Dreams

While Amabelle is a servant in the Dominican Republic, she is mentally absorbed in her past in order to reconnect with the people she loves and has lost. Her past is manifested in her dreams, which are usually about the loss of her parents. However, once Amabelle is forced to flee from the Dominican Republic and return to Haiti, she is forced to confront the past she had only been able to relive in her sleep. As a result, her actual life takes on a sort of dreamlike or surreal quality, causing the dreams to stop. I would argue that the dreams are replaced by a stronger sense of connection to her past through her return to Haiti. I dream almost every night, and my dreams are usually very realistic, vivid, and frightening, and they also usually involve personal issues I'm going through, just like Amabelle's dreams. However, I never experience long periods of time in which I don't dream. I could imagine, though, that if I experienced trauma like Amabelle had, my dreams would be altered. But if anything, I think they would be more vivid and terrifying, rather than stop altogether, because they reflect what goes on in my daily life.