Helen's performance

1. What is the purpose of Dandicat adding the Epilogue and focusing that on connections with people, the audience, when most of the book involves a form of segregation and separation? In my opinion, Dandicat added the Epilogue in the story is to give the audience of her stories in which tell the audience about why she is writing those stories down. She, as the author of the book, wants to recall the stories from Haiti and write it down for people. Maybe to let the people who left Haiti to remember the culture of Haitian. Also, if Danticat writes down as the preface, people sometimes will forget to read it or attempt to not read it. However, if she includes the Epilogue in the later story, readers will acknowledge this one as her most important story. Authors often put their most important story at the beginning and at the end to emphasize the meanings. Maybe, she wants us to know that this is important to read and then we know this one is to focus on her impacts and her obs...

1. Why does the author make Children of the Sea to be the first story? What is her purpose? 2. Why does the author name some of the characters and unnamed some of the characters? 3. Which characters give you the most impressive? How and Why? 4. Why the author focuses so much on the gender role? What is she trying to say? 5. What is an ending for the boy in the Children of the Sea?

Culture differences is a really important theme in the Caroline’s wedding because Caroline was born in America, so she was influenced by the culture of freedom. As a result, her thought was full of freedom of marriage. Yet, her mother was born in Haiti. She is definitely a traditional Haitian woman: she presents the sides of a Haitian culture. Quotes: We can celebrate with some strong bone soup,” she said. “I am making some right now.” “If she keeps making this soup,” Caroline whispered, “ I will dip my head into the pot and scald myself blind. That will show her that there’s no magic in it.” Heritage is another vital theme in the Caroline’s wedding because they were born in different regions,    but they have the same blood from Haiti. Caroline was born in America, but she accepts some of the culture, yet no all of them are being accepted. Quotes: “ I want to give you a wedding shower,” I said to Caroline in the cab on the way to Eric’s house. “ I don’t like showers,” Ca...

Characters: You: Edwidge Danticat Your Mother: Her mother Summary and interpretation: This story talks about her voice to the audience, telling us why she is writing all the story down and what is the obstacles on her way. She uses You to tell the story. The first rule of living is that always uses your ten fingers, and this displays the importance of identity roles in the family. The second rule of living is that never have sex before marriage. This rule is to give us the information about writing. Her mother forbids her to write because society is so dangerous for them; writing can actually cause them into trouble. Writers are tortured and killed. Her mother doesn't want this happen to her daughter Danticat. However, Danticat, herself, thinks writing the thing down is having a connection with the Haitian history and maybe connecting the culture together. At first, I was confused when I first read it because I read Caroline's wedding first, and thinking this story doe...

Characters: Grace: the narrator and protagonist of the story Her mother Caroline: Grace's sister, marry soon Eric: Caroline's husband Summary: The story features the narrator and protagonist, Grace Azile, with her mother and sister Caroline, has immigrated to the United States to Haiti. Grace is the backbone of her family. Both her mother and her sister, Caroline, depend on and treat her as friends, and she has to negotiate between the traditional Haitian values of her mother and Caroline’s American independence. Grace wants to take care of her family and make them proud. She sees the best in people and trusts them to make their own decisions, so she’s supportive of both Caroline’s engagement and her mother’s inability to break her ties to Haiti. Yet Grace’s competent negotiations reveal her own personal difficulty: she feels neither completely Haitian nor completely American. She still feels a strong connection to Haiti, but she feels guilty for being the reason her pa...

KK Blog Post 3 -- Compare Night Women to New York Day Women. What new opportunities do women have in the US vs. Haiti? What experiences are similar in both stories/places? What does this suggest about gender roles?    Night Women and New York Day Women are two very different stories. However, there is so kind of connections within the two stories. In the Night Women, the narrator is a young woman who lives in Haiti. Her life is not easy at all because she has to take care of her child by herself since her husband left the family. Also, it's hard for a Haitian woman to work in the factory, so her only working choice is to become a prostitute so that she is able to support the family, having the incomes and sending her son into the colleges. The only opportunity for her is to become a night women, welcoming all the customers at night. Even though, her son doesn't know this opportunity at all; sometimes, she hesitates: how and what to tell her son about her job.  ...

Characters: The young girl narrator Mother A boy The boy’s mother Summary: The story describes a young girl saw ‘her mother’ walking in Manhanttan Street during her lunch break. She is imagining a talk that her mother will say to her. Then, she has all kinds of memories from her mother. Interpretations: At first, I thought her mother actually appear in the street, and she is having a conversation with her mother. However, there is no talking connection at all between the two characters, so I think it might be her imaginations about her mother is in the street. Maybe she is missing her mother from work. As she mentions, her mother never goes out to other places other than Brooklyn. The affection from the narrator to her mother.  Also, her mother mentions the Haiti people, maybe her mother is still in the mood of missing her home.

Why does poetry play such an important role in my life? The reason is simple: poetry reflects the heart and soul of a people. Poetry offers truths based on intuition. But poetry becomes most powerful where language fails. Words are small shapes in the georgeous chaos of the world. But they are shapes, they bring the world to focus, they corral ideas, they hone thoughts, they paint water colors of perception. The charm of language is that, though it’s human-made, it can on rare occasions capture emotions and sensations that aren’t. There are many ways to read a poem. Each time you look, a new scintillation may appear, one you missed before. The apparent subject of a poem isnt always an end in itself. Poetry is a kind of attentiveness that permits one both the organized adventure of the nomad. A poem is often a camera. A poem is often a logbook. A poem is often an annual. Life is the best teacher, Poetry is an education in life.

