IA Brainstorming

For the IA, I and Marinda want to perform a scene that adapted from the story Children of the Sea. Marinda has a very creative idea about setting the play in North Korea instead of in Haiti. After we discuss more the details in class, I find this project becomes more and more interesting.

For our group, we will talk about a father and mother live in North Korea and want to go to South Korea for living with their daughter. I will play the father and Marinda will play the mother. We will have two major scenes. The first scene will be in the living room where the characters live. We will introduce the basic setting for the audiences through our dialogues. There will be same chairs and a table for the scene. Then we will discuss their plan for escaping from North Korea to South Korea. There will be a scene changes following this.

Then the second scene will be the father and mother record their life in form of letters, like Children of the Sea. We will find direct quotes from the story into our letters which make our scene more related with the original story. The father will escape on the sea, and the mother will escape on lands. They will keep telling what they see and think on the road. At the end, one of the characters will die on the road, and the other one will wait in the place they promised to meet before.

In total, it is a very interesting script that both adapted the story Children of the Sea and has a creative story. There are more and more ideas coming out following the weeks. I am looking forward to performing.

Top 5 Choice

• 9: I think mine scene is the best choice for me because I already come out with several ideas to perform the scene. As well as I practice the first part for the quiz, I have some experiences to do the scene. Lastly, I am very interesting to write a continued story from the book, which can show different sides of the characters.
• 7: Yichen's scene is very similar to my scene. We practice the latter part together for the last quiz. I think it will be a good idea to perform this scene too.
• 1: Jack also has a similar story that talks about the continued story of the son of Night Women. 
• 11b: I like the way Gianna set for the play, but she does not tell more information about the story. 
• 5: Zony also doe snot tell the story completely, but it seems interesting so far. Also, his idea is similar to mine.

Proposal

   I want to do scene adapted from both Night Women and New York Day Women. My idea comes from the quiz me and Yichen did last week. I find out that it is interesting to hear about the son of Night Women and the daughter of The New York Day Women. So I will expand the origin script and create more dialogue between the characters and show more emotions of the characters.

In this adaptation, there will be two characters, the son and the daughter from Night Women and New York Day Women. And I will divide it into two part. For the first part, it will be the letters between the two characters. There will be more letters exchanges between characters. The daughter will begin the scene with her speech about the story of New York Day Women. Then the son writes a letter to talk about his feeling about the story. This will be the introduction of the adaptation. I want to use this to give all the setting for the play and led to the following contents. Then the characters will exchange their feeling to each other. They will talk about how they think their mothers are, how they understand them and how they treat their mother after that. This will be the part that the character learn to understand their mother's sacrifice and changes to repeat their mothers. For the end of the first part, there will be a letter talks about the son and daughter decide to meet in Haiti, where is a meaningful place for both of them. This set for the second part of the scene.

In the second scene, the son and daughter will meet in the house of the boy. The setting will be simple, like a sofa, a table, and some chairs. In this scene, the boy can talk about how he grow up, and how he will do in the future. The daughter will also reply by how she will do in the future. I will come out more interesting contents for the characters that based on the origin story. For example, they will talk about their job. I imagine that the daughter will be a reporter or writer, and the son can be a scholar or a professor. It will be interesting to show another side of the characters that the story does not tell us. At the end of the scene will be the two of the characters says the line “Rising up with those sacrifices your family does”, which combine the first part, about the sacrifice, and the second part, about looking into future.

I want to tell a story that continues the Night Women and New York Day Women tells about how the character moving on from their old life and rise up to their future. In addition to these, I already have some ideas about the lighting and staging. For example, when the character is reading the letters, there will be so lights changing from a letter to letter. While one character is reading, the lights will only on the person who is reading. Also, I am sure that I can make cues for other groups’ lighting. This will be a good experience for me.

Endgame Review

   For me, watching Endgame is an unforgettable experience. I did not expect that the play will bring me so much surprise. I thought it would be a play with good story and good actors, but the show goes beyond my thinking. The deep concept of the story, great performance of actors, and the hard works of the crew members present to us a wonderful show, and I find myself have so many things to learn.

   Firstly, Endgame tells a story between a group of people to live in a shelter. The main character Hamm, his servant Clov, and his parents Nell and Nagg. They are living in a timeless world, where without hope. The stage is set up perfectly for all the conflicts of the characters. The main character Hamm is shown in a dominant character of the shoulder. He ordered Clov without reasons, that he tries everything he can to let Clov served him. As well as he deals with Nagg with a sugar, and gives a long monologue to make himself grateful. All those things make Hamm become the king of the shelter. But I think all these also show the loneliness, the weak and the fair inside of Hamm. Like Hamm talks alone at the end suspects that clov is not leaving, and says “the world is finally quite” Hamm is like an annoyed child that constantly want people’s attention.

