The Best of Josh Comune

1. In what ways is the story of Caroline's Wedding similar to the epilogue? Use quotes from both stories to support your answer. The mother/daughter relationship in both stories are similar in many ways. Both mothers in each story disapprove on a decision that there daughters have made. In "Caroline's Wedding," Caroline's mother cannot stand the fact that her Haitian daughter is marrying a Bahamian man. She refers to her daughters fiancé as "retarded" in the story and doesn't think her daughter should get married to anyone outside of Haitian blood. "If she wanted to make me happy, you know what she would do. She will never find someone Haitian." Caroline's mother cannot past the point of her fiancé not being Haitian. This forces her to believe that her daughter is getting married for the right reasons, and that she jumped on the first opportunity that presented itself for her to get married due to her only having one arm. This is h...

Caroline's Wedding The mother in "Caroline's wedding" is a very traditional Haitian women who does not approve marrying someone who is not of Haitian blood. The mother shows her constant disapproval throughout the entire story. But, during the morning of Caroline's wedding, the mother is supportive and comforts her daughter when she starts to second guess her decision to marry the Bahamian man. Why do you think this is? The Missing Piece In the "Missing Piece Lamont is inspired to be called by her mothers name Marie Magdalène at the end of the story. After facing near death and helping Emilie why do you think she wanted to be called by her mothers name? Women Like Us In "Women Like Us" Danticat's mother is very unsupportive of her aspiration to become a writer. Her mother, like Caroline's is a very traditional thinking women. She believes that women should be good housewife and please there husbands and that is their only job....

Edwidge Danticat is the narrator of the epilogue  She talks about how her mother was never supportive of her aspirations of being a writer  Her mother believes writers do not make a difference in the world and is disappointed in her daughter  Throughout the story she recites her mothers two rules:  Always use your ten fingers, which in her parlance meant that women should be the best cook and housekeeper.  Never have sex before marriage and don't enjoy sex because your husband will not respect you She compares writing to braiding hair because when y ou braid hair  you bring together many unruly strands into one unified braid. the sound of writing is compared to Krit Krat as an answer and response

Many of the marital concerns stem directly from the mother’s racism which is based off of her cultural ideologies. The mother and father thought that the day would come when  Caroline was proposed to but would get married for the wrong reasons. The mother’s constant disapproval toward Caroline’s wedding plays a big role in Caroline’s own doubts as if she should get married to her fiance during the morning of her wedding day. Why would Caroline’s mother be supportive the day of the wedding if she is the major reason why Caroline is nervous on that day? “The heart is like a stone, we never know what is in the middle.”

Themes: Family love Generation gap Cultural differences Identity Heritage Marriage concerns Racism Immigration Characters: Grace- older sister and narrator of the story =, unmarried  Caroline- younger sister who gets married to a Bahamian man, she only has 1 arm due to a shot her mother got while in prison that may have messed up her pregnancy  Ma- mother who strongly disapproves of marrying outside Haitian blood Eric Abrahams- Bahamian husband, who is slightly darker than Caroline  Father- died of prostate cancer ten years earlier, when the girls where in high school Mrs. Ruiz- hispanic neighbor  Setting: NYC the family lives in Brooklyn Outline: Grace gets naturalized as a citizen, she finally feels secure living in America once becoming a citizen she later reveals this Caroline is engaged to a Bahamian man named Abraham. She met him while she was in school. He was a janitor Ma makes bone soup everynight because she thinks it wil...

The difference and similarities in opportunities for women in Haiti and the United States are shown in the stories, New York Day Women and Night Women. In both stories, Danticat gives us two first person perspective stories told from women's point of view on how life is in both countries for them. In Night Women there is an unnamed female narrator that describes her life, and line of unglamorous work. She has turned to prostitution in order to make enough money to support herself and her child. She hates being a prostitute, but turned to this line of work when the father of the family either died or left. She now feels that there are no other options of work for her to do that can provide the same amount of wages as prositution. There is limited opportunity for both the mother and child to become successful in this story. In "New York Day Women"  there is an female character named Suzette, who follows her mother around for the day. She sees what her mother's day co...

New York Day Women and Night Women similarities: Comparison of job/lives opportunity (better life) Sacrifice Characters: 2 voices- Regular text (Suzette) and bold  text (mother's voice in Suzettes memory: negative, sassy, attitude, though, hard, judgmental/critical of Suzette)  Suzette (Daughter) age 20s: tails her mother    Mother age 59: Nanny (has shame)   Father: Cab driver    Child in the park: Has a good relationship with the lady (Mother) Child's mother: Leaves her kid with the lady while she runs in the park Relationship between mother and daughter (New York Day Day Women) is strained/miscommunication, maybe because she is a mother of other children but lacks that relationship with her own daughter Night Women there is a lot of shame don't to tell her child what she does for living Setting: NYC, lived in Brooklyn Outline: The mother is happy but very sheltered and cautious She is afraid to take the subway and go out...

The Meaning The reason is simple: poetry reflects the heart and soul of a people But What if I don't get the real meaning? Then I’ll explore the world, writing about nature Poems know more about human nature than its writer does The best poems are rich with observational truth Words are small shapes in a gorgeous chaos of the world When poetry becomes most powerful where language fails Because poets feel what we’re afraid to feel, venture where we’re reluctant to go, we learn from. their journeys without taking the same risks But What if I don’t get the real meaning?

