Kirk Krak first Three Stories

There are many common themes that are in the first three stories of Krik Krack but one theme seemed to stand out. The theme is that in every story the person that somebody loves the most dies. In the first story, the male narrator is loved deeply by the female narrator. At the end of the story we can assume that he dies because the boat sank. In the second story, the mother of the girl dies in prison because she was thought to have wings of fire. In the third story, the father in the family jumps out of the hot air ballon that he always talked about flying. Something that all of the characters had in common was that they loved their family or spouse a lot. I think that these stories are trying to show that many people who loved their families died because of the government or because they saw no hope for their lives. In the third story the father of the family had always wanted to be more in life than what he was. He says to his life that he never wanted to be like his father who was very poor. He can't find very good work and so he is ashamed about this. I think that he jumped after he flew the hot air balloon because he felt like he reached his peak in life and decided that he was done. "I know because I remember my father, who was a very poor struggling man all his life. I remember him as a man that I would never want to be." He says this because he knows that he has become his father in that he is poor and is struggling to live. In the second story, the girl is going to the prison to see her mother. She was arrested for being accused of having wings of fire. The reason for this is because she was covered in blood when she was escaping the Spanish side of the island and she jumped across the river. Every day she brings her daughter to the river and they put their hands in it to remember their mothers that were cut up and thrown into the river. This is why the mother was arrested. So the girl is visiting her in prison and she brings her food and a Madonna which is a porcelain doll that drops tears. In the beggining of the story, it dropped one tear. "When I was the tear I thought, surely, that my mother had died." This is an important quote because he mother dies at the end of the story. It is also important because it is like the butterfly's in the first story where the colorful butterfly bring good news and the black butterfly's bring bad news. When the Madonna cries then somebody has died. As I was reading this part I knew that her mother would die eventually because I could feel it in the writing that the girl was depressed and so was the mother because they knew that they would not be able to live with each other ever again. All of these stories are similar in that somebody just decided to give up on life because they see no hope of any way out of their situation.

Children of the Sea

1.) Identify the characters
2.) summarize the plot
3.) Offering personal response/ideas about the story

Characters: Dad, Manman, Daughter, Boyfriend, Old Man, Celianne

Plot:,In the beginning of the story, there is this boy who is writing about the boat that he is on. He talks about the sea and how it is endless. The boy expresses a deep love for the girl that he is writing to. The reason why the boy is on the ship is because he was apart of the youth group that the soldiers are trying to find and kill because they are protesting against the government. He describes the people on the boat and he starts to center his writing about a girl who is pregnant named Celianne. At first we just know that she is pregnant. As the story goes on she ends up giving birth to the child on the boat. As this happens the boat has already started to fill up with water because there is a crack in the middle of it. As more cracks developed, there was more water entering the boat. The people take turns throwing out with a bowl but this is not enough, so they need to have less weight on board. People's personal items are thrown overboard. This is not enough and the big topic is that the girl should throw the baby overboard because it is too much weight. The girl refuses because it is her child. People tried to wait for her to go to sleep to take the child away but as the boy describes it, she was never asleep. But as the story continues, she ends up starting to fall asleep. She knew that the child was dead because it never cried and the lips were purple. So she threw the baby overboard and then herself right after. The boat is sinking even more now and the boy knows that he is going to die. So he is writing in this notebook and he talks about how much he loves this girl. The Old man asks him what he is writing about and he responds with "my will." He knows that she will never read the words he is writing but he still writes about hoe much he loves her. He had a dream that he went to heaven, but it was underwater with mermaids and he could not talk. At the end of the story he talks about how he was destined to die in the middle of the ocean. Then he does die.

The girl is still in Haiti because she was not able to flee because gas was not being sold so they could not drive in their van. She talks a lot about how her dad does not approve the boy that she is in love with. This is a common theme throughout the story. She also talks about the difference between colorful butterfly and black butterfly's. Colorful butterfly's bring good news while black butterfly's bring death and bad news. She talks about all of the killing that is going on where she lives. Their next door neighbors sons head was brought to her as the remanings of him. She hates the soldiers and one night they came to her house. They ended up killing her because she was yelling at them and talking about her son being dead so they killed her. And the girl and her family had to stand by and watch because they were afraid of getting killed by the soldiers too. So they finally leave and the next day her family leaves the town and goes somewhere else. At this point both her and the boy start talking about their love for each other. We start to get more of a story as it goes on. One of the important parts is that the soldiers were asking her father for her. What ended up happening was the father sold all of his land and gave them everything that had away to keep her alive. So now the girl who used to hate her father has to give him respect because he saved her life. A little while later in the story she starts to see black butterfly's. She refuses for one of them to land on her but more and more came. And at this moment she knew that her love was dead at sea.

Personal Response: I feel like this story is similar to Romeo and Juliet because there is two lovers who cannot be together not because of their family, but because their government forced the boy to leave because he was a protester. This is a great story because it shows the meaning and importance of love between two people. It is also a sad story because it seems like they never were able to be in a relationship even thought hey loved each other because of the father and then because they were separated.

