician. When she reconnects with Callie after writing the story, however, Kim realizes that, even now, she doesn’t know the full story of the violence that accompanied Callie’s escape. Callie’s statement that “no story is ever complete” (195) is a reminder that Kim’s essay can only ever tell her perspective, and that Callie’s story must be told by Callie.

In addition to the embedded narrative, “Seven Stories” also engages aspects of allegorical storytelling, such as the use of abstract terms to name characters and places. One example of this is the presence of characters known as “Finance” and “Runner.” Lacking any individual identity, these characters stand-in for two types of success on the island: either in government finance or in athletics, both of which involve time off the island. The island where Callie lives and her husband is Prime Minister is not named in the story or in the embedded narrative, nor can it be positively identified using clues within the story. This lack of naming is deliberate: the island acts as an allegorical stand-in for all Caribbean islands affected by colonialism and the transatlantic trading of enslaved individuals. Significantly, the only named location in the story is “a small fishing village called Maafa,” (191) where Finance and Runner get married. “Maafa,” which comes from the Swahili word for “great disaster” is a term used by African Studies scholars to describe the history and ongoing effects of the Transatlantic Trade. Danticat’s use of this term as the only named location in this story suggests that she intends the island to stand in as an allegory for those Caribbean islands affected by this dark history.