Caroline's Wedding
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 parents had to leave. She feels oppressed by the culture she has inherited, which makes her rebel against her mother’s superstition. Grace is still searching for her place in the world. Eventually, her new passport gives her a sense of belonging. As a true American, she feels secure enough to embrace the Haitian traditions she once resisted by helping her mother make bone soup.
Interpretation:
This story shows the gap between their mother and Caroline. This suggests not only the generation gap, but this also suggests the cultural gap because since Caroline was born in America. She has an American mind, taking the freedom and independence as the most important thing to her. However, their mother is different; she wants to pass on the Haitian culture to the generation, yet Caroline doesn't actually hear her advice, which makes her difficulty in making decisions. Grace, as a transmitter for both of them, must think of both sides, exchanging ideas. She hesitates in the Haitian culture; also, she is thinking about the freedom of America. In my opinion, she is like us because she was born in Haiti, and she has not yet abandoned the Haitian culture yet (still helping her mother to cook the soup). I was also born in another country, and I was influenced by the culture that I used to live in; moreover, I am influenced by the culture here. To maintain a balance, both Grace and I couldn't forget the culture from our own country. We must preserve it.
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 parents had to leave. She feels oppressed by the culture she has inherited, which makes her rebel against her mother’s superstition. Grace is still searching for her place in the world. Eventually, her new passport gives her a sense of belonging. As a true American, she feels secure enough to embrace the Haitian traditions she once resisted by helping her mother make bone soup.
Interpretation:
This story shows the gap between their mother and Caroline. This suggests not only the generation gap, but this also suggests the cultural gap because since Caroline was born in America. She has an American mind, taking the freedom and independence as the most important thing to her. However, their mother is different; she wants to pass on the Haitian culture to the generation, yet Caroline doesn't actually hear her advice, which makes her difficulty in making decisions. Grace, as a transmitter for both of them, must think of both sides, exchanging ideas. She hesitates in the Haitian culture; also, she is thinking about the freedom of America. In my opinion, she is like us because she was born in Haiti, and she has not yet abandoned the Haitian culture yet (still helping her mother to cook the soup). I was also born in another country, and I was influenced by the culture that I used to live in; moreover, I am influenced by the culture here. To maintain a balance, both Grace and I couldn't forget the culture from our own country. We must preserve it.
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