Quiz #3 Reflection on Performance

      Today, we made our final performance on the stage. Ms. Danticat acted by me and Ms. Melissa (the mother from New York Day Women) acted by Marinda had a deep conversation in my imaginary world. In our interview, we tried to show the audience those specific things that were not metioned in the book, which happened on the author as well as the New York Day Woman. Because in the "New York Day Women", the story was recounted from her daughter's perspective, and the inner feelings of Melissa was not showed that much. Same in the "Epilogue", the author also did not give us that much information of what she has experienced in her life except why she wanted by a writer. Thus, through the interview, we want to let the audience or the readers have a more complete understanding about Melissa and the author's life.

      And the biggest theme portrayed by the interview is to show the connections between the two Haitian women, which also is between the author and a character created by her. Even though, one lives in the reality, and one is an imaginary figure, we can see how does the author substitutes her own expeiences and pours her own feelings into this character. First of all, they have very similar experience: they both have some memories back in Haiti, and have ever suffered from the brutal Duvailler regime before they immigrate to New York. When they first come to New York, they also have been stuggling from the difficulty of adapting a new culture and environment. But their strong faith also support them from being overcame by those difficulties: for Melissa, her faith is her daughter; and for the author, her faith is the dream of being a writer. That's what we want to express through our adaptation of the story. The hair braided by the author also connects herself with those nine hundreds and ninety-nine women.