Name That Tune
“I thought she was a gift from heaven…She was like Baby Moses in the Bible stories they read to us at the Baptist Literary Class. Or Baby Jesus, who was born in a barn and died on a cross…”
Marie in Between The Pool And The Gardenias
What kind of game/sport is unfolding as a background story in "Seeing Things Simply"?
Cockfighting, which is illegal in the US but legal in Haiti. It involves attaching a razor blade to the rooster and they fight to the death.
True or false, in a later story we learn that Lili committed suicide in old age because she never got over Guy's death?
True; In Between The Pool And The Gardenias we learn that all of the women's lives in all of the stories overlap.
Given the enormity of what will happen when the police arrive and Marie is accused of witchcraft, the following passage contains what/which device/s?
“We made a pretty picture standing there. Rose, me, and him. Between the pool and the gardenias, waiting for the law.”
Irony and understatement.
What do the black butterflies in Children of the Sea symbolize?
A harbinger of death; the duality of life and/in death. The girl attempts to fight them off knowing they might signal her lover's death.
"I wanted to go to Paris if only to see his grave. I missed the funeral, but I wanted to see where his bones were resting."
Catherine to Princess in "Seeing Things Simply"
Why has Catherine temporarily left Haiti (Seeing Things Simply)
She has gone to her mentor's funeral.
True or false, Princess hates and dreads posing nude for Catherine?
False, though she initially feels self-conscious, she loves her time with the painter; it opens a new world for her.
“It was the sound of a cheerful death.”
Oxymoron
What does the Madonna in Nineteen Thirty-Severn symbolize?
A belief in the miraculous but it is complex because the mother has manipulated the statue so that it weeps; the statue was given to Defile by her so-called master.
“she wanted to paint the sound that came out of the shell, a moan like a call to a distant ship, an SOS with a dissonant melody.”
Princess in Seeing Things Simply
What does Princess do in Seeing Things Simply?
She models nude for paintings.
True or false, the mother has been accused of witchcraft solely because they think she can fly (Nineteen Thirty-Seven)?
False, she has aided a neighbor with a sick baby and the baby dies.
Early in the story, Marie notes, “Her head fell back like any other infant’s…” What device is this?
Foreshadowing
What does the hot-air balloon in A Wall of Fire Rising symbolize?
The mad joy of escaping poverty if only for a moment; the bitter gall of the pretense of freedom without real freedom; the anger of dreaming.
“ My, she was so clean and warm. Like a tiny angel, a little cherub, sleeping after the wind had blown a lullaby into her little ears.”
Marie in Between The Pool and the Gardenias
Why does Marie choose the name Rose for the dead baby (BTPATG)
It is embroidered on the collar of her little dress.
True or false, the old man both weeps over his dead and considers digging him up to eat in Seeing Things Simply?
True. His bond with the rooster is complex.
Why is the word "parsley" symbolically and literally important in Haitian culture and Dove's poem?
On a literal level, it is the word Trujillo made the Haitians say to determine who would live and die; in Dove's poem, it is also a symbol men wore to honor the birth of a new son, so it's ironic. Dove links it to spring, too.
What is the symbolism of the Swiss knife in Children of the Sea?
The duality and brutality of love. The knife is used to cut the baby's umbilical cord and the same knife might have been used when Celianne disfigured her own face. It may also represent the cut between land and sea.
"His eyes aren't closed,....Do you want to close them, or should I?"
The foreman in "A Wall of Fire Rising"
Why is the date 1937 important in the story of the same name and the collection?
It is the year Trujillo massacred the Haitian cane workers.
True or false, there are signs that Princess will shift from being a model to becoming an artist in her own right.
True; at the story's end, she picks up a stick and begins to draw in the sand.
“My eyes are drawn to him, like the stars peeking through the small holes in the roof that none of my suitors will fix for me, because they like to watch a scrap of the sky while lying on their naked backs on my mat."
Simile
What is the symbolism of the red scarf in Night Women?
It represents the woman's work; she uses her scarf to attract customers, but she also uses it has a screen to shield her son from what her work entails.