New York Day Women

In Haiti when you get hit by a car, the owner of the car get's out and kicks you for getting blood on his bumper.
I see a parallel between the car owner and the narrator and the victim and her mother.  The narrator can't help but feel ashamed of her mother at times, she feels like she's suffered due to her mother's cultural differences and eccentricities. She blames her mother, if subtly and sometimes unconsciously, for some of her own struggles in the US. Really her mother was the immigrant who had to make it on her own much of the time, she had to raise a child and be without her family and people like herself.  Her mother suffers quietly, with dignity and grace, while the daughter sneaks away behind a Sweden Tours bus.  I don't completely blame the daughter, she has it hard too, she doesn't hate her mother she just doesn't understand her.  She doesn't realize any pain she might have or why she does the things she does.  But she does blame her mother, she definitely does, her Haitian blood is on her bumper and now everyone can see the stain and just how clumsy her mother is.

Do you see other quotes from her mother that are oddly fitting? Which ones? 

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Day Woman

I think it's a pretty amazing thing to be able to see your mother for the woman she is and not just the parent that she is to you. This story encompassed that moment that you first see your mother in a new light and you're able to process part of who she is outside of your personal relationship. Although the narrator is specifially describing her mother I think she purposefully included attributes that make her mother relatable to all mothers. "My mother, who talks to herself when she peels the skin off poultry" (Danticat 3847). This reminded me of my own mother, she always hums while she bakes. Not very loud but it's something I could always hear from our playroom. I love the way she describes her mother though, and the set up between the mothers actions and things that the mother had said throughout her life that connected to those things. "Why should we give to Goodwill when there are so many people back home who need clothes? We save our clothes for the relatives in Haiti" (Danticat 3847). The mother has great advice and of course as a child the narrator sees her mothers good intentions but also sees that her mother has a garage full of things to give to relative in Haiti. But that's the character of her mother and a lot of moms. To put family first and to take care of yourself second. When she stops to look at the clothes for her daughter, my mom loves to buy me things even though sometimes the gift isn't my taste I know that my mother had the best intentions in buying it for me and I love her for that. I love the discoveries made about the mother, eating a hot dog, being a nanny. Her mother is apart of this whole world she knows nothing about. It's pretty amazing, and of course she is. Her mother had a life before her, why wouldn't she maintain her own life. I think moms need that, some work, some have hobbies. But mothers need an outlet, something that's for themselves. This weekend I saw a glimpse of my moms awesomeness. She takes care of kids for a living, she's a children's psych nurse and it amazes me how much she cares about them. She collects unused make up and makeup bags for the older girls, she organized a big Halloween party since the kids aren't allowed to leave their ward, and she has this connection to all these people I will never meet but it brings her so much joy and give her purpose and I love that she has that. I'd love to have this opportunity, to see my mom in her element. I don't know if I'd follow her for so long without saying hello, but I think it's mesmerizing for a child to be able to truly see their mother in her own element. With her independence and without any outside influence. 

I wonder though if it's weird the author never acknowledged her mother. Even at the end she didn't go up to her mother and say hello. I think that's so odd but maybe the author did this for good reason, to say that is wasn't the mother she new but the day woman she'd never met. I'm not sure but that's the one part that threw me. I thought at some point she would but instead she just kind of stalked her mom for a few blocks and then went back to work. 

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