1st～4th stories
Children of the Sea:
Each little section is the letter that two narrator-lovers wrote to each other which they will never send out or receive. The male narrator is basically talking about the life on the boat and showing love to his lover. However, the female narrator seems more angry and emotional through all the letters. The female narrator's father against her relationship with the male narrator, she hated her father because of this. What ironic was that her father did all and give up all about himself just to protect his daughter (the female narrator) from the Tonton Macoute. Celianne is pregnant through the whole travel on the boat. Lionel was forced to rape his mother, and the military put him into the jail. The boat got sink, everyone died.
I like how the writer has a lot of foreshadowing and kind of cycle (the beginning and the ending kind of match together from both male and female narrators.) writing techniques which make the story more alive. And the matching between male narrator's very beginning and female narrator's ending part, for me, it also shows they are really fit each other, even the way they talk.
Nineteen Thirty-Seven:
Josephine and her mom try to go to the city through the Massacre River. When Josephine and her mother got to the city, they lived in a friend's house, the friend had a sick child, the child died after they came, so everyone blamed on her mother and accused the mother as a witch who killed the child. So the mother got caught. When Josephine went to visit her mother (She saw the Madonna cried which is a statue of Mary from Christianity), her mom is sick and dying because of all the bullying that guards did to her. And they even shaved her hair. And Josephine's mom is trying to explain what she is doing, but always cryptically, that is the reason why Josephine does not understand her mother. She suffers in prison for things she did not do, and the only comfort zone she had is whenever Josephine come to visit, but she is really angry and resented to Josephine's silence towards everything. Jacqueline comes at the end but also an important character. She is also part of the "river" group, that is the main reason why Josephine is kind of close to her. And she is the one who tells Josephine everything and tells her to embrace Manman and her traditions.
Josephine's mom shows love to her in a different way than all other common ways. She shows her love in ways of protection which is not telling Josephine anything about her traditions and lives. I think it is true that she protected her, but I do not think Josephine got the love that she is trying to show her. It only creates more misunderstanding or does not understand at all between their mother-daughter relationship.
A Wall of Fire Rising:
Guy, Lili, and Little Guy, they live in a shantytown in Haiti's countryside. Lili stays at home every day doing housework, Little Guy goes to school, and Guy works at different odd jobs. Little Guy got a lead role in the play, and Lili asked him to recite the lines to Guy. And Little Guy did a good job, and his parents support and encourage him. And then they went to an amusement park and a sugar selling the place. Guy and Lili saw a hot air balloon, and Guy told Lili that he can fly a balloon. Guy was affected by his son's line speech on freedom and liberation, so he went out to the field and working with the hot air balloon. He tells Lili about their son's future and everything, it is like he's leaving a death note which is kind of foreshadowing of Guy's death. The next day, Guy went on the hot air balloon, and he didn't escape from the reality, he didn't get the freedom and liberty he wanted. So, he decided to jump off the hot air balloon which in my opinion is the dumbest thing to do. He just is irresponsible of his family. He just leaves them behind. And aside of Guy's body, his son recite another line of his play. And Lili said no to the workers who asked whether should they close Guy's eyes or not.
There is a lot of disagreements between the parents about their son's future in the story. To be honest, I think Guy is more realistic on this, but in another word, he could also be shortsighted and unmotivated. But, Lili wants her son to be successful as the owner. That's why she is really happy and encouraging her son when he got the lead role of the play. However, Guy is always so realistic about life, after he heard his son's monologue, he decided to escape, to chase after the freedom. But he is so afraid of the consequences after he got off from the hot air balloon, so he chose to jump off. He died. His wife finally understands him, so does his son.
Night Women:
It is a story about a woman who works as a prostitute, but still live motivated and trying her best to give her son a better life. And trying so hard on hiding the work she is doing from her son. I totally agree with David C's point in class, which is the "Night Women" is the strongest women in the 4 stories we have read before. In my opinion, she is the only character so far that has an actual goal to catch and achieve. Although she is not happy with the job, she lives positively than other characters. Probably is because she has a son that she needs to take care of on her own, and prostitute is the only job she can do and gives a higher salary. She could work as a piece-worker who got to paid so less, she needs money for her son. From her writing, we can easily see that she hate this job and she is not like other prostitutes, she has her own pride. She only to this for her son. And I would like to comment that she changed my point of view and understanding of prostitute, and I knew that prostitutes are actually high-risk people who need more social care, although the society hates them.