   On the other side, Clov is the servant of Hamm. Clov is shown as a weaker, powerless character in the play. Compare to Hamm, who is sitting all the time, Clov could not sit, like he repeats many times in the play, and he has to do all the things for Hamm. I remember clearly that Clov talks about he wants to order, he tries his best to create order in his world. He sorted all the things and he obeys the order that he could not sit. He is living in pain, because of weak. He has no courage to fight against Hamm at first because he does not have any hope. He is a very controversial character in my mind, he wants freedom, but he limited himself by all those orders he obeys.

After all, I see the play as a conflict between hope and desperate. And Hamm is the person has desperate, but he also wants hop. Who knows what he really thinks in his mind at last? Hamm might believe there is a child, so he argues with Clov and let him go out to have freedom on purpose. It is a character that from the beginning to the end control all the people.

In conclusion, the play is really helpful for me to study more about theater. The actors give me the example of what excellent actors are. More than this, the crew of the play also let me learn about how to let the setting fits with the play. I carefully watch the lights design, and I find out that the lights switch slightly every time to lead audiences to pay attention to the major character in the scene. Also, the director’s way to introduce the play is impressive. That the play begins with Clov uses a series of actions to let the audience have time to calm down, and ready for listing the important dialogues, which I consider as the most important parts of the play. During the beginning, the characters do not completely show their conflicts, internally, they tell the concept of the story. Like Hamm asks “What time is it?” Clov answers by “Like always, zero!” This clearly reminds the audience that the characters are in a timeless world.

It is a very well done play that makes I learn a lot. Overall those things, I know that to make a play on stage need a lot of hard works and it will not be easy. But the accomplishment after succeeding the play will be enormous.

Endgame Research

Endgame is a play that based on the story written by Samuel Beckett. Director Gordon Edelstein adapts it and changes it into a play. It was a play that leads to two main characters - Hamm, cast by Colin Friels, and Hamm’s servant clov, cast by Luke Mullins. The story is setting in a decaying world, Hamm and all the people around him are in an interdependent relationship. Hamm and his servant clov seem to have many conflicts with each other, as well as Hamm with his parents. It is a story that written in France during the cold war, so it shows how the author feels about the time period, which is timeless, lonely. I see that all the scenes happen in one place, the room where Hamm lives. This brings to audiences that the world is limited and controlled by something, which similar to the cold war.

The author Samuel Beckett was born in Dublin at 1906 and lived in Paris for most of his time. He was a member of the resistance in France during WWII as well as the politics during Cold War. This experience sure influenced him in this play. As I see there are total 4 characters in the play, I understand that this is a play that depends on actors very much. When I read about the director of the play Gordon Edelstein, I know that he loves this play from his heart that he does not want to ruin the play. So when he have great actors like Colin Friels and Luke Mullins, he has the confident to direct the play. I feel a similar way like he does, sometimes people will know their ability to succeed something or not. So I think the play is one of the best work of Gordon Edelstein, and he obviously put a lot of efforts in it. Also, the actors play an important role in the play, they have to expressive their passion through the whole theater to bring audience into their play. As I learn that both of the actors are very professional and they have worked in many plays, I expect they will bring me a great show which I can learn from their acting. Furthermore, the play is set like The Little Warriors, which has only one major place for the whole time. But it has more characters which I expect to hear more conversation as well as the interactions between characters.

Lastly, I am very curious about the lighting design in the theater. I believe there will be more light changes than the last show, which I can learn from it. More than that, I want to see more theaters with different design of lights and learn from them to bring a better performance in our winter musical.

