Blog 3

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 consists of. She watches her mother go into a unfamiliar neighborhoods, buy things from street vendors, and she finally watched her mother make her way to a park where she watched a little boy while the mother went running. Suzette and her mother both have jobs in effort to support the family with money.


The setting, and quality of life for the women is completely different in both stories. In "New York Day Women" the  women do not fear for their lives, and have many more opportunities than the Night Women. Suzette was able to attend schooling and become educated while we cannot say the same for the Night Women's child. However, by no means are the "New York Day Women" living the American dream. The family struggles to get enough money to support themselves. Both the mother and daughter need to get jobs.  They have made huge sacrifices to leave Haiti and come to America and these sacrifices have caused strained in their relationship. Suzette is naive to the sacrifices her mother has made for her throughout her life. She thinks her mother does not care for her and she holds a lot of built up anger towards her mother for never being a nurturing mother in her life. The mother and son relationship in Night Women is very different. It is almost as if the Night Women puts all her faith into her son. The mother would love and protect her child with her life.


Even though the stories are very different, some similarities still prove to be present for the women that live in both Haiti and New York. In both stories, the women face big obstacles with trying to make ends meet. Each of the women work extremely hard in their jobs to make sure they can provide for their children. Both mother's hide their work from their children due to shame. Suzette's mother hides her Nanny job from Suzette because she feels that she is being the mother to another child when she cannot provide the same love and affection to her own.  However, in "New York Day Women" the daughter is able to forgive the mother at the end once she learns that her mother only worked so hard so she could have a better future.