Each little section is the letter that two narrator-lovers wrote to each other which they will never send out or receive. The male narrator is basically talking about the life on the boat and showing love to his lover. However, the female narrator seems more angry and emotional through all the letters. The female narrator's father against her relationship with the male narrator, she hated her father because of this. What ironic was that her father did all and give up all about himself just to protect his daughter (the female narrator) from the Tonton Macoute. Celianne is pregnant through the whole travel on the boat. Lionel was forced to rape his mother, and the military put him into the jail. The boat got sink, everyone died.
I like how the writer has a lot of foreshadowing and kind of cycle (the beginning and the ending kind of match together from both male and female narrators.) writing techniques which make the story more alive. And the matching between male narrator's very beginning and female narrator's ending part, for me, it also shows they are really fit each other, even the way they talk.
Nineteen Thirty-Seven:
Josephine and her mom try to go to the city through the Massacre River. When Josephine and her mother got to the city, they lived in a friend's house, the friend had a sick child, the child died after they came, so everyone blamed on her mother and accused the mother as a witch who killed the child. So the mother got caught. When Josephine went to visit her mother (She saw the Madonna cried which is a statue of Mary from Christianity), her mom is sick and dying because of all the bullying that guards did to her. And they even shaved her hair. And Josephine's mom is trying to explain what she is doing, but always cryptically, that is the reason why Josephine does not understand her mother. She suffers in prison for things she did not do, and the only comfort zone she had is whenever Josephine come to visit, but she is really angry and resented to Josephine's silence towards everything. Jacqueline comes at the end but also an important character. She is also part of the "river" group, that is the main reason why Josephine is kind of close to her. And she is the one who tells Josephine everything and tells her to embrace Manman and her traditions.
Josephine's mom shows love to her in a different way than all other common ways. She shows her love in ways of protection which is not telling Josephine anything about her traditions and lives. I think it is true that she protected her, but I do not think Josephine got the love that she is trying to show her. It only creates more misunderstanding or does not understand at all between their mother-daughter relationship.
A Wall of Fire Rising:
Guy, Lili, and Little Guy, they live in a shantytown in Haiti's countryside. Lili stays at home every day doing housework, Little Guy goes to school, and Guy works at different odd jobs. Little Guy got a lead role in the play, and Lili asked him to recite the lines to Guy. And Little Guy did a good job, and his parents support and encourage him. And then they went to an amusement park and a sugar selling the place. Guy and Lili saw a hot air balloon, and Guy told Lili that he can fly a balloon. Guy was affected by his son's line speech on freedom and liberation, so he went out to the field and working with the hot air balloon. He tells Lili about their son's future and everything, it is like he's leaving a death note which is kind of foreshadowing of Guy's death. The next day, Guy went on the hot air balloon, and he didn't escape from the reality, he didn't get the freedom and liberty he wanted. So, he decided to jump off the hot air balloon which in my opinion is the dumbest thing to do. He just is irresponsible of his family. He just leaves them behind. And aside of Guy's body, his son recite another line of his play. And Lili said no to the workers who asked whether should they close Guy's eyes or not.
There is a lot of disagreements between the parents about their son's future in the story. To be honest, I think Guy is more realistic on this, but in another word, he could also be shortsighted and unmotivated. But, Lili wants her son to be successful as the owner. That's why she is really happy and encouraging her son when he got the lead role of the play. However, Guy is always so realistic about life, after he heard his son's monologue, he decided to escape, to chase after the freedom. But he is so afraid of the consequences after he got off from the hot air balloon, so he chose to jump off. He died. His wife finally understands him, so does his son.
Night Women:
It is a story about a woman who works as a prostitute, but still live motivated and trying her best to give her son a better life. And trying so hard on hiding the work she is doing from her son. I totally agree with David C's point in class, which is the "Night Women" is the strongest women in the 4 stories we have read before. In my opinion, she is the only character so far that has an actual goal to catch and achieve. Although she is not happy with the job, she lives positively than other characters. Probably is because she has a son that she needs to take care of on her own, and prostitute is the only job she can do and gives a higher salary. She could work as a piece-worker who got to paid so less, she needs money for her son. From her writing, we can easily see that she hate this job and she is not like other prostitutes, she has her own pride. She only to this for her son. And I would like to comment that she changed my point of view and understanding of prostitute, and I knew that prostitutes are actually high-risk people who need more social care, although the society hates them.
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