Krik? Krak! Performance Reflection

        In this performance, we were asked to act the character in the book who we analyzed.  I chose Lili, and a lot of people chose the characters from The Wall of Rising Fire.  However, our partner is the character from different story.  Therefore, the performance is to show the interaction of these characters.
        My partner is Helen, and her role is the unknown girl who loves the boy in Children of the Sea.  My character and her character have a big age gap, which means the communication between us is limited in some ways, so we were stuck in the plot.  How they meet is difficult.  The casual meeting, which you just force them to meet in the script without any reason, is kind of boring and not convincing.  Afterall, it is impossible to have a long conversation between two strangers meeting each other in a random walk.  Therefore, in the end we decided to start with the girl running away to say goodbye to the boy at night.  She runs so fast that she runs into Lili by accident.  Lili worries about her safety, so she tries to convince her to go back home.   However, it causes the girl miss the boat where boy is on.
        The girl still loves the boy, and Lili is as kind as always.  Besides that, I do not think the performance can reveal many possibilities of interactions between them but meet in accident, or Lili takes care the girl when the girl's father die by accidents.  The reason is that generations do not interact so often because they are living in different time line.  Look at others' performances, I think they can have interations, such as Guy and night woman who is Lili.
             

Between the Pool and the Gardenias

1.  Her lips were wide and purple, like those African dolls you see in tourist store windows but could never afford to buy.

2.  Her eyes closed as though she was dreaming of far other places.

3.  At night, I could rock her alone in the hush of my room, rest her on my belly, and wish she were inside.

4.  But Rose.  My, she was so clean and warm.

5.  Rose didn't stir or cry.  She was like something that was thrown aside after she became useless to someone cruel.

6.  There was my great-grandmother Eveline who was killed by Dominican soldiers at the Massacre River.  My grandmother Defile who died with a bald head in a prison, because God had given her wings.  My godmother Lili who killed herself in old age because her husband had jumped out of a flying balloon and her grown son left her to go to Miami.

7.  Maybe I was to do some good for this child.

8.  I pretended that it was all mine.

9.  Rose listened with her eyes closed even though I was telling her things that were much too strong for a child's ears.

10.  She looked the same as she did when I found her.  She continued to look like that for three days.  After that, I had to bathe her constantly to keep down the smell. 

11.  I left her in a shack behind the house, where the Dominican kept his tools.  Three times a day, I visited her with my hand over my nose.

12.  I knew I had to act with her because she was attracting flies and I was keeping her spirit from moving on.

     I thought it is a romantic story, but it actually ends up as a thriller.  The woman in the story is called Marie, who finds a baby on the street.  She adopts the baby and names her Rose.  She is the last one of her family, and she is the main key for the audience to connect the other stories in this book because the characters that showed up in the previous passages are her family members.  She also has an unfortunate marriage, so she leaves her husband.  As a result, she does not have any child by her side due to some unknown reasons.  

        She desires for control.  We can see it through her description.  She clearly said that she hopes everything is hers.  Therefore, based on the thoughts and the other evidence that I found above, I have a strong feeling that Marie is a psychopath.  I do not know whether she kills a baby, but I am really confident that she is keeping a dead baby from the beginning to the end.  When Marie first looks at Rose, Rose's lips are purple.  Then, after three days, Rose's body is corrupted quickly.  Besides, Rose does not cry, which it is really uncommon for a baby.  

        In addition, through what Marie does, I am scared completely.  When I read Rose smells and Marie compares Rose to a pig intestine, I know something wrong.  As a normal person, we usually feel something wrong.  Even though Marie is not a normal person, she should be panic and send her child to a hospital being a mother who she really wants to be.  If she is yearning to be a mother, whether she is a psychopath or not, she will act like a mother and worry about her child.  However, she does not.  Instead, she leaves Rose in a shack, where the Dominican kept his tools.  She treats Rose like a tool.  I do not get it, and I am afraid of her.  

