Proposal/ Transaction

Honestly, I think we did a good job with coming up with a whole new idea. When we first started it was not very good. We did not really come up with new dialogue but rather stuck to the story itself. With the new script, we tried to broaden our horizons a bit. We looked back in the text at the story "1937." We realized something rather interesting. We all know that the mother dies from being beaten to death by the guards, but we never knew what drove the guards to do so. We decided to come up with a reason as to why they would beat a helpless women to death. We thought, if the mother tried to escape, they could easily get mad and beat her up, but we wanted more than that. So, we decided that the mother would take the blame for someone else trying to escape. What the audience did not know though, was that the mother knew she was going to die that day, almost as if she had a vision. A huge theme we noticed in the book overall was the use of  storytelling/magic. You see in the text the mother and the other women are said to have "wings made of fire." Therefore, we wanted the mother to have some sort of power so it could go along with the theme. If we had more time I would have loved to show more scenes. For example. we had a scene where the mother gave the daughter a note to give to the father/husband, but in the text the husband/father is never mentioned. We wanted to add the father into the story and portray how he would have felt in this situation. We also wanted to show the mother daughter relationship more. In "1937" the mother and daughter never talked, but this time we made the talk to each other, but we wanted the mother to be snappy, this way the audience could see their relationship crumbling. I'm sure the audience would have also loved to know what was said in the letter and therefore I think adding another scene or two would be interesting and less confusing. Overall, I think It was not bad and if we had more time it would have been great!

Choices

My own: The reason I choose my own is because I think it has an interesting concept and I think it would be pretty cool to see how it would work out.

Betty: I think Betty has a really cool idea and I would love to be able to participate in this play.

Julia: I think Julia’s is very unique. It takes place in a more modernized place (Cafe with Jazz music) and it seems very intriguing.

Abby: Even though I feel like Abby is missing some key things, She is off to a great start and I think her concept of, waiting to see what the ending turns out to be, is super interesting and gives us a chance to come up with it ourselves when the time is right

Chantelle: Hers is very similar to Betty’s and they are both great ideas.

Blog Post #8 K.K

Blog post #8 due by midnight Saturday: Discuss the role of storytelling in Krik? Krak! and to Danticat. Why is it important? Consider the title as well as the epilogue and at least one story in your post. 500 wds.

I believe the whole point of storytelling in Krik Krak is to make it more fun and amusing for the reader. If you just had chapters and a basic book, it's honestly less entertaining but for the characters in the book, I believe it has a deeper meaning.  In the story Night Women, she used storytelling as a way to escape reality with her son. She tends to think of it as a safe haven. Which, giving her circumstances it would make sense. She is trying to provide for her son and does not have the best living conditions in the world.  On top of that, she is a prostitute but rather calls herself night women as a way to seem like a superhero to her son rather than someone having sex with unmarried and married men. I am not sure how others view her storytelling, but I am sure they would not understand and think it was rather odd. It seems like things were very tough back then. Not only that, but she was a prostitute and they are always looked down upon. To the mother in the story, it's a way to escape reality and a way to provide her son with a happy life. To her son, it is life. I do not think her son knows it is considered storytelling and therefore thinks it is real. Maybe that is another reason the mother uses storytelling. She knows her son is young and therefore will believe everything she says. I think it's just a way for the both of them to live as comfortably as possible. It basically serves as a protective blanket, shielding them from the harsh realities of life and discomfort from the truth.

Scene K.K

Settings: In the Jail

Characters:
Mother (Fire Wings)
Kat
Daughter (Josephine),
Kathleen
Guard
Abby
 Random Lady (also in prison)
Kathleen

Lines:

Guard: *shouts* LET HER IN (chucks water at mother)

Mother: Idk why I am here. I did NOTHING wrong

Guard: Shut your mouth, be thankful, we are even allowing you to see anyone. You have five minutes

Daughter: *comes rushing in* mother what is going on, are you ok

Mother: I am fine, but I need you to deliver this letter to your father as soon as you leave. I need him to understand.

Daughter: Understand what mom?

Mother: *coughs* I need him to understand Why I was put in this hell hole *Gives the letter*

Daughter: *sighs* Mom, he doesn't blame you..Its not your…

Mother: Hush up… and do as I say.

