Passport to Paradise

 "Passport to Paradise" is a short story written by Myriam Warner-Vieyra. It is an interesting story that combines two of the main themes that we have learned about in this class. It centers around the feeling of love and the importance of religion in Caribbean Culture. Again, like the past couple of stories it also deals with death and how the wife deals with her husband's death. She spends her time trying to make sure that her husband's soul makes it to heaven. So, she continuously begs for a priest to bless her late husband's soul; to her dismay he refuses over and over. As a result, she is forced to go to a magician to try and find her peace of mind to make sure that her husband's soul makes it to heaven.

    There is so much going on in this short story, and it involves so much that we have talked about this semester. It starts with death and how people in the Caribbean deal with losing their loved ones. Christianity is the initial response and the wife turns to religion, but then she turns to voodoo when she can not get the blessings from the priest. It made the main character wonder how some people who do not even act well enough to deserve blessings can get them but she can not. It makes me wonder if social class or race or even relation to the church are playing a part in this. In the Christian church there should not be discrimination or bias towards a group. The Caribbean has so much going on due to the diverse cultures and the colonial background that shaped the countries.