A central theme in "Children of the Sea" revolves around the idea of justice. The reader encounters the deep injustice experienced by the narrators, highlighted through the story's events. A totalitarian government has rendered the country uninhabitable. People face execution for dissenting, speaking out, or attempting to safeguard their families. Even when the young man flees by boat, injustice continues to pervade. The passengers are so desperate to survive that their primary concern of "justice" is whether to throw the sick overboard to save themselves. The grim conditions on the boat are barely better than the world they left behind. The story's emotional impact stems from its relentless portrayal of injustice, which the reader recognizes as largely realistic.

Injustice is also rampant for the female narrator back home. Haitian soldiers rampage across the country, seeking revenge on those who opposed them during Aristide's brief rule. Their version of justice involves violent retribution, manifesting as murder, rape, and incest. Despite his strong convictions, the young woman's father realizes his inability to counter the soldiers' warped sense of "justice," further intensifying the people's suffering as he fails to help his neighbor. Injustice is so widespread and overwhelming that most people have stopped evaluating it, focusing solely on their own survival.
Politics

While "Children of the Sea" can be interpreted as a love story, it is essentially a political narrative. The characters' struggles are imposed by their country's political situation. Simple actions, like the woman's parents supporting Aristide during his time in power, now put them in danger. Danticat employs storytelling to protest the injustices of a totalitarian regime. She intends for readers to connect with her characters and feel outraged by the injustices they face. The narrative demonstrates how politics can dominate a person's life: it can separate you from loved ones, dictate where you live, influence your parents' behavior towards you, and determine your survival.

The harshness and vengeance of Haiti's military regime set the stage for "Children of the Sea." The Tonton Macoutes, a paramilitary group loyal to the Duvalier regime renowned for their torture, public intimidation, and oppression, unleash chaos in the streets following the ousting of Aristide, Haiti's democratically elected president, in a military coup. Aristide's supporters are hunted and killed, with members of a protest group called the "Youth Federation" particularly at risk, despite their nonviolent stance. However, no one is truly safe, as the second narrator reveals through her description of the soldiers' brutal actions and the bodies littering the streets. The soldiers' horrific act of raping Celianne leads to more violence, as Celianne mutilates herself and ultimately takes her own life. On the boat, the cruelty that drove the refugees to flee reemerges as they consider abandoning the weaker among them. Danticat demonstrates how violence begets more violence. By drawing parallels between the refugees on the brink of drowning and African slaves who were violently uprooted from their homeland centuries ago, Danticat connects past atrocities to those occurring in the present. Like the sea, described as "endless," and the young woman's enduring love for the man who drowned, violence is depicted as perpetual.

Interwoven with the themes of violence and politics is the topic of human rights. The Western notion of human rights includes the freedom to speak openly, organize, practice democracy and religious beliefs, and live without fear of governmental oppression, among other liberties. In "Children of the Sea," the Tonton Macoutes breach nearly every imaginable human right. Their oppression fosters an atmosphere of fear and helplessness among Haitians, where even a young woman's declaration of love for a political activist is considered a...