Children and Hope

        Children are the hope of most parents.  Whether the love for children is driven by natural ability or nurture personal love, love for children and put hope on them is what everyone does in the first four stories in Kirk? Krak!  In  Children of the Sea, the girl is protected by her father, and Celianne gives birth on the boat.  In Nineteen Thirty-Seven, the mother passed her Madonna, also her religion and her hope, to her daughter, Josephine, before she died.  In A Wall of Fire Rising, Lili fully supports her son, and in Night Women, the mother also deeply loves her son and lives for this love and hope.  People live with hope and die with hopelessness.   Children of the Sea and Night Women show the two clear examples by comparing and contrasting Celianne in Children of the Sea and the mother in Night Women.
        Even though Children of the Sea is not Celianne's story directly, we can tell that she is pregnant after she is raped by the soldiers through the boy's letters.  Then, she gave the childbirth on the boat on the endless sea.  It is a brave action, and it is so painful for Celianne, but what happened after can be even painful and frustrated.  How to raise the child becomes a big problem.  In the first few days, the boy writes, "Celianne is holding her baby tight against her chest.  She just cannot seem to let herself throw it in the ocean."  The words are written when the baby is still alive but not crying.  Maybe the baby never lives because it is not crying, but at that moment, none of them is sure the baby is dead.  Celianne still holds her baby when water leak into the boat.   Many people slap behind Celianne, but she is not crying and not angry about it.  She sits in silence and lives for the baby until the baby turns to purple: the baby is dead.  Then, the words show, "she threw it overboard.  And quickly after that she jumped in too."  When the baby turns purple, Celianne is still waiting for the baby to turn back.  People want to throw it overboard while Celianne is sleeping, but Celianne does not sleep, which shows that she still keeps her baby and fight for it.  However, after she ensures the baby is dead, she throws it into the sea and jumps with it.  We can tell that she is hopeless and tired of everyone in the world.  When the baby is alive, she will endure every judgment behind her, but when the baby is dead, she cannot stand the life anymore.  It demonstrates how much hope and wish of living she put on her baby.
        People die because of children, but people also live because of them.  The mother in Night Women is a prostitute, which has the same condition with Celianne.  They experience what they do not want to.  However, the mother is more fortunate.  She has a healthy son, and the son is studying in school happily.  Therefore, the mother will live for it.  At the end of the story, "When I walk back into the house, I hear the rise and fall of my son's breath.  Quickly, I lean my face against his lips to feel the calming heat from his mouth."  It is casual description without so much emotion in it.  However, if we relate the words to the women last description that describing the sex last night, we can see that how numb she is when she works.  "Calming heat" is the heat from her son's mouth, and it can also show how calming that the mother feels.  It means that the heat will calm her down from the work last night.  It is like an atonement that heals the mother's negative self-cognition and warms her cold heart.  The mother put all hope on her son because her son is her hope, and the mother will live strongly with her son, with her hope.
         

Lili, A Wall of Fire Rising

        Lili, one of the main characters in A Wall of Fire Rising, is a wife of Guy and also a mother of little Guy.   She and her family are living in a sugar mill, and she has daily work to do.  Therefore, the family is not rich enough, but the family has the basic supply and has a stable life in peace.
        It is easy to meet Lili's satisfaction.  She is not blaming her husband, Guy, cannot earn a lot of money.  When Guy asks Lili how does she thinks a man is judged when he is gone, she responses, "People don't eat riches.  They eat what they can buy."  She thinks judging a man cannot depend on his salary or reputation but his deeds.  In other words, she does not care about the money too much.  As long as their boy is fed, she is fine and happy about it.  The words can be also regarded as a comfort.  She does not want her husband to have any burden, so she says this way.  Then, we can see how kind and thoughtful she is.
         Secondly, she is a good mother and a tough woman.  Being a good mother, she is always standing on her kid's side.  Truly, she is putting her most of hope on little Guy, which it is a parent's way of living I strongly disagree with, but from the reaction, we can see Lili encourages and supports her son all the time.  Specifically, Lili believes her son should go to college and continue receiving the education until they cannot afford.  Education decides the future of a child in a great content, and Lili thinks for her son.  She does not want her son to be limited by this small area by putting him on the lists.  Back to the old time, it is a rare and great choice that a mother can do for her children.  Being a tough woman, I can see through Lili teaching little Guy to speak his line louder.  "You know you must not humble," she talks to little Guy, "next time say them loud, so he knows what is coming out of your mouth."  Boukman is a leader of the evolution, and he is also a hero in many people's mind.  Therefore, Lili is excited for her son for acting this character.  Basically, when Lili teaches little Guy to speak louder so that others can hear is mainly teaching him to speak proudly.  Speaking loudly needs confidence, and speaking with confidence requires courage.  When Lili knows this idea, she is not a soft person I think.  Otherwise, she will not realizes and teach him in this way.
        She is also a good wife.  The description of her and her husband talking at night in bed shows a warm communication.  Lili would love to talk to Guy when Guy is lying on her chest even though sometimes she cannot understand him.  She is satisfied with this lives' condition, but her husband is not.  She would love to communicate with her husband and try to know him more, but her husband sometimes says "ask me nothing about today".  Therefore, when Guy talks about the hot balloon, she feels like Guy is going to leave her and her son.  However, she is not mad at him at first.  Instead, she asks whether she and her son will ride on the hot balloon together.  I can feel she worries, but she does not show.  And then, what happened on the next morning breaks her heart and solve her confusion at the same time.  For the first look at the balloon, she must think about whether Guy really left her and her son alone until Guy jumps out of the balloon, and until then, she remembers what Guy said and understands her husband completely.
 