Guard: Alright, times up *turns to the daughter* Say goodbye

Daughter: *says under her breath* I don't need to say goodbye.. I'll see her soon.  *turns around and marches out*


Next Day:
Random Lady* Starts picking at the concrete wall with sharp object*

Guard: WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING

Random Lady *Gasps, and covers her face*

Guard: You’ll regret that *raises hand to hit her*

Mother: *Comes running in* NO STOP PLEASE!! You can't hurt her

Guard: Oh really, and WHO ARE YOU TO SAY I CAN'T!

Mother: you can't hit her Because, *long pause* I am the one who told her too. I was trying to escape from hell hole, so i asked her to do so. It's not her fault, I take full responsibility.

Guard: *Looks at rondom girl* Is this true

Random Girl: I….*looks at mother then looks down at her feet and nods head* Yes sir… it's true

Guard: * walks over to the mother very pissed* You’ll regret that *puts her arms behind her back*

Mother: *looks at the guard* N-E-V-E-R…I will fly once more *leaves with guard*

Rando Lady: *watches them leave* What have I done…..


THE END!!!

Notes part 2. Night and day women

Night women

"The night is the time I dread most in my life. Yet if I am to live, I must depend on it.
*You can tell she is not happy about being a night woman but knows that her life and her sons life depends on it, sacrificing her own self for a better future for her son.*

"For a brief second, I almost mistake him for the ghost of his father, an old lover who disappeared with the night’s shadows a long time ago."
*Its possible her husband died and she sees him in her sons shadows*


"Perhaps it is a mosquito that has learned the gift of lighting itself."
*I honestly do not know why I chose this, but it just seems interesting how she thought a mosquito could turn to a lighting bug*


"Love is one of those lessons that you grow to learn, the way one learns that one shoe is made to fit a certain foot, lest it cause discomfort."
*i thought this was interesting how she compared love to a solid object like a shoe not fitting.*


"There are two kinds of women: day women and night women. I am stuck between the day and night in a golden amber bronze."
*Clearly distinguishing the two types of women, the ones who work during the day and those who work at night.*


"There is a place in Ville Rose where ghost women ride the crests of waves while brushing the stars out of their hair."
*Again, not sure why I chose this, but it sounded interesting. Cause first it was night woman, day woman, and now ghost woman.*


"We are like faraway lovers, lying to one another, under different moons."
*You can tell her relationship with her son is very interesting. Cares about him very much.*


"I want him to forget that we live in a place where nothing lasts."
*Cares about how her son views their life, and wants what is best for him.*


"Emmanuel will come tonight. He is a doctor who likes big buttocks on women, but my small ones will do."
*shows the difference  between male and female roles. And how men view women*



Seeing things simply

"“Let me be or I’ll make you hush,” he shouted at her. He dug his foot deep into the brown dusty grass to put a spell on her that would make her mute."
*The role between men and women here, so upsetting*


"“What a pretty girl you are.” The old man winked as Princesse approached him."
*After yelling at his wife, he started talking to princess. I think he likes younger girls. Gross man.*


"She might do it the next day when the light would have changed slightly, when the sun was just a little higher or lower in the sky, turning the sea a different shade."
*Interesting how the artist paints her pictures*


"“Perhaps the smaller things—like human beings, for example—can also change and affect the bigger things in the universe.”
*I loved this quote. Made me think about how humans impact our society*

“I used to live with a man who was already an artist. That man was my best teacher. He died yesterday.”
*Her mentor does, and that is very sad. She is not super phased by it though*


"but whenever he went on a trip, I would make myself live in those shoes. I wore them every day, everywhere I went. I would wear them on the street, in the park, to the butcher’s. I wore them everywhere I could until they felt like mine for a while.”
*She pretended to not want to fill his shoes, but did it anyways because she wanted to feel like they are apart of her*







"It struck Princesse that this is why she wanted to make pictures, to have something to leave behind even after she was gone, something that showed what she had observed in a way that no one else had and no one else would after her."
*This makes me smile. Finding the deeper meaning of a person or a situation*




New York Day Women

"My mother never shops outside of Brooklyn. She has never seen the advertising office where I work. She is afraid to take the subway, where you may meet those young black militant street preachers who curse black women for straightening their hair."
*Describing how odd it is that her mother is out of town because her mother is one who does not go out of town at all.*

"My mother, who accuses me of random offenses as I dash out of the house."
*Her Mother always shames her for going out of town, and now she sees her mom out of town*


"Oh no, he doesn’t kiss me that way anymore."
*Talking about how her husband and hers affection ran out a while ago.*


"she is lost in a sea of pinstripes and gray suits, high heels and elegant short skirts, Reebok sneakers, dashing from building to building."
*I sis not fully understand this, but it seems like her mother is surrounded by a bunch of working people.*