Questions: 1. In We Are Listening you break the previous pattern of the first 2, 6 line stanzas and make 2 lines its own stanza. We are listening for a sound beyond us, beyond sound,  This shows that these two lines are important to the poem. Why choose to put insert this powerful stanza in the middle of the poem? 2. What do you believe is the biggest obstacle that we face in order to be able to see things clearer than what we do now? What limits our narrow inprepretation on the world around us? WE ARE LISTENING I. As our metal eyes wake to absolute night, where whispers fly from the beginning of time, we cup our ears to the heavens. We are listening on the volcanic lips of Flagstaff and in the fields beyond Boston in a great array that blooms like coral from the desert floor, on highwire webs patrolled by computer spiders in Puerto Rico. We are listening for a sound beyond us, beyond sound, searching for a lighthouse in the breakwaters of ou...

Themes: Empathy Conflict Danger Understanding Violence Relationships Characters: Raymond- new regime solider, boyfriend of Lamont Todo- Raymond's friend, solider Lamont- her name means death, her Grandmother named her this because her other died during child birth. She is the main protagonist of the story Marie Magdalene- grandmother of Lamont Emilie- visiting girl trying to friend out what happened to her mother Isabelle- American Journalist, and supporter of the old government dead mother of Emilie Raymond and Lamont laying in the field talking. He tells her a safe word for the new regime "Peace" Lamont heads home to find that they have a visitor in the yellow house. Her grandmother tells her to go over to give the women sewing material They start talking,  she was making a purple dress **her mother's favorite color was purple Emilie is their to find out what happened to her mother They sneak out of the house after curfew to go searching ...

In class on Tuesday we were asked to present mini skits of characters from Krit Krat interacting with one another on stage.  Joey: Guy Nan: Célianne David D: Lili  This adaptation was probably the most interesting out of the groups.  This group incorporated a lot of improve into their scene. This groups performance was different and creative. This is because Guy in this adaptation was less inclined to look at himself as a failure due to work, but because Lili never agreed with him. She also disagreed with Guy when he wanted to go on the boat with Célianne. This adaptation helped me see the disfunction of Guy and Lili's marriage. Helen: Female Narrator of "Children of the Sea" Grace: Girl trying to catch the boat In Helen's group, she played as the female narrator in "Children of the Sea" and Grace played as a girl who was trying to catch the boat to see her boyfriend. This skit was serious and filled with emotion. Helen tried to calm Grace...

Joey: Guy Nan: Celiane David D: Lili Helen: girl from first story trying to catch the boat Grace: Lili, who interacts with her

  In the country of Haiti there is a great amount of despair from within its people. Almost all characters in Krit? Krat! seek release, and a common way for them to finally achieve to is to escape or by death. Escaping, death and despair symbolize the hope that the people look forward to, and this hope is present in all of the first four stories. In "Nineteen Thirty-Seven" Manman starts to lose all hope while in Jail. We can see a declination in her characters mental well being. She knows that her time is nearing, and she does not shun it away. Manman is now looking forward to her release by passing on her role as a religious leader. She is also looking forward to the afterlife that is away from all the oppression and violence. "Keep the Madonna when I am gone, maybe you will have someone to take my place, but if you don't, you will always have the Madonna." In the first story "Children of the Sea" The two narrators face similar despair as of Manman...

In  Krit? Krat! we as the readers are introduced to a number of different characters through each story. In each story, there are gaps of prior and future knowledge for the reader to fill with their mind. The author, Edwidge Danticat does this intentionally in her writing to have interactions with the reader. Krit? Krat! can almost be seen as a play in this respect. Along with this interactive style of writing, Danticat decides not to name a lot of main characters in each story. This style of writing can be seen as generalizing characters. She does this to shows that no one character is significantly more important than the setting they are in. From reading each story, it is possible to fill in some of these generalizations and answer these interactive holes with Uta Hagen's 9 Questions actors need to ask themselves. In the setting, Haiti is a place where work and opportunity are scare; it is a struggle to survive. The people of Haiti face extreme po...

In "Night Women" we are introduced to two unnamed characters that resemble the characteristics and situation where the last story "A Wall of Fire Rising" left off. Guy the father and provider of the family committed suicide, leaving his family with an uncertain future.  The women in "Night Women" needed to turn to prostitution to support her family. Why do you believe Danticat decided to place "Night Women" right after "A Wall of Fire Rising" and do you think the two stories are related?

Danticat's style writing  Varied style/ tone to represent various voices (different perspectives)  Realistic (violence) vs. fantastical writing (images of beauty) She creates a contrast (themes: hope vs. hopelessness) Unnamed  characters- everyday voices, representing a group as a whole)  Uses different styles to portray different characteristics of narrators/characters Ambiguity -not concrete, more open to interoperation Danticat puts holes in the book purposely to interact with the reader Night Women: Two Worlds: 1. Night- very plain, and dead writing, (Traditional prose) 2. Mother- uses symbols, imagery, vivid, emotional (Poetry) 2 types of work Day work- piece work (sewing) Night work- prosituite 

Children By The Sea It is a travel story Setup: 2 Narrators- Male (Unnamed), Female (unnamed) are writing letters but not to themselves. They are star crossed lovers that will never see each other. Only the audience can see Characters: Male- (Unnamed) other protagonist on the boat, He writes poetically, formal, public Female- (Unnamed) protagonist in Haiti, no capitalization, personal, shorter sentences (maybe less time, in a hurry) At the end she and her family moves into the countryside away from all the chaos Konpè- guy on the boat Madan Roger Célianne- pregnant women who gave birth on a sinking raft. She was rapped by solider and gives birth, then kills herself by jumping in the water once her baby dies Captain- tells the people they need to throw valuables overboard to survive Papa- Hard father but loving of his children and daughter Uncle Pressoir Manman Agwe- spirit of the water Swiss- the baby born of the sinking raft, her lifeless body was thrown overboard by ...