Totalitarianism is the shadow that lies over all the characters in this book, even many years after Haiti’s totalitarian era, and even after many of them immigrate to the United States. Although the text surveys Haitian characters with varied backstories and present circumstances, the totalitarian regime affected them all, leaving behind a variety of scars, whether physical or emotional or both.

While many novels about totalitarianism are written as dystopias, portraying the daily lives of those under a repressive regime, Danticat’s novel explores how totalitarianism can be embodied by perpetrators and victims and continue to oppress subsequent generations even after the regime has fallen. This anguish is seen transcending generational lines through characters like Ka and Aline, who are both confronted with the reality of the Haitian regime and the dew breakers, and who both turn to creative outlets (sculpture and writing, respectively) to process that reality and their response to it.

Some characters, like Ka’s father, were corrupted by participating in the violent acts of the totalitarian regime. His scars are apparent on his physical body, with one that slashes across his face, and in his behavior and demeanor, as he struggles with the weight of his remorse while spinning a web of lies to conceal his culpability.