- compare and contrast this fictional short story, with the first fictional short story you read by Edwidge Danticat, “Children of the Sea.”
- In your post, consider up to two of the questions below.
- Remember to include a question to the class to answer
1. What is the setting for “New York Day Women”: where is the short story taking place, geographically, but also what physical places do you find characters walking through/ living in in the short story? How is this setting (geographic location, physical places) different from “Children of the Sea”? Refer to the text or page numbers to illustrate your claim.
2. Who are the main characters in “New York Day Women”? How is their background, social status, relationships different or similar to characters in “Children of the Sea”? What is the political, historical and/or economic context of this short story?
Refer to the text or page numbers to illustrate your claim.
3. In prose fiction, there is a narrator that tells the story. Sometimes the narrator is easy to identify, other times, it is more difficult to realize that there is a narrator. The narrator can be a third party that does not have a name, that knows all of the details. That is an “omniscient narrator.” Or, the narrator can be a character in the story, that has a limited perspective. Other times, the narrator can be a character in the story, and tells the story from “I” perspective. Take a look at “New York Day Women,” and if there is someone who tells the story – who explains what the characters are doing, how they are feeling, what they are thinking, the time of day, describes the setting, etc. Does this narrator make use of the subject pronoun “you”, who is the narrator addressing, if anyone? How is this different from the narrator in “Children of the Sea”? Explain with references to the text.
4. There is physical and emotional distance between two characters in this short story. How is the distance expressed, in reference to physical distance? Refer to the text. How is the emotional distance defined? Refer to the text. How is this similar or different to one relationship between two characters in “Children of the Sea”?
5. Are there any symbols or metaphors in “New York Day Women” that relate to a tragic distance, and/or to the impossibility to resolve differences or reconcile loved ones? How about in “Children of the Sea”?
6. What do the two short stories reveal about Edwidge Danticat’s writing style, and do they perform what you learned about Négritude:
