LC #5

Quote: "This was the first time she'd been in Bel Air since Sunday's operation. She had never seen it so bad. The streets were cluttered with trash. There were empty tear gas canisters, hollowed grenades, spent cartridge and bullet shells and other garbage everywhere. Some house were missing entire sections from the bulldozing by the UN earthmovers." This was said on page 194 about Tante Zi.

Significance: I think that this quote shows how bad Bel Air has gotten, how horrible it is to live there and why so many people would want to leave Bel Air and Haiti. This quote for me made me think of a horrible place where there is only death and no life and where people live because they have no money to live any where else. I also see know why so many would want to leave Haiti because in this story there is a never ending war.

Character Judgment : I think that Tante Zi has not visited or saw Uncle Joseph in a long time and so when she saw what had happened she was so shocked and really couldn't believe how bad Bel Air had gotten. I also think that she wants to help Uncle Joseph leave and go to America because she knows and understands that an 81 year old man can't deal with all the wars that are going on in Bel Air.

Question: What was the war that was going on in Bel Air about?

Quote 2: "We only called to notify you that they're here," he said. "They're not being relased. They're going to Krome." This was said on page 211. An immigration officer said this to Edwidge.

Signifinace: I think that this is something that know one would never want to hear, and is the wrost thing that a person could hear if they were going to pick up someone from the airport. I also feel really bad for Edwidge, she waited for so long to get the call that her uncle was at the airport and just as she goes to get them, they end up being moved to an immgration station at Kome. I also think that this is one of the hardest things about coming into America, if you forget to bring one thing, they send you to be a prisoner in an immgration station.

Character Judgment: I feel really bad for Edwidge because she spent 2 days worried sick about her uncle, thinking that something horrible has happened to them. Then finally she gets a call telling her that they have arrived at the airport. Then when she gets there she finds out that something horrible has happened to them. I also think that when the people called her the first time to tell her that her uncle has arrived they should have also told her that they were going to Krome.

Question 2: How do you think that Edwidge felt when she found out that her uncle was going to Krome?

LC Meeting #4

Quote 1: "I was walking next to my father and uncle when three shots rang out in a quick secession. The mourners scattered in a nervous stampede, leaving us in the middle of the suddenly empty street. The flurry of people disappearing around street corners and alleys seemed hazy and unclear. My heart was beating fast, a pool of sweat gathering on my face. Was this how Marie Micheline felt before she died? Edwidge said this quote on page 155

Significance: I think that it was so sad that during a very sad day something as scary as a gun shots happens. Its also scary how everyone knows what to do when something, so it shows that gun shots are a common thing in Bel Air at this time.

Character Judgment: I think that this shows that Edwidge is not used to the gun shots and she doesn't know what to do because in America gun shots don't usually happen on the streets everyday. I also think that she was very close to Marie Micheline so when ever she hears gun shots she thinks of her because that is how she died.

Question 1: Did Edwidge grow up in Bel Air when all of fighting was going on?

Quote 2: "I was nearing the end of my first trimester and though I had no morning sickness, I felt fatigued and on some hot Miami morning found myself weeping uncontrollably when I woke up alone in bed after my husband had left for work. Suddenly being separated from others felt like a much more drastic form of isolation a sentence of banishment for not being near my dying father. So when Bob called to tell me that Papa was in the hospital, I leaped out of bed and boarded the next plane to New York. " Edwidge said this on page 156

Signifiance: I think that this quote shows how much Edwidge wants to be with her family and was used to living in a house with everyone and now she is living only with her husband and sometimes she is all alone. So living alone was something that she had to get used to when living in America because in Haiti everyone lived in one house.

Character Judgment: I think that this shows what a loving person she is and how much her family means to her because she is willing to just leave on the spot for her father. I also think that this shows that Edwidge is a person that hates to be alone and wants to be around people she loves.

Question: Do you think that Edwidge should move back to New York to be with her family?

LC Meeting #3

Quote: "Mira's daughter, Edwidge?" she said. Her lower lip was dropping, slightly slurring her speech. Tante Denise said this quote on page 142. 

Significance: When I read the whole page that this quote was on, I felt really bad for Uncle Joseph and Tante Denise. They live in a very bad part of town and it is possible that they could get killed any day, and I think that stress of being so scared has aged Edwidge's aunt and uncle so much that they are always tried and just out of it. I also felt really bad because at first Edwidge didn't really think that her aunt was the same person, the beautiful aunt that she had left in Haiti had turned into a thin small women.

