Writing Task #5 – “Apocalypse: What disasters reveal” by Junot Díaz

“Apocalypse: What disasters reveal” by Junot Díaz is an incredibly touching article published in the Boston Review on the the earthquake in Haiti with his analysis on apocalypse relevant to “natural disaster”, a viewpoint that most of us will intuitively comprehend. Throughout the entire article, Díaz relentlessly utilizes quotes from other published books to illustrate his convincing prospective that “After all, apocalypses like the Haitian earthquake are not only catastrophes; they are also opportunities: chances for us to see ourselves, to take responsibility for what we see, to change” (9). With his effective selection of evidences, Díaz crafts a well found argument.

“Natural disasters” are natural occurrences that become social disasters. According to geographer Neil smith, “there’s no such thing as a natural disaster”; “the difference between who lives and who dies is to greater or lesser extent a social calculus” (3-4). “Trend of global inequality” promotes the rich to become richer “by squeezing the poor and, increasingly, the middle class” (5), causing lack of resources for more than 80 percent of the Haitian population (3). Along with the prolonged miserable in-debt-for-indemnity history, Haiti takes responsibility for its own ruination; “the web of complicity for its engulfment in disaster extends in both time and space” (4). On top of that, Díaz’s references to the Asian tsunami of 2004 and Hurricane Katrina, in which both cases involved with artificially indirect destructions of the nature, also emphasizes the undeniable fact that the magnitude of a disaster is determined “by a series of often-invisible societal choices that implicate more than just those being drowned or buried in rubble” (4). The Tianjin explosions of 2015, which caused over hundreds of casualties and injuries due to lack of social cognition in providing safety work zone, is another example of “natural disaster”. In other words, an apocalypse does not occur naturally but occurs with the accumulation of human greed.

The revelations brought by any apocalypse have potential to provoke an enormous change if people seize the opportunity. Earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes take away the thin top soil of civilized society and reveal the underlying political structures: the injustices, the corruption, and the inequalities (2). When we seize the “to see ourselves” (9) opportunity this apocalypse provided to us, we have the ability to “alleviate the misery” (7). In Díaz’s words, “We humans are a fractious lot, flawed and often diabolical. But, for all our deficiencies, we are still capable of great deeds” (8); yet, Diaz holds out hope in the resiliency of the human spirit. In the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake, Dominicans, despite of their previous inhuman behaviors toward Haitians, firstly stood out to rescue and assist Haitian community. Considering Sonia Marmolejos, a modest Dominican woman who “left her own infant babies at home in order to breastfeed more than twenty Haitian babies whose mothers had either been seriously injured or killed in the earthquake” (8), hopes can still be found, but, only for temporary. With the description of the reappearance of Haitians’ miserable living condition a year after the apocalypse, Díaz demonstrates the ironic reality, that is, the world “has failed to learn the lesson of the apocalypse of Haiti” (9). As long as people ignore the revelations, the whole world will, piece by piece, become a Haiti.

In conclusion, Díaz’s thorough investigation of the genuine definition of apocalypses inspires me unconditionally. While apocalyptic events increase our vulnerability, we gain the possibility to save our life; “becoming a ruin-reader might not be so bad a thing” (2). After all, there are no natural disasters nor acts of god, but only indifferent people who abet injustices, corruption and inequalities.

Works Cited

Díaz, Junot. “Apocalypse: What disasters reveal.” Boston Review. Boston Review,

01 May 2011. Web. 4 Oct. 2015.