Krik?Krak! Quiz 3 Reflection

   I and Yichen use the form of the letter to make conversation between the son from Night Women and the daughter from New York Day Women. Based on the story, we develop our characters more in their emotions. Both of us talk about our feeling to our mothers, that we understand their sacrifices and we should be grateful to them.
   In our dialogues, we use some words to connect our letters, that makes our conversation more real. I start my first letter with the title "Dear D.Daughter" and ending with "Sincerely". Also, in my first letter, I repeat the similar points between characters like "my family did not have a superior background either" to link our characters. Then I use her words about "Behind every colorful life..." to start my second letter "The break of the shadow of my colorful life...". In my opinion, by having those connections in dialogues, our audience believe that our characters are actually writing letters to each other.
   Our story in developed from both Night Women and The New York Day Women, we choose to let the son and daughter grow up and talk about their mothers. The main point of our story is to understand. So we first tell the original stories in our dialogues, then we exchange our understand about mothers. Those lead to the sacrifice of mothers and led our character to be grateful and respect their mothers. As we say together "Never forget those sacrifices your family does" at the end, we want the people of the story to move on to their new life.
   In total, I think our scene let the story of the book continues and develop more about our characters. We also find it interesting to provide new perspectives of our characters. After all, it is interesting to work in this short scene.

Krik? Krak! Quiz 3

Scene: Night Women & New York Day Women

Characters:

• The son in “Night Women”, (N.Son)

He is about 19 years old.

He lives in Haiti. He reads the book, which D.Daughter published, and he is attracted by her stories. Then, he starts to write the letter to the daughter and shares his mother’s story, the story of Night Women.

• The daughter in “New York Day Women”, (D.Daughter)

She is about 21 years old.

She moved from Haiti to the United States with her mother when she was only a child. Then she grows up in the United States and goes to the college to study. She becomes a writer, who writes the book “New York Day Women”, which talks about the story of her mother from her perspective. She publishes her book, and many people are attracted to her book.

Setting:

• One day, the son reads the book from the daughter, and he is influenced by the stories. Since they both are Haitians and he also has his own story of his mother, he wants to share with the daughter. Then, they start writing letters to each other about their mothers’ stories.

New York Day Woman’s Daughter (D.Daughter)’s speech about her book:

Women are the special roles in this world. People may think that since women do not need to do the most challenge job like men, women may just enjoy the life with taking care of trivial things under their men’s protection. They may seem to be powerless and weak in the society. However, women also can be powerful and strong, they have their own way of meaningful sacrifice. As a woman, I feel it. As a daughter, I see the effort my mother made. I would like to stand out and speak. Talking about the story of my mom; talking about the story of Haitian; talking about the story of women, the story of a New York Day woman.

When I was young, my mother did not have much time to stay with me. Since we are the immigrants from Haiti, we did not have the superior background; we did not have the power. Therefore, our life is totally based on the sacrifice we made. My mother needed to work during the day and day, over and over, to provide the family a brighter future.

Hope everyone will love my story!

Thank you,

The Daughter of Day Women (D.Daughter)

Son’s letter to Daughter of New York Day Woman:

Dear D.Daughter,

Your book is deeply impressed me and I have a similar story that I want to share with you.

I am also a Haitian, who is raised up by my mother alone. My family did not have the superior background either. So my mother has to work hard to make money. But she is a night woman, which she likes to call herself. When I was little, I briefly saw all those different men came into our house and stayed for the whole night. I could not see them clearly and I thought they were my imaginations. Like my mother told me that they were the angels, and all I saw was just a dream. I was also very innocent that I asked my mother in one fine morning that “Mommy, have I missed the angel again?” “Darling, the angels have themselves a lifetime to come to us.” She creates all those wonderful lies for the little me. But I eventually grow up too old to be told that a wandering man is a mirage and that naked flesh is a dream…

Sincerely

The son of night woman

Daughter’s letter to Son of Night Woman:

Dear N.Son:

I’m glad to hear your feedback and your own stories. Being a woman is very difficult, especially with our Haitian identity. I understand her. As a woman, we do not have many ways to work, to earn money, like men. Women are the weaker roles in this society, in this world. Your mother did not do anything wrong. She just wanted to try her best to give you a completed life. She might want to use the lies to make your life more colorful, let you have more imagination, more simplicity for children’s dream. How do you think about your mother’s life? Did you get any effects? Did you be mad at her? You said it happened in your childhood. Might it be hard for you to understand during that time right? Now, I’m attracted by your story! Behind every colorful life, there must be some camouflaged difficulties.

Best,

D.Daughter

Son’s letter to Daughter of New York Day Woman:

Son:

The break of the shadow of my colorful life came as my mother peacefully tells everything to me. At first, I was extremely angry with her, because I was ashamed of all the thing she did! But just like you say that women do not have many ways to work, I understand that she had not a choice at that difficult time. And I am sure that my mother suffered more than I did. I could not imagine the sacrifice she had. Then I remember the days when she laid near my bed and watched my sleep every night. I remember her smile while I was humming songs. I remember the shadow of her back when she looks at the day women go to work at every morning. After these, I could not say anything that most people say to her. I understand that without her sacrifices, I would not survive from those hard times.