Edwidge Danticat Research

Edwidge Danticat
She was born on January 19th, 1969 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
She has written many books including Brother, I'm Dying and Breath, Eyes, Memory, Krik? Krak!
Krik Krak is s a series of short stories and it was published in 1996.
It's plot is about the struggle and survival in Haiti
She moved to America in 1981 after her parents left
She found adapting to the United States difficult especially in school
To escape her unpleasant situations she started to write stories
She has received the Pushcart Short Story Prize
Her book Brother I'm Dying won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2007


Haiti's fight for independence/Toussaint L'Ouverture
1971- slave revolt erupted in a French Colony
- The leader of the rebels was Toussaint L'Ouverture
- He was a former slave in the colony
- organized a guerrille war and was able to defeat the French
- In 1795 he made peace with France after there was an abolishment of slavery
- He became the governor of the island and in 1801 freed the Spanish portion of the island.
- Toussaint was arrested and tortured and died in April 1803 because Napoleon wanted to introduced slavery back into Haiti.
- They defeated the French with British help and became the second independent country in the America's in 1804.


Voodoo Religion
- A creolized religion forged by descendants of Dahomean, Kongo, Yoruba and other African colonies
- Fundamental principle is that everything is in spirit
- The primary goal is to serve the spirits
- There is no single leader and no official spokesperson
- Some groups do try to create single leaders and spokesperson


Duvalier (Papa Doc)
- president of Haiti from 1957-1971
- regime became totalitarian
- was a physician by profession before he became the president
- His expertise in the field gave him the name "Papa Doc"

Theatre Terminology Reflection

For this year I feel like I am solid on 

Blocking

Staging

World of the Play

Given circumstance

Antagonist vs Protagonist 

Stage positions 

I feel like I can work on

The theorists and their works as it regard to acting. I feel like I know some of what they did but I don't know everything and I feel like this is important because I want to use their techniques to perform better. I also feel like I can get better at the different types of theatre and the different stages. I need to get better at improvisation and performing on the spot. Sometimes I am not sure what to do when I am asked to act with a random topic. I think this important for me to learn because it will help me perform my scripted acting better.

Fires in the Mirror Performance reflection

Aaron, Grace, Yun
Their performance was about the riots in the book. I felt like it captured a good picture of what was happening at those riots because people were getting arrested because they were expressing their opinions. There was a lot of movement in their performance because Grace was a police officer and she was arresting Aaron for telling the people not to run. The cop was going to arrest the protester until they found out that the mayor sent him to do those things. So she had to let them go. As I watched this I wondered what happened to the people who were not sent out there by people like the mayor.

David, Josh, Nan
Their performance was about these random people who were there when the riot happened. They talk a lot about the differences and the separation between the African Americans and the Jews. In Josh's performance he was talking about the kid who was arrested for stabbing Rosembaum saying that some people are dos and the others are "Bad Boys." Nan's performance was about the radio and how they couldn't turn it off and it talked about how the African Americans viewed the Jews. David's was talking about how some black people were friends wwith th some Jewish people.


Helen, David, Joey
Our group was about the different sides of the story in terms of what happened to the driver that killed the child with his car. Helen's performance was about the Jewish side where the driver tried to get out of the way of the people but unfortunately killed one and injured another. My performance was the Black person side of the story saying that the driver was drunk and that they didn't beat him. David's part was to talk about how it was an accident that was allowed to turn into something much bigger than what it was.

Verbatim Theatre

Please post a response to the following prompt on your blog:

Reflect on your experience last week exploring Verbatim Theater. Why do you think people do it? What does it accomplish? What was your experience like (and your group's experience)? Was the process difficult? And if so, how so? Were any aspects easier than others? Did you enjoy it? Why or why not? What did you learn?


I think that people do Verbatim Theatre because they like to turn a regular interview into an interesting performance. I feel like it accomplishes the fact that it's real and people can relate to it
 I had a good experience because I liked telling stories and hearing other people's stories and deciding which ones should be performed. The process was difficult when everyone was trying to remember their experiences. Nothing was really easier to do than in any other type of performance. I enjoyed doing Verbatim theatre because it was fun to watch people imitate other people. I learned that it is important to remember the small details in a performance.

What is Theatre

Consider the following questions as you write your post: What is theater, in your opinion? What makes it good to participate in, to perform, or to watch? Why do people do theater or watch it or like it? Why do YOU? What aspects of theater are most important for performers to learn and think about? In your experience, what is easy and fun about theater and what is challenging?

In my opinion theatre is any type of acting. It can be a movie, or a play or even a skit performed in a classroom. The lines could be scripted or improvised but it all counts ate theatre in my opinion. I think this because in all of these different examples, there are people who came up with an idea, and they are trying to entertain some sort of audience. What makes it good to participate in theatre is that people can create some funny or unique ideas and its fun to try new things in the performing world. I think it is good to perform because it represents a finished product that shows all of the hard work everyone put in to make the performance happen. It is good to watch theatre because it is entertaining or funny. I think people do theatre or watch it because they want to be apart of something that is separate from their daily lives. It is fun to try too be somebody you aren't once and a while. I like theatre because I can create different performance ideas and try them and experiment with my ideas by performing them. Also, I like to work in groups. I enjoy hearing other people's ideas and trying them out as well. The aspects that are most important for performers to learn and think about are to think outside of the box, not be afraid to fail with an idea, and to have fun when performing.In my experience, what is easy and fun is coming up with ideas and working in a group. I find that it is hard to memorize lines because sometimes you mix up the lines or sometimes you might forget them. I also find props to be hard to choose because in theatre the props might have a meaning beyond just the item that it is.