Characterization of Aline

Outer characterization

Aline is the main character in the story "Aline's Journey" by Edwidge Danticat. She is a girl who lives with her family (her mother, father, and baby brother) in Sayira, Haiti. They live in a two-room concrete house which has a “pebbly road” (p.13, l. 5) out front leading to the sea. This puts it in frequent danger of flooding when it rains, and the family must go inland to escape the waters (p. 12, ll. 4-6). This suggests the family has modest living conditions and a fragile situation in Haiti.

Aline’s exact age is not revealed, but we can assume that she is of primary school or elementary school age, since she plays games such as hopscotch, likes kites, and listens to Granny Valia’s stories for children (p. 13, ll. 9-13). Aline is not physically described in the story, but we know that she wears her “favorite light blue dress with the puffed sleeves and ruffled skirt” (p. 13, ll. 1-2) during the journey. After she and her family are arrested in Miami, she wears the t-shirt of a gray uniform, because they could not...