KK Blog Post 4 due. Choose two of the discussion questions posted on the blog. Use/analyze at least 2 direct quotes in your writing. 500 words.
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Stella Question:
5. What is the purpose of the "Epilogue: Women Like Us"? Especially the part where she explain her choice of writing and her mother disagree with it.
By putting in an epilogue that has stark contrasts with the rest of the story Danticat is displaying her own truth and meaning. The epilogue is almost like a poetic piece of her own life. Danticat says, "Someone was crying. You and the writing demons in your head. You have nobody, nothing but this piece of paper, they told you. Only a notebook made out of discarded fish wrappers, panty-hose cardboard." (192) Danticat uses very sober, poetic language in this paragraph to demonstrate her internal and external struggles without focusing the camera on herself. Danticat uses her book to connect people and show the true terrors that still go on today from through a different lens than is usually done. Danticat also makes in well known that these stories are about the people of Hati and that they are much less about her own experiences, stories, and life. Danticat is injecting small amounts of her own emotion and life into this story. Danticat knows that writing isn't necessarily something that she should be doing which is why she includes this specific portion that focuses on the frustration of her mother and her initial reaction to the offensive language. "her disappointment when you told her words would be your life's work, like the kitchen had always been hers. She was angry at you for not understanding." (193) Danticat is focusing her epilogue as her own goodbye to the stereotypes that she addresses in her stories. Danticat shows us the importance of the connection between generations and the gaps that it causes without having it. She displays the importance of history and past, knowing what your history as a people is and where you fall, for her the disagreement between her and her mother is just like the characters in her story but, in the end, they always realized what their parents sacrificed for them, Danticat, on the other hand, seems to know just what her mother sacrificed and rather than being angry with what reaction her mother is getting, she plays a More understanding angle that has tones of anger and sadness. Overall, Danticat adds the epilogue to give us how these stories relate to her and how they could relate to us all, she approaches this ending as something more than a character but as a reader, and an author displaying a truth that many people can connect with, understand and appreciate.
Nia's Question:
what do all the stories have in common?
Together these stories combine a lot of different themes that have an overarching connection to history and identity. Knowing your past, 1937, understanding where you have come from and knowing why your family does things a certain way, Carolines Wedding. All of these stories also push on the fact that there is a generation gap between what traditions ard used and accepted as normal, or meaningful enough to pass on. The entire book shows in multiple ways children being unaware of what their parents are really doing. In Nigth Women, the son has no clue what the mother was really doing, the same goes for New York Day Women the children in these stories are/have grown.
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