Edwidge Danticat’s “Westbury Court” in my opinion is about the unexpectancy of life and how those shocking moments can seem to just go by in the blink of an eye without realizing what really happened or could have happened. In her essay she talks about her life as a kid growing up in the Westbury Court apartments and the people that have come and gone there, for example, the mother and her two children who died in the fire across the hall. When an event like this happens, it is hard not to think about the “what if’s”. What if that had been me? Danticat says “I couldn’t help but wonder, would our parents have suffered the same fate had it been my brothers and me who were killed in the fire?” Life moves so hard and fast sometimes that it is hard for us to really think and understand that we could be the ones in that fire instead of the people next door; life is so random and you never know if it is going to be you in that place, and it is a frightening thought, “…fear that their destiny could have so easily been mine and my brothers’.” Danticat uses a lot of description in her essay, which makes the reader see the story more from her point of view. Also, when she is telling the story of the people in Westbury Court, she doesn’t know most of their names, like the African-American family across the hall, the Nigerian man who got shot, or the man who died of cirrhosis. I think the message is conveyed through this also because she never knew any of these people well, but it is still surreal to see the how unexpected life can be to anyone.