"Ville Rose and has never had the strength to return for their funerals."
*How her mothers sisters all died. And she never had the strength to go to their funerals*

" They look like a Third World Parent-Teacher Association meeting."
*I just thought this was sooooo funny!!*


"Day women come out when nobody expects them."
*Makes her mom sound very mysterious.*

In class writing. "Night woman"

In my opinion, the tone of voice set for this story is desperate yet dependent. I say this because in the text it said "The night is the time I dread most in my life. Yet if I am to live, I must depend on it." (page 70). The lady is dependent on the night but is desperate to escape it. She does not like to be considered a "night woman." The reason she's is considered a "night woman" is because at night, once her son is asleep, she has men come over her house to have sex with her whether they are married or not. She does this to make  money to support her and her son as much as possible since they are currently living in a run down house. I feel like she tries to tell her son about her life using magic as a way to make it all seem fake. Also, her son is very young, therefore she feels like he does not need to know the harsh reality of how she is actually managing to support them. It's important because like I said before, it almost doesn't seem real. Or makes it seem less wrong than she thinks it is. She is helping some men cheat on their wives which is wrong, but using magical terms makes it seem less wrong and more of a game. Also, she must be quite young herself. It relates to the story because instead of basically being called a prostitute, she is called a night women or a women of the night. It  makes her seem more like a super hero or a mysterious figure rather than a young mother trying to support her son as much as possible.

Blog post #6 Themes

One recurring theme that I noticed was the theme of Death. I noticed that the theme was used as a way of escape for all three stories. The little girl's boyfriend in the first story went on a boat to run away from the soldiers in Haiti. While on the boat, this young girl named Celianne who happened to be pregnant, gave birth to her first born child at the age of 15 after being raped repeatedly. Sadly, her baby was born dead and never made it, yet Celianne kept the baby close to her for days at a time. People kept telling her to throw her baby out to sea because the ship was not holding and they needed to get rid of any unnecessary weight. At first Celianne refused, but as the days went on she decided it was time and threw her baby overboard. In a desperate attempt to escape what she has gone through, she jumped in after her baby and drown. In the second story, Lili’s mother died in prison after being falsely accused of having wings made of fire. The other ladies in jail said her mother was beaten to death by the police and that's how she died. In my opinion, her mother must have done something bad for the police to just start beating her. I believe her mother wanted to die because she wanted to be free. She wanted to escape and “fly away.” Last but not least, the third story was all about a father, mother and their little son. The father, who was known as Guy, jumped out of a hot air balloon after facing the harsh reality of life. Guy constantly struggled to be a good father and a supporting husband. He was good at it, but he couldn't seem to handle being both a good father and supporting husband at the same time. The two roles seemed to clash with one another and he felt like he was failing his family. He was without a job, and therefore could not support his family or be there for his son. He did not think his son would make it far by just studying all the time. He wanted his son to start working so in the future his son would not have the same problems. but , as the days went on and Guy still could not find a job, the stress, anxiety and  anger took over him. So he stole a hot air balloon, and jumped out of it to escape the realities of life. He wanted to escape reality and live in his own world where everything would be alright.  All of these themes tie together, but the main theme I had in my mind was death. As sad as it is, sometimes people are in such desperate situation they feel like they have no choice but to end it all. I feel as of everyone of them felt like they were doing a good thing. Each one of these stories break my heart, because someone in each family felt the only way they would be able to escape everything, was to die. Other recurring themes were escape, freedom, happiness and desperation.

Notes for K.K

Nineteen Thirty-Seven

“When I saw the tear I thought, surely, that my mother had died.”

• Clearly shows she cares for her mother deeply.

“ She closed her eyes at the moment of contact, her wrist shaking. “

• The old women clearly had some sort of fond over the Madonna. It was clearly special.

“You're here to see a prisoner”

• Her mother is in prison because people thought she was this fire creature that killed children.

“These days, her skin barely clung to her bones, falling in layers, flaps, on her face and neck”

• Describing what her mom looks like since being thrown into prison

“ Her teeth were a dark red, as though cakes with blood with from the initial beating during her arrest.  At times, she seemed happier to see the Madonna than she was to see me.”

• I liked the way she described her mother here, but I also noticed her mother paid more attention to the Madonna than her own daughter who could not even speak to her.

“ They have not treated me badly, she said. She smoothed her hands over her baldhead.”