My mother had to choose to live a life that appears simple but actually is the most difficult. Your mother reminds me all those greatness of my mother, so I begin to write to you. Our mothers might not be the perfect mothers, but I think they are the best mothers for us. I hope this story can remind you more about the sacrifices of your mother.

Sincerely,

N.Son

Daughter’s letter to Son of Night Woman:

Daughter:

Let me tell you more about my feeling. I was very innocent and did not understand why my mother did her job instead of taking care of me during that time. I wished that I could also receive the mother love like other children. However, I finally understood her, and I understood that life is exchange with the sacrifice. It is like the same feeling, which you have. I remember all the details of her work, of her sacrifices. In my life, my mother is a powerful and strong woman, because she sacrificed her relationship with me in order to give me a better future...Earning money is everyone’s goal. Our mothers did not rob the bank; they did not steal the money from others; they did not do any illegal things. Again, your mother also did not do anything wrong. She just wanted to try her best to give you a completed life. She just chose an unusual way. Even though other people may think being a prostitute is not a bright idea, I understand her. She sacrifices her body to make the better life. You should be proud of your mother. She is a strong woman.

Best,

D.Daughter

Together:

“Never forget those sacrifices your family do”

Blog Post #8

Edwidge Danticat’s Krik? Krak! is a book tells the life story of Haitians in a unique way. Like its name, “Kirk?” and “Krok” is used at storytelling in Haitian culture, the book presents the natures of Haitian through different pieces of stories. Ms. Danticat changes narrator's’ perspective to tell those pieces of stories, which appear different from each other but actually are linked together throughout the book, to show me the beautiful and cruel world of Haitian.

At the first story Children of the Sea, Ms. Danticat tells the story from two perspectives, the Boy at the sea and the Girl at Haiti. The story is written in the form of letters between the boy and the girl. Though reading those letters reader know the country’s mass in the dictatorship and the hardship of normal Haitian faced in those days. In the boy's’ letter, the form is more formal. There are periods, capitalize letters, and the using of the words are more natural. These fit with the setting that the boy is an educated student, who worked in the audio and wanted to have school in America. On the other side, the girl’s letter appears less formal. There are no periods between sentences, no capitalizes, the way narrator speaking appears very young, unthoughtful to audiences, as well as the words are typed in Bude. The differences of the letters are specifically shown to help me understand the setting. Also, Children of the Sea is the first story in the book. The author use it as the introduction by stating the name of the book “Krik? Krak!”. The boy words and explain the Haitian culture of storytelling in his letter. For me, I feel this story is attracted because of this form of storytelling. For example, I have to contract the information that author gives from the two letters to get the full picture of the story. It’s like figuring out a puzzle, that has my interest immediately.

Besides this specific story, when I connect all the little pieces in the book together, I see that the book is undoubted “Krik? Krak!”, that like the boy and other people at the sea, they tell a series of stories one by one. As a whole book, all those stories combine together, each story has connections with each other. For example, the mother from Caroline's Wedding went to a mass for a refugee woman, that appears to be Celianne from Children of the Sea. This lets the separated stories link to each other, and give me both the bigger picture of the entire book as well as the detailed experience of the characters. Furthermore, the author also uses secondary perspective to write the epilogue Women Like Us. The secondary perspective “you” make me feel more understanding to her points. I feel the story is not about other people, but about me when I read the epilogue. It is very impressive to see the author natural switches between perspective in the book.

I remember when Ms. Danica comes to our school and gives us a writing excessive. During her comments to each group of us, I clearly remember she talks about the perspective, which she says is a good way to strength the story. Krik? Krak! is just like its name, it is a collection of stories that bring me into the world of Haitian.

In Class Writing 1.17

        I think Edwidge Danticat's speech yesterday was one of the kind. Because I read her book Krik? Krak! these days, I felt I understand her speech better than other the MLK speech last year. At first, she get my attention by telling a jock that I read in her book. Then I realize that she is not that unfamiliar to me, and her speech became more reasonable for me.
She did a great speech around the topic of MLK, the rights for black people, and how does these rights appear for the immigrants like her. I found it was interesting that she did not simply talk about all the great thing Dr.King did, but talk about her feeling about the rights. From these, she related her home country Haiti that was ruled by the dictatorship for years. She talked about the impactions from the dictatorship and related it with MLK. That her childhood was deeply inflected by the government'e bloody actions. Even though her speech is not fluent that she sometimes did not explain her idea well at the first time, I felt her speech was very real to me. Different from other speech I heard last year, her speech is more understandable. She used many quotes from Dr.King, and expended her ideas on the quotes. She also recommended some books that influenced her, and has connection to the speech in the speech to us. Furthermore, I was glad to hear that she reads and knows many author as well as artist from China.
For me, her speech is more attractive than last year. I understood her speech better and I felt that she is right to tell people to take actions against injustice things.

