Journal 6- Diving into the short story “New Day Women”

Stepfan Hospedales

Journal 6

English 1121(Prof. Scanlan)

April 25, 2020

Diving into New York Day Women by Edwidge Danticat

The short story known as “New York Day Women” by Edwidge Danticat is a great story detailing a particular day in the life of the narrator’s mother. The main characters involved were the narrator Suzette and her interesting mother. As the narrator follows her mother throughout the city of Manhattan, the mother shows that her experiences in Haiti granted her wisdom, and made her humble, a trait that narrator seems to adore a lot about her mother. There was also growth in the narrator, before she started tailing her mother; she wasn’t inclined to give up her seat on the train to any old or pregnant lady. For her, it depended on the situation. However, as the narrator followed her mother, and reminisces on some statements she would say, the narrator decides she will give up her seat on the train to any pregnant lady or a woman her mother age. This was a growth in her character, she had changed her state of mind, and decides to exert kindness the way her mother did. The mother also grew, in terms that according to the narrator, her mother was adjusting to her new life in America and finally began to be a part of the city fully, as shown from her experiences in the city. In this short story, time and place was essential to the growth in the narrator. The narrator spotted her mother at the corner of Madison and Fifty-Seventh Street in Manhattan, and it was during her lunchtime. The mother is not really known to shop anywhere outside Brooklyn, so her being here warrant curiosity and an urge to find out why is she here? Since the narrator was on lunch, she had the time to tail her, hence why time and place was so important in this story. Any other time would have not given the narrator the change that she had gotten from watching her mother. When the narrator starts to secretly follow her, the story truly begins. By watching her mother, the narrator seems to remember lessons from her mother which she had possibly forgotten at one point. Each memory she had corresponded to her mother’s actions. The story hits the middle when the mother reaches the park to do a babysitting job. The narrator observes that this was something she had done before, because of the familiarity that the kid had with her. With each activity that the mother did with the kid, the narrator would recall some experiences her mother had in Haiti, like learning to read at a young age on her own, or mustering the strength to return to her sisters’ funerals. This flashback was ultimately brought on by the comic-book. In comic-books, the protagonist has to muster up strength to fight evil, and comic books are light reading. These certain traits brought out this flashback. The end comes to this short story after the narrator departs to head back to work, with her state of mind changed (turning point). The remaining flashbacks more deal with some things about her mother that the narrator remembers from her childhood, instead of the experiences her mother had in Haiti before that was shown throughout the story. The last flashback entails a contradictory quote to what was said before, which lead readers to ponder why the change in quotes? The narrator of this story Suzette, born of Haitian background, told this story in first person but perhaps it was third-person limited, because of flashbacks of her mother’s life she describes. It gives the story more meaning with the thoughts of the narrator paving the story. The story also showed the love between mother and child is such a spectacle to experience, and a strong feeling. From Suzette literally following her mother in Manhattan the whole day to this one example of this bond between the two, with that being Suzette’s mother not attending PTA meetings, because she didn’t want to embarrass her as she is a foreigner, a “day woman”. The narrator exerted the values mostly of her self-effacing, wise mother, who not knowingly display that her experiences in Haiti defined who she is. This is the theme of this short story; someone’s past or roots defines who they are in the present and future.