• This made me think a bit. Because she says they do not treat her bad, but her teeth are stained red with blood and there is no way blood can stay on your teeth for that long. She Had to have gotten beaten recently. Also, they arrested her for some dumb reason.

“ And before the women went to sleep, the guards made them throw tin cups of cold water at one another so that their bodies would not be able to muster up enough heat to grow those wings made of flames, fly away in the middle of the night, slip into the slumber of innocent children and steal their breath.”

• Just another way they are degrading her and this can clearly show that they don't care for her health at all. They don't care if she dies.

“ She was being pulled along  by two policemen, each tugging at one of her arms as she dragged her feet. The women we had been staying with carried her dead son by the legs.”

• When the mother was blamed

“ I kissed her on the cheek and tried to embrace her, but she quickly pushed me away.”

• Her mother did not want affection. She is… broken

“ Let her flight be joyful,  I said, and mine too”

• She is kind of saying goodbye

“ God only knows what I have got under my skin from being here. I may die of tuberculosis, or perhaps there are worms right now eating me inside.”

• Her mother does not even care about dying anymore.

“ When I am completely gone, maybe you will have someone to take my place. Maybe you will have a person. Maybe you will have some flesh to console you.”

• She hopes for the best for her mother

“ Oh, now you talk, she said, when I am nearly gone.”

• She was upset that her daughter didn't talk to her.

“ Sister, I do not want to be the one to tell you, she said, but your mother is dead”

• Her “sister?” found out her mother died.

“Each women was either wearing or holding something that belonged to her.”

• Clearly her mother was important to many people.

“Beaten down in the middle of the yard. She whispered. Like a dog said another women.”

• Her mother did NOT die of natural causes, she died because she was beaten to death.

“They said Prison could not cure her.”

• Prison is not a place to be cured, it's a place to serve time.

“Let her flight be joyful, I said to Jacqueline. And mine and yours too.”

• She wants to just, let go.

A Wall Of Fire rising

“ My love, Boukman is the hero of the play.”

• Her son is playing the hero of the play, signifies to me how strong he is.

“Within seconds, Guy was in the air hurtling down towards the crowd. Lili held her breath as she watched him fall. He crashed not far from where Lili and the boy were standing, his blood immediately soaking the landing spot. “

• He killed himself!!! He was desperate.

“He is mine, she said to young assad. He is my family. He belongs to me.”

• Claims him.  Wants people to know that he is hers.”

“She leaned in very close to get a better look at Guys face.  There was little left of that countenance that she had loved so much.”

• His face must have gotten smashed in because she can't recognize.

“ No, leave them open, Lilli said, My husband. He likes to look at the sky.”

• I feel like it's a metaphor for something.

*Sorry there are not as many notes as the last one, but i did not feel like there was that much important information*

K.K quotes and connections

1.) Love is like the rain, it comes in a drizzle sometimes. Then it starts pouring, and if you're not careful it will drown  you.

2.) the past is like that on our heads. I moved to New York when I was twelve, but you always have this feeling that wherever you come from, ypu physically leaves it. But it doesn't leave you.



This quotes have really touched me in ways u can't describe. It did not take me long to choose which two I wanted as they connected with me very easily. The first one hit me pretty hard because growing up as a lost child, forced into foster care and put up for adoption, finding "love" was not easy. I always wanted to feel loved. I don't mean love in the sense like, a boyfriend. I just mean love in general. My mother was always touch on my sister and I while growing up, but as a child who never knew what love really was, it was hard for me. I took many Hingis she said to heart and felt I would never be loved. As I got older I started to see the small things she would do to show me she loved me. Then, as I got older I started to like this guy who I grew up with a while back. He was very sweet and has always been there for me. We started dating my freshman year when I was 16 years old.i finally felt loved and I was happy.but soon, I just felt like I was drowning. The more he said "I love you" the less it felt real. It felt like he just kept repeating it to reassure me that he did not loose that feeling. my sophomore year, he cheated on me over five times and I never knew. I felt like my life was sucked out of me. I know it sounds cliché but I really liked him, and he broke my heart. I did not eat for weeks. It's true what they said, love will drown you but hope will keep you afloat. The second quote really  touched me too. I was born in Ireland and got made fun of a lot when I was adopted. I never wanted to accept the fact that I was Irish. I was always so shamed but I will never forget my home. It was where I came from and as I got older I started to embrace myself more. I realized there wss nothing to be ashamed of. Yes, I may have left it behind, but it will never leave me for it is apart of me, and I will never forget it.

- Kat