The science interacts with the environment often time. When I read it, I can hear the sound in a small volume, but it can be also peaceful. The author is eager to let us hear the sound. 1. What is the purpose of mentioning the places? 2. Why the author always gives us sounds in the mind? What do those sounds represent in your mind? What are the messages you want to give as the sound comes to your mind?

Character: Raymond: young regime soldier- Friend of Lamort Lamort: the main narrator of the story, a young woman living with her grandma Grandma: Lamort's grandma Emile: The visiting girl who is trying to find out the death of her mother Isabelle: Emile's mother, American journalist and part of the old regime Summary: Lamort, a naive and uneducated woman, lives with her grandma in a house. At first, she and Raymond are playing together in a field, but after his unreasonable request, Lamort starts to ask him about his accident of the limp. After the story, she goes back home due to the curfew. However,   Her grandmother blames her for her mother’s death and is never satisfied with her behaviors. Lamort  never had a mother, and she is desperate for approval from her grandmother. Then, her grandma tells her about the visiter Emile, requesting her to give the needles to the newcomer. She goes and finds out the intention and intention of E...

1. Joey: Guy Nan: the pregnant woman- Celianne David D: Lili This group combined the stories of Celianne's journey to America and the stories of Lili and Guy together, which is really creative. Imagining Celianne didn't die in the story, they created a scene with before Celianne gets to the boat and the meeting with Lili on the street. Nan presented well about the insecurity and fears in Celianne. Also, Joey displayed the eagerness of freedom, willing to go to America to have a try. Lili showed her love toward her child and the unwillingness of new adventures. This performance is pretty logical and well presented. It illustrates the personality of all different type of people in the four stories. After Nan was saying she wants to go to America, Guy, as a dreamer, also wants to go there, but Lili doesn't. She is a more of conservative type, thinking about her son's future.  The performance was awesome! 2. David: Guy Yun: Lili, Night woman Josh: Son This group d...

Two stories that I am choosing from are “A Wall of Fire Rising” and “Night Women”. The two stories has the same theme of love. The two young women all loved their children really much, showing their loves in the front directly. When little Guy is presenting his lines, Lili shows full of her affections and attentions. “ Bravo,” Lili cheered, pressing her son into the folds of her apron. “Long live Boukman and long live my boy.” This shows her fully love toward her son; maybe really proud of her son by having the lines, and her son succeed in reciting his line, which makes her really proud and give full attention to her son. Also, when her husband died dropping on the ground, her first instinct is to cover her son’s face; she protects her son from seeing it. In the Night Women, the woman describes her son in a beautiful way, “ The way my son reacts to my lips stroking his cheeks decides for me if he’s asleep. He is like a butterfly fluttering on a rock that stands out naked in the middle...

In this book, the author utilizes different techniques in the style of writing. Because each story has different protagonists, so she uses different tones and voices to illustrate different perspectives.  For example, in the first story, the voice was sent from the unnamed girl; she might be normal, anonymous, but she must represent everyday voices or a certain group of people, facing difficulties, cruelties around the cities, and seeing people are being killed or tortured. From a young girl perspective, we can see the daily bases of Haitian lives. Though it declared freedom from white men, people in Haiti still encountered terrible 'disasters' which include both physical one and mental one in people's mind. In Haiti, people were living in fears because their lives were threatening by the government: the government can nearly kill anyone they want if that person threat their position. Can we imagine how terrible that is? In Uta Hagen's 9 questions, I decided to analyz...

Why is she saying the last sentence in the end of the story? What is the angel symbolizes?

Another story is then 1937, which represents the time period of Parsley Massacre. The girl is the narrator yet her mom is actually the main character. Her mom was a survivor during the huge massacre. In order to prevent her daughter from being killed, she fled to Haiti but left her mother aside. However, in Haiti, she has been arrested due to the practice of voodoo to a child. Then, her daughter has been visiting her during the prison time, yet she was still dead because of the beaten by the soldiers. Through this, the daughter got her determination of being part of the secret religion. At first, this story is a little confusing to me because I don't actually know what is Madonna, so I thought it's not related to religion at all but after the discussion in class, I understand more about this story. I think her mother is a thoughtful people. For the safety of her daughter, she hid the secret of her religion. Yet, through her mother's thoughtful movements, the daughter und...

Write a blog post in response to the first 3 stories. Choose a theme that you see to be common in all 3 and explore what Danticat is showing us or asking us to think about this theme. Analyze 2 direct quotes.  After been reading all three of the stories, I actually have several ideas about the themes might be appeared. I will just summarise the plot first. The story opens with an unnamed narrator, a young Haitian revolutionary, thinking of his girlfriend. He is on a small boat that has set sail for America. He has to there because of the Haiti government. On the other hand, his girlfriend then is another main character in this story.  While her lover has left the country, she remains behind with her mother and father. The girl and the boy tell their stories through a series of letters. Though they cannot mail these letters, they are still writing letters to each other to express their feelings. Another story is then 1937, which represents the time period of Parsley...