What did you think of the stories in the book Krik? Krak!?
Did you like/dislike the stories?
Did you like/dislike one story in particular?
What did you like/dislike?
Did you like/dislike the style in which the stories were written?
Why?
Be specific. You must make specific references and JUSTIFY your response.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I thought that some of the stories in the book Krik?Krak! were interesting while others were more confusing. In general, I think that the stories were okay. I found some stories more interesting then others. In the story "Children of the Sea", I was a little confused because it kept going back and forth from the women to the man, however, I felt that this story was interesting because we got to see both sides of the story and feel sympathy for the two lovers who were separated. "Nineteen Thirty-Seven", "A Wall of Fire Rising", and "Seeing Things Simply" were all pretty good stories too but were sad because each story had a death at the end. In addition, I felt that the stories "Night Women" and "New York Day Women" were a little boring and I didn't really understand the purpose of them. Lastly, I found the story "Between the Pool and the Gardenias" disturbing because the women cares for a dead child and then tries to bury it. Overall, the book itself was good because we got to read about Haitians and learned how different their lifestyle is from ours.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the stories in Krik?Krak! were depressing and hard to empathize with. I disliked "Seeing Things Simply", "A Wall of Fire Rising", "Night Women", and "New York Day Women", becasue I found it hard to understand the character's motives. I felt that "Children of the Sea" and "Nineteen Thirty-Seven" were okay stories, both the plot and the motives of the characters were easier to understand. "Between the Pool and the Gardenias" made me think of the phycopaths I here about on the Discovery Channel crime shows. Execpt that the main character didn't kill the baby. The stories tell about the poverty and chaos in Hati, but,I know it sounds calous, but there's nothing we can do. Until the people in Hati can institue a solid form of government that works for them, all we can do is tyr to help their finacial situation. However, that can only last so long, and when they can figure out a way to keep their government stable, the aide sent is only temporary.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Krik?Krak! portrayed the poverty and desperation in Haiti, it had an overall theme of love and being thankful- just in time for thanksgiving. I enjoyed reading (most of) the stories for the themes they portrayed. "Night Woman" displays how love is as strong bond. She gives up her body and spirit to support the one she loves- her son. "Love is one lesson you grow to learn, the way one learns that one show is made to fit a certain foot, lest it cause discomfort." (pg.84) Love is sacrafice. This idea is also portrayed in "children of the sea" as the boy narator leaves his lover behind in order to keep her safe, he was a threat to the government. "Seeing things simply" was probably my favorite story because it preaches exactly what is says appreciation for whats around you. "Perhaps the smaller things-like humans for example- can also change and affect the bigger things in the universe."(pg.134) This is the true meaning for humanity and empathy because humans have the ability to change and shape the world they live in. They need to act and help the needy, like the people that suffer in Haiti.
ReplyDeleteOne quote that stood out to me was from seeing things simply...
"There was a point in the far distance where the sky almost seemed to blend with the sea, stroking the surface the way two peoples lips would touch each others." (pg 136) This quote is how everything is connected humans to other humans and humans to nature and everything needs balance to run.
I liked some of the stories in Krik?Krak! and found others, depressing and sometimes confusing. I liked "Night Women" because it really made you sympathize for the women in Haiti and what they were going through to support their families. I also liked "1937" because it was easy to follow, even though I found it a little depressing. The story I liked the most in the book was "Children of the Sea" because even though it went back and forth from women to man, it gave you both sides of the story and made you realize that there was no easy life in Haiti. For example the girl stayed in the country and was scared and the boy fleed the country and might not survive on the boat. In addition, I felt the story "Seeing things Simply" was a little boring even though I found the theme easy to comprehend. Overall I liked Krik?Krak! because of the great use of literary devices used in all the stories. Also I like the way the author made you sympathize to the characters.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading most of the stories in Krik? Krak! Although they were mostly unusual and depressing they kept my attention and made me want to read more. I liked the way the author wrote the story. At first it would be somewhat confusing but at the end it all tied together and sometimes ended with a weird twist. One of the stories that I liked was “A Wall of Fire Rising.” I liked it because it had a completely unexpected ending. The entire story Guy was talking about the hot air balloon but I didn’t expect him to jump off of it once he used it. I also liked the story, “Between the Pool and the Gardenias” because although it was disturbing it was interesting. The entire time I was wondering what was wrong with the baby and then at the end it all came together and ended up being ironic because what happened to the woman was what she wanted least in her life. I really liked the way the author wrote because it was realistic.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite story in Krik? Krak! was “A Wall of Fire Rising.” Even though it was one of the longer stories I found that I was able to read it quickly, and understand it. I thought the way the story was written made it easy to empathize with the idea of feeling a slave to your own life. Although I did enjoy that story I found most of them difficult to empathize with because they left many questions unanswered. I though the most difficult stories to understand were “Children of the Sea,” because so little was explained about the lives of the characters, and “Between the Pool and the Gardenias,” because from the beginning I did not realize that the baby was already dead, so I was confused for the rest of the story. Although the stories in Krik? Krak! were difficult for me to understand I thought the book as a whole did do a good job of explaining what life is like in Haiti and what hardships its citizens endure every day.
