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Nick Lake's In Darkness - Online Papers

Nick Lake's In Darkness

In Darkness

Nick Lake’s In Darkness tells the story of a young gangster named Shorty who is recovering from a gunshot would at a hospital in Port au Prince, Haiti. When a devastating earthquake hits, Shorty finds himself buried alive under the ruins of the hospital. While he struggles to keep his body alive, he also grasps at the stories of his past to keep from losing his mind. He recalls the circumstances surrounding his birth, the tragedies that ripped his family apart, and the series of events that led him to become a gang member and become a foot soldier in the ongoing war that defined life in Haiti’s slums. In the darkness of the rubble, he dreams of legendary Toussaint ...

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Shorty and Toussaint share similar impulses to classify the world. Shorty says, “When you keep hurting someone, you do one of three things. Either you fill them up with hate, and they destroy everything around them. Or you fill them up with sadness, and they destroy themselves. Or you fill them up with justice, and they try to destroy everything that [i]s bad in this world” (Lake 87). Shorty questions whether one can change from one who destroys to one who pursues justice. Through identification, displacement, and compensation, Shorty begins to comprehend his troubled past and present and the fragile future of his country.

Using identification, the author allows the protagonist to seek someone with whom to identify. “Identification is “the psychological fusion of two people into one person” (Lewin 552). Shorty tries to identify himself through at least three other characters in the novel. First, he obviously connects with his twin sister. The author relates how she is “one half ...

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Nick Lake's In Darkness. (2013, November 9). Retrieved January 6, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Nick-Lakes-In-Darkness/103277

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 11/9/2013 04:28:20 PM
Submitted By: larryswife
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1217
Pages: 5

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