Character Judgment: I think that Tante Denise had changed so much in the years that Edwidge has been away. I think that because of everything that has happened to Tante Denise (Marie dying, the violence in Bel Air) she has just wilted away to this small person that just stays in her home all day. I hope that because Edwidge has come to visit Tante Denise, Edwidge will somehow get Tante Denise and Uncle Joseph to leave Bel Air and move to a safer place in Haiti.

Question: Why do you think that Uncle Joseph won't move out of Bel Air?

Quote 2: "I only remember wishing as we soared into the clouds that my uncle had cried a torrent of tears, had thrown himself on the ground and made a scene, all the while forbidding us to go. He should have blurted out, in his old voice, the sudden revelation that I was really his daughter and that he could live without me."  Edwidge said this one page 109

Significance: I think that this shows how much her uncle has been a father figure to Edwidge, and how much she wished that she was able to stay with her Uncle Joseph in Haiti. I also think that this shows how much her father not being there for her has affected her. It has affected her in the way that she doesn't really want to go to America and spend the rest of her life in a new place with new people that she doesn't really know. 

Character Judgment: I think that Edwidge had a right to not want to live with her mom and dad because they weren't there for her when she was young and she had learned to love and live with her uncle and aunt without them. So I was a little sad to read that she didn't want to go to America, but it was also happy to see that her uncle had affected her life so much and how much she loves hims and wants to be with him.

Question: Do you think that Edwidge's little brother, Bob, felt the same way that she did? 

LC Meeting #2

Brother, I'm Dying

Quote: "Papa," she whispered, her mouth now so close to his ears that her breath burned his lobes. "Papa, even though men cannot give birth, you gave birth tonight. To me." Page 86 Marie Micheline said this.

Significance: I think that this quote really showed how bad Marie's life was with her husband and how free she felt when her father came and saved her. I think that when she say that her father gave birth to her tonight, I think that she meant that by taking her away from her horrible husband, he is giving a whole new life with her, her father, her family, friends and most important, her baby Ruth. 

Character Judgement: I also think that this shows how great full Marie was to her father. I also think that this shows that Marie is really ready to start a new life with her family by her side. I thought that Marie was a very foolish girl for marring the man that she never knew before and just getting pregnant in the first place, but now I think that when she got pregnant she thought that she would end up marring the father of her child, but she quickly learned that life isn't prefect and just because she wanted something, doesn't mean that she will get it.

Question: Why do you think that Marie's mother kicked Marie out of their house?

Quote 2: "Then please, father," my uncle pleaded while trying to maintain his calm, "don me only this favor. Forget you ever saw me, but I'm not leaving without my daughter and her child." Page 84, Uncle Joseph said this. 

Significance:  I think that this shows how caring Uncle Joseph is because he travel all over to find his daughter. I think that because he loves each of his daughter's and son's so much, that when Edwidge and her brother must leave with their parent's to go to New York, Uncle Joseph will feel like part of him is missing.

Character Judgment: I think that this shows how much he loves Marie, and that he is willing to go to great lengths to find her and get her somewhere save. I now think of Uncle Joseph as being a very nice, understanding, caring man who loves everyone no matter what they might have done in the past. 

Question: Why do you think that Uncle Joseph had to pay this man to tell him where Marie was? 

Field Trip Reflection

From Haven to Home: The purpose of this exhibit was to show other what life was like for a Jewish person who came to live in America. From this museum I learn many things, such as many important people in America that were Jewish. People such as Hank Greenberg, Albert Einstein, and Ruth Handle, all these people helped contribute to America's Society. We also learned about Jewish people's rights in American from 1790-1823. We learned that each state was free to discriminate Jewish people as they wished and that back then Massachusetts was the state that most discriminated Jewish people. In Maryland and Massachusetts, the government made everyone who was elected into office take an oath on a Christian Bible, and this made the Jewish people not want to be in office, which was what Maryland and Massachusetts wanted. This was the same until 1825 where Maryland passed what was known as "The Jew Bill" which allowed Jews not have to take an oath on the Christian Bible. I also learned that how the Jewish people affected the Civil War and that about 9,000 American Jews fought in the Civil War for the Union, while about 3,000 fought for the Confederacy. I also learned that Judah Benjamin became the first Secretary of State for the Confederacy, but soon fled to England to escape false accusation that he plotted President Lincoln's assassination.

Between Cultures: I chose a picture of a mother and a daughter that were from Thailand and came to America in 1998. This photo was taken at the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. In this picture the little girl is laying in her mother lap. I liked this picture because I think that it shows what most immigrants feel when they first come to America, fear and happiness. In this picture the mother shows the happiness because she is smiling down at her daughter. The daughter, shows the fear because she looks scared because she in a new place which she is not familiar. So I think that most immigrants feel happiness because they are in a new, better place. I also think that they feel fear because they are in a place which has a different culture then their own. I chose the quote "America has everything we need: technology, goods. At least one person from every nation lives here. People immigrate to America because they know it's a land of freedom and a better life. I see America as the land of opportunities" from Tamara Frank from Poland. I really liked this quote because I think that this is what our founding father intended for this country. They intended this country to be the land of the free and the land of opportunities. So I think that this person really understands that America is really a great place to live. I chose the personal essay called The Untold Story of a Chinese-American. In this essay the person tells the life of his father who immigrated to America from Vietnam. In this essay it tells the story of how he got to America and the many hardships he had to go through in order to get to America. I liked this essay because i think that it shows that being an immigrate was very hard, but in the end it is great to be in America.

LC Meeting #1

Quote: "The words that both my father and I wanted to exchange we never did. These letters were not approved, in his case by him, in my case by my uncle. No matter what the reason, we have always been equally paralyzed by the fear of breaking each other's heart. This is why I could never ask the question Bob did. I also could never tell my father that I'd learned from the doctor that he was dying. Even when they mattered less, there were things he and I were too afraid to say." Page 24, Edwidge Danticat said this quote.

Significance: I have learned a lot more about both Edwidge and her father from this quote. I have learned that they are both too afraid to say what must be said, because they both don't want to make the anyone sad. I also think that because Edwidge and her father were separated for a part of Edwidge's childhood, they don't want to say anything to each other that could make them angry, mad or sad because they want to enjoy the time they have together.

Character Judgment: I think that Edwidge Danticat should tell her father what the doctor told her, which was that her father was dying. I understand that she didn't want to add to her father's pain, but I think that her father has a right to know what the doctor says.

Question: Do you think that it was wrong for Edwidge Danticat not to tell her father, mother or other siblings about her father dying?

Quote 2: "For the family readings, I recited my father's letter in a monotone, honoring what I interpreted as a secret between us, that the impersonal style of his letters was due as much to his lack of faith in words and their ability to accurately reproduce his emotion as to his caution with Bob's and my feelings, avoiding too-happy news that might add to the anguish of separation, too-sad news that might worry us, and any hint of judgment or disapproval for my aunt and uncle which they could have interpreted as suggestion that they were mistreating us. The dispassionate letter were his way of avoiding a minefield, one he could have set off from a distance without being able to comfort the victims." Page 23, Edwidge Danticat said this quote.

Significance: I think that was one of the hardships that Edwidge's father and mother had to face when he left his family back in Haiti, while they left to America. I think that it must have been very hard to write to your family that you left in another country and having to tell them what was going on, while knowing that if you say something too happy or sad, it might hurt your families feelings.

Character Judgment: I feel bad for Edwidge's father and mother because they probably miss their children so badly and they want to tell them how they really feel, but they just can't find the words to tell them. I also think that they shouldn't have left their children behind, and that they should have waited until they had enough money to take everyone to America.

Question 2: Do you think Edwidge's father and mother did the right thing by leaving their children in Haiti while they went to America?

Immigration

Rachel Chatfield

The definition of an immigrant is someone who moved to another country to live in. Such as if someone from France moved here to America to live, they would be an immigrant. From my mothers side of my family, my great-grandparents immigrated from Russia and Sweden. While from my fathers side of the family my great-great grandparents immigrated from Germany and my great-great-great grandparents immigrated from England and Austria. Like myself, most people I know are not immigrants, but have parents or grandparents or great grandparents who have immigrated from other countries.

I believe that so many immigrants come to the United States because they could want to make a better life for themselves in the land of the free, where each man is created equal. Where people are not judged by their race or religion. Some people come to America to get a better education, for themselves or their children, while some people come to American to get away from wars that are going on in their home country. Some people immigrate to America to get away from their countries racial or religious discrimination so that they can live their lives the way that they want to. I also think that people come to America in order to get more jobs so that they can help their families live better lives.

I think that because many immigrants have come to America we have learned a lot more about their cultures and their stories. We have learned more about their countries and why they have chosen to immigrate to America. Plus without different immigrates coming to America, a lot of our population would be gone, because most of us are grandchildren or great-grandchildren to an immigrate.