ReplyDeleteI did not really enjoy Krik?Krak! at all. The stories, in my opinion, either made very little sense or just weren't enjoyable. Personally, if I was given the option to read this book in my free time, I would read the first story and probably toss it off to the side and never pick it up again. While I know many authors use symbolism and wording to explain their intentions, I find that some novels go way too far to the point where it's impossible to understand what is going on without taking notes or thinking way too much. Krik?Krak!, in most cases, is a perfect example of what happens when the author goes too far. For instance, the beginning of "Children of the Sea" was probably the oddest thing I've read in a book for a long time. Some of the things the boy on the boat wrote to himself (to his lover) were just weird. For an English class, I suppose we're expected to do think about what we read and take notes, but I would never spend my time doing that if I wanted to read a book leisurely.
ReplyDeletePersepolis wasn't like that. Whatever was supposed to happen was made obvious by the word choice. And if that wasn't enough, there were clear illustrations. The messages in that story were just as strong, in my opinion, as the ones in Krik?Krak!, and they were much easier to figure out. It seems as if we went from an easy, enjoyable read, to a much more difficult one, only to get similar messages from both.
I didn't necessarily hate Krik?Krak!. Some of the stories...few of of the stories...were tolerable at best. I enjoyed "Seeing Things Simply" and "Night Women" because they were pretty straightforward. "Between the Pool and the Gardenias" was also pretty good, besides that fact that it was slightly disturbing.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite story in the book Krik?Krak! is Children of the Sea. I like this story because it was different and it kept my interest. The author wrote journal entries from a man’s point of view and a woman’s point of view who were both in love with each other. It was a love story of distant lovers who wrote down everything that happened in their lives while they were apart. It was like a story of letters that never reached the other person. I thought this was very creative because I have never read anything like it. The constant switch between characters kept my attention on the story. Overrall, I disliked the way the book was written. I don’t like when I read a book with a collection of different stories that don’t flow. The stories in Krik?Krak! do connect with each other, but they don’t lead into each other. When stories don’t flow it confuses me and I fail to understand the total meaning of the book. I do understand that this is a style of writing but, its just not one that I like.
ReplyDeleteI felt that most of the stories in Krik?Krak! were very confusing and very random as well. However, one story that I felt actually made sense when reading it for the first time was "A Wall of Fire Rising." I understood that there was a mother, father and son that lived together and one day the father killed himself. Even though it was a sad story, it actually made sense. Most of the other stories including: "Night Women," "Children of the Sea" and "Between the Pool and the Gardenias" were confusing and didn't make much sense until they were gone over in class.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I disliked the stories, even though they are all related in the sense that there is a person trying to help out another person in some way. I did not like the fact that a lot of these stories were very graphical, especially for an English class in which basically every book that I read was not graphical in any way, shape or form. The stories were very will written though, because they had a lot of detail, but too much detail for me. A few examples are: "Night Women" there was a prostitute, "Between the Pool and the Gardenias" there is a dead baby, "Seeing Things Simply" there is a nudist and "A Wall of Fire Rising" a man commits suicide. I just felt that the book as a whole was a little disturbing and very inappropriate for school.
I liked the book Krik? Krak! because it was a story that told the truth of what was happenng in Haiti and how the reality of a country, that can be beautiful, can also be just as dangerous and corrupt. My favorite story in this book was "Night Women" because it showed both sympathy and empathy for the main character. It showed sympathy because it made the reader feel bad for the woman because she had to resort to prostitution in order to support her son and try to give him a good life. The story makes the reader feel empathy because of the way the protagonist would do anything for her son and that even if it means having to degrade yourself, you would still do it because you only care about that person who means the most to you. Another reason why I liked Krik? Krak! as a whole was how the author, Edwidge Danticat, used the literary devices to describe the country and to get out the theme of the story. The story that she best used the literary
ReplyDeletedevices in was "Children Of The Sea" when Edwidge Danticat uses imagery and metaphors when describing the mountains and how there is always another side, with the butterflies and how they can bring good or bad news, and the sea and how it is endless, like the love that the narrators have for each other. Overall I liked Krik? Krak! because it showed a different perspective on life in Haiti and how corruption and destruction can reach any part of the world and how it has an effect on it's people.
I thought that most of the stories in Krik? Krak!? were very interesting. Eventhough they were mostly sad