Blog Post #7

Edwidge Danticat’s Krik? Krak! shows Haitian life story in a very realistic way, which she does not hide any pains of the people, and tell readers how the characters deal with their lives. There are several stories in the novel that make a very interesting comparison between Haitian women in America and Haitian women in Haiti. By telling those stories, the author expresses that even the lives are different in America and Haiti, Haitian people always remind themselves their origin.

Women’s lives in Haiti is poor, unhealthy, but they have their own happiness. For example, the prostitute in the Night Women chapter is a strong woman who raises her only child alone. She has to sacrifice her body and serving her customers, while her son is sleeping, for living. There are many judgments toward prostitutes in many countries, it is even worse to imagine the situation in Haiti. As the night woman watches the day men go to work, she does not respect their day job as well as they do not respect her. Furthermore, as a mother, the woman has to explain everything for her son in the future. I can see she struggles in her heart that “One day, he will grow too old to be told that a wandering man is a mirage and that naked flesh is a dream.” She knows that her son will have to know everything one day, but there is nothing she could do to save herself - she has to survive, as well as her son. On the other hand, the night woman has her own happiness, that all the time she have with her son. As she says “We are like faraway lovers, lying to one another, under different moons” She and her son have a very close relationship. After all the hardness in life, they have each other to depend on and comfort. This happiness might be a faraway dream for those Haitian women in America.

In both New York Day Women and Caroline’s Wedding, the author shows Haitian women do not have to struggle with money but struggle with the family relationship as well as the impactions from different cultures. The short story of New York Day Women tells a story that how a daughter learns about her mother and become more respectful. I know the daughter has a job and their family is wealthy enough from the contents that she says “Lunch period” and there is nothing about difficulties in canaries in the story.  They have lived a long time in America, but the daughter just realizes that she knows too little about her own mother when she finds her mother works as a babysitter all those years to make money. Their relationship is clearly not as close as the night woman and her son.

The similar expressions of family struggles appear in the story of Caroline’s Wedding. Both of the narrator and Caroline have many complaints to the mother. The struggles of the family lead to a bigger topic, the impact of different culture, which is mainly discussed in the story. The younger generation of the family live very “American style”, they think more freely and does not limit by traditions. But the elder generation always talks about the past, the traditions, and insights to living as a Haitian. For example, Caroline who marry with Eric, an American, and goes to Eric’s house overnights. In the contrast, Ma would never agree Caroline do that. Even Caroline’s wedding with Eric is challenged Ma’s traditional mind that Caroline should marry a Haitian. The author tells this story in details of Caroline’s lives, those little things like drinking the bone soup that shows indirectly the conflicts between American culture and Haitian culture are shown.

Both of the women have their own happiness, either have a sweet son to live together or have no worry about money for living, I think both Haitian women in America and Haiti have their own benefits and pains. Those Haitian women’s situations remind me a phrase from a Chinese novel Fortress Besieged, that “The people outside the city want to come into the city, but the people inside the city want to go out of the city” People always want to find the best way to live. After all, people are never satisfied, but it is never right to throw away our shot.

Krik? Krak! Note 3

In Class Writing 1.10

        When I first read the story of Night Women, I feel that the tone of the story is different from the first three stories that we read. The tone of the story is soft, sensitive and with more personal emotions.
The story is told by the narrator, a mother who has a son to take care. Because of this, I can see the tone becomes softer than the previous stories, like the tone of mother telling good night story to her baby. Like "No more, no more, or your teeth will turn black." I can feel the mother care about her son from her heart. Also, the majority of the sentences are used to describe the son. The mother as a narrator wants everyone else know how adorable her son is. She records how the son sleeps, how he sings, and how he awakes from sleep. Furthermore, the mother used a different tone to her customer at the end. For example, she says "How is Your wife?" to the doctor, and she says "Darling, the angels have themselves a lifetime to come to us." to her son. There is emotions in very sentences from her to the son, but none to other people.
The tone of the story is very different from others. It is told by a mother who loves her son so much that she sacrifices a lot. It feels more emotionally.