       

Night Women

1.  Why the woman kiss her son after he is asleep?
2.  Why the woman mentioned the daily workers?
3.  Why she mention the roof at the beginning and the end of the story?

Note 1-4

Children of the Sea
        The main characters' names are unknown.
        The boy and the girl are in a relationship.
        The boy worked for radio and got into the college, but because of the radio action, he has to go far away from home.  Therefore, he is on the sea to the United States writing.  He does not end up in the United States.
       The girl is protected by her father at home.  She also writes letters to the boy.  She does not understand why her father refuses her to meet the boy, but later she understands.
        Celianne:  The girl that the boy meets on the boat.  Her brother is working at the radio station.  Her brother is prisoned, and she is rapped by multiple people.  She gave birth to the child and a few days later she tosses her child into the sea and she jumps out of the boat.
        The boy describes Celianne's story is that he feels like Celianne and her family's situation might be true for him if he does not run away from home early.  He will hurt others.
        Black Butterflies: Metaphor.  News.

Nineteen Thirty-Seven
        The main Character Josephine visits her mother in the prison periodically.  Every time she visits her, she finds her mother is getting weaker.  Josephine knows soldiers in prison do not treat her mother well because they all think her mother is a witch.  In the end, one midnight, Jaqualin, a woman in a white dress, tells Josephine that her mother is dead.  Her mother got burned, and one of her mother's property, Madonna, is passed to Josephine.  Watching the fire, Josephine is released and feel peaceful for her mother because the death is the freedom.
        Josephine does not understand her mother at first, but when her mother passes Madonna to her and dies, she knows her mother.
        Madonna, a religious figure.
        Fire: Metaphor.  Means blood, living life. A strong, passionate but dangerous spirit.

A Wall of Fire Rising
        A family lives in the sugar mill peacefully.  It is not a rich family, but they can survive without hunger.  Guy, the husband, gets a steady job, and his wife, Lili, also gets a job.  Their son is smart and talented on acting.  Their son, little Guy, will act Boukman in school.  Everything goes well until one day morning Guy rides on the hot balloon, jumps out of it and dies.
        Guy's wife does not expect Guy to be really tough and successful, but Guy often regards himself as a loser, and he is struggling on it for a long time.  Lili and Guy have some misconception about each other.  When Guy dies, Lili knows that freedom in his spirit is more valuable than his life.
        Sky: Metaphor.  freedom.

Night Women
        The woman is a prostitute.  Her husband is dead a long time ago.  The short story shows her struggling about her identity and education to her son.  She distains and feels sorry about her filthy body, so she always gave her humble love to her son when her son is asleep.  She fears that her son will know her job, and she feels distant from her son because of the job identity.  Actually, her son still loves her so much.  Her son is her hope and angel.  She is her son's angel appearing in his dream.
        Angel: Metaphor; Beauty and innocence.

