SIYU.WU
Reacher Essay
English 1121 (Prof. Scanlan)
5/17/2020
The Ethics In New York Day Women
New York Day Women is short story wrote by Edwidge Danticat，a female American-Haitian novelist. In this short story author descried a daughter from a Haiti immigrant family who work as a while-collar in an advertisement company’s office，accidentally saw her mother，a woman will never shop outside of Brooklyn，now stroll in Manhattan. The curiosity force the daughter to follow her mother，then find out the hidden side of her mother. In the story the mother did many different choices compare to what she told to his daughter. The reason for change the choice is because mother have different ethics due to different relationship or condition. In other word，different relation or condition between different person will cause people apply to different ethics and lead to a different choice or even same ethics but in different answer. In order to support and explain the idea，first I will explore the scene where the daughter will not give seat to others in the subway，and the scene hit by a car in Haiti，which involve the Utilitarian Ethics. Then I will talk about the Deontology Ethics follow by mother in the scene，when she never attend to parent teacher meeting，because she doesn’t want to make her daughter feel shame. Finally it is the scene of daughter decide to give her seat out on a subway train，because the old lady remind the daughter of his mother，so she apply Virtue Ethics to make this choose.
In the story the family of the speaker (the daughter) is an immigrant family from Haiti. The mother is the first-generation immigrant and the daughter is the second generation. 2 different generation represent 2 different of life style in 2 country，American and Haiti. This cause mother and daughter have a different choice when they apply Utilitarian Ethics，benefit other and benefit self or only benefit self . As the story said，the mother mention，if you hit by a car the driver will blame you for destroy his car. life of poor is worthless in Haiti，instead of taking care of others you have to take care yourself first，this lead the mother apply Utilitarian Ethics，then lead to the choice，wait for the dispute settled before across the street in the scene of taxi driver yells to another. In the article form Grade Saver,“Krik? Krak! Summary and Analysis of “New York Day Women”” said “To Suzette’s eyes, while her mother’s body might have reached America, her heart and soul never made the trip.” Even thought the mother move to America，but sense of value which she learn never change，the result of hit by a car in Haiti made mother to wait for the dispute settled，let the car go first then across the street to make sure her safety，benefit the driver and herself. Compare to the second-generation，the daughter，what she learn is based on American culture，one things in this capitalism society is to maximum the self-profit，this why the daughter will not give her seat out on subway follow by her Utilitarian Ethics. If the daughter have the same taxi driver dispute，she is like to across the street instead of waiting as her mother. The different create by the culture this condition. As author Kristine Abrahamsson wrote in his article “Mothers and Daughters between Two Cultures in Short Fiction by Edwidge Danticat”， “The gap between the mothers and daughters were widened by the differences between Haitian and American culture and by the complexity of the political relationship between the countries.” The gaps create by culture lead to the a different answer for the daughter and mother.
The mother never attend to her daughter’s Parent-Teacher Association meetings is the result of following the Deontology Ethics as a mother. As a parent to know about her child is a duty base on Deontology Ethics to show you care and love the child，but the mother did not go to Parent-Teacher Association meetings in the short story also is a form of love following Deontology Ethics. As the story set，they represent different culture，when a foreign mother join the meeting only will cause the people around her daughter feel her daughter is live in a uneducated environment and create a stereotype to her daughter. The mother refuse to go is a action of love， to protect her daughter. In the article form Grade Saver,“Krik? Krak! Summary and Analysis of “New York Day Women”” wrote“Suzette’s mother refusing to attend Parent-Teacher Association meetings because she doesn’t want to embarrass Suzette with her “foreignness” is another example of this love.” Sometime child feel embarrass due to they are parent different with other children，discard also is a way to protect your love. On the other hand for mother refuse to go，it is not because the culture different apply to ethic，but the trust between daughter and mother. As the peer view article from Eduzaurus “Review Of New York Day Women By Edwidge Danticat” state:“It is possible that since she knew her daughter so well that nothing the Teachers can say changes her opinion of her. Suzette underestimates her mother as a person who was a shut into a person who was experience with the city.” Maybe the mother just know the daughter too well，so she decided not to go to the meeting. No matter in which way the mother love her daughter，but in 2 different way，a way of discard for protect and the way show she know her daughter well as a love of care. Both explain point to the love，which mean the mother is fulfill her duty to her child as a example to follow the Deontology Ethics.