Blog Post #6

The Voice From Haiti

The author of Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat says that “I wanted to raise the voice of a lot of the people that I knew growing up, and this was, for the most part, poor people who had extraordinary dreams but also very amazing obstacles.” She wants to tell the world that the people of Haiti want the freedom of chasing their dreams. But those people are powerless to let the world notices them, so she “rais the voice”. In the story of Nineteen Thirty-Seven and A Wall of Fire Rising, Danticat shows reader two Haitian families overcome their obstacles and chase their dream freely.

Nineteen Thirty-Seven tells the story of a daughter and her mother. The mother practiced a religion called voodoo, which was banished in Haiti during that time. People around the mother thought she was a witch, then when a neighbor's baby died, the mother was suspected of killing the baby. The story begins with the daughter went to visit the mother. During their conversations, the mother kept saying that she has a wing of fire. The fire wing is symbolized escape, power and more importantly, freedom. All the bias from the country to the voodoo religion is like those poison guards throw cold water to the prisoner. The prisoner's’ body were too cold to grow the wings of fire. In my opinion, the wish to be free to believe a religion is an important theme in the story. The voodoo was the major reason to let the mother get in the poison. A person has his or her right to chose a good religion, as long as they do not hurt other people, there is no reason to limited their freedom to believe. The mother in the story believes in her religion from the beginning to the end. I can see this from every time she asks the daughter to bring the Madonna, and she kept saying that she had a wing of flame. As the daughter says at the end “Let her flight be joyful”, maybe death is a release to the mother. She won’t be judge by what she believe; there won’t be anyone to replace the love ones, and she will be free.

Another story A Wall of Fire Rising tells a short life of Guy. Guy, Guy’s wife Lili and their son little Guy lived in a small village. Their lives were poor and powerless, they lived in a small place and struggled to live all the time. As the man in the family, Guy was frustrated because he has no work for months, he did not feel he was a good husband, a good father. Then when Guy got a job in Sugar Mill, which was a big company owned by Assad family, there was a conflict between Guy and Lili. Guy wanted his son to get into the line for the jobs, but Lili thoughts their son could do better than that by education. Then Guy saw a balloon that owned by Assad family, he dreamed of flying the balloon to restart his life somewhere and left all his frustrated behind. Comparing to the mother and daughter in Nineteen Thirty-Seven, Guy appeared to be free, but his life was still limited by his responsibility to his family. At the end, Guy fled the balloon on the sky, he succeeded to part of his dream, then he jumped out of the balloon.

Danticat describes the lives of those small Haitian people so well that both of these stories make me have a strong will to help them. All of the characters in the story were small people that have no power to fight. They were the small ones that drown by the bigger ones, the soldier, the prison guards, the Assad family. But all they wanted were simple lives, they wanted to live freely, either to believe the religion she chose or to have the power to make some change in his family. Danticat notices many unfair things in Haiti, besides freedom, she also mentions about women’s right in the stories and many others. she wants to raise the voice of those Haiti people who are suffering by the compressors, and she expresses their wills in her writings.

In Class Writing 1.5

"I wanted to raise the voice of a lot of the people that I knew growing up, and this was, for the most part, poor people who had extraordinary dreams but also very amazing obstacles"

This reminds me Guy in the third story A Wall of Fire Rising. Guy lived with his wife Lili and son Little Guy, but the family was not very wealth. Guy got a job in the sugar mill one day, and there is a bog ballon in the sugar mill. Guy talked about how he want to fly with the ballon and started a new life in somewhere else. At the end, Guy followed his will, flying the ballon and jump from the sky. In my opinion, Guy has his dreams, as a small person in the vile, he has such a big dream about going to other place and staring a new life. But the reality is very crustal for, he has a family to take care own, and he had no jobs for several mouths. When I reading the quote, I think about the author try to let her readers know about what Haitian people faced in their lives. There are poor people who had extraordinary dreams to chase but they could not because of the mass of the big environment.

"We need literature because we wouldn't fully know ourselves without it. We need good literature to be fully human"

In the first story, the boy keep writing his journal to the girl from beginning to the end. Even when he know the letters will not deliver to the girl, he still keep writing. I think for a person who struck in a small  ship in the middle of the ocean, the literature has more meaning than recording words. The boy uses literature as a company of him, he sees his letters as the girl his loves. In all those long days on the sea, he writes the letters. Because of this, he records all the things happen to him, he know more about himself. Lastly, because of the literature, he does not lose his mind at the end and be a fully human.

Kirk, Krak Notes 2