Freedom

        Why there have to be some people die in the stories?  Born in troubled times, most people lead their lives of vagrancy.  Then, when we read their stories, we know the how insignificant an individual's strength is.  Therefore, how can we carry the heavy spirit of freedom on our shoulder?
        In the Children Of the Sea, two main characters put their freedom into letters with hope and love.  The girl has to stay at home, and her father does not allow her to go outside and does not allow her to meet with the boy.  Even though her father wants to keep her safe, she is yearning meeting the boy.  The boy is on the boat and leaving Haiti involuntarily.  He seems to look for freedom because he was going to the United States.  However, his heart always belongs to the girl, and his freedom is her.
        He wrote on his notebook, "I look up at the sky and I see you there."  Before the sentence, he mentioned the endless mountains and endless sea.  The mountains and sea can symbolize the overcome, and in his description, they are suppressing the boy's living space, and I felt the endless waiting of new life brings hopelessness to the boy.  Then, he wrote, "I look up at the sky and I see you there."  It is unrelated to the environment he mentions, and it does not fit the feeling that he wrote before.  It is a short statement without any word polishment.  The simple and straightforward sentence is written so easily that it is like the boy is discussing the weather, common and emotionless.  However, compared to the sentences before this statement, I can see a huge emotional crush between the sentences and the statement.  The statement is like a depressant of the negativeness; it is also like an only light shone through the boy's darkness and consoled his heart.  The sky can save you from the endless mountains and ocean, and the girl is there, so she is the savor for the boy to set him free.
        In Nineteen Thirty-Seven, the main character's mother is persecuted to death.  Actually, not only her mother is persecuted by the soldier in the prison, but also her mother's mother is killed by soldiers near the river on the same date that her mother gives birth to her.  At the end of the story, Josephine, the main character, remembered, "When Jacqueline and I stepped out into the yard to wait for the burning, I raised my head toward the sun thinking, One day I may just see my mother there."  The tone of the story is full of sadness because, from the beginning of the story, Josephine's mother is in the prison.  Her mother spends a long time in the prison and dies there.  Each time Josephine visits her mother, her mom's health is getting worse.  However, when Josephine really sees her mom's dead body is burning in the fire, she does not feel that mournful.  Instead, she looks up to the sky, to the sun and thinks she might meet her mom one day.  The sentence is not negative at all.  Instead, it contains a bit of wish and a bit of hope, because for her and for her mother, death might be a good choice.  After all, death is better than suffering through the life.  Compare to suffering, death is a form of freedom for Josephine's mother.
        In A Wall of Fire Rising, the setting is not as mournful as Nineteen Thirty-Seven.  The story tells a small family living in small lives.  Mother, Lili, is a strong and nice woman; father, Guy, a man who has a stable job and take care of his family all the time; their son, Little Guy, works hard and gets the main role, Boukman, and a lot of lines in drama.  The lives are simple until Guy flies the hot balloon.  When I read he is fling the hot balloon, I know everything cannot come back.  Their normal lives cannot come back, and the relationship between Lili and Guy is broken completely.  I think he leaves Lili and his son and flies away, but I don't expect Guy will jump out of the hot balloon.  I am completely shocked.  I do not understand his action until I read Lili's words, "No, leave them (Guy's eyes) open.  My husband likes to look at the sky."  Here comes another sky, and clearly, this sky represents the strong will of freedom.  Guy eagers to fly to the sky, so that he can escape from the unsatisfied job and an unsatisfied life.  Then, when he chooses to jump from the hot balloon, I think he denies every possible happiness in the future and there is nothing left for him to expect.  It reminds me of a Germany philosopher, Nietzsche.  He said if you cannot live proudly, then you should die proudly.  Therefore, Guy chooses to die in his most free, glorious moment.  I feel pity about him, but ar that moment, he is completely free.
        All three stories mention the sky, and their themes all contain freedom.  Different people in the different family environment look up to the same sky and seek for the different freedom figure in their minds.  Even though they use their stories and lives to define freedom, they are seeking for a same goal and a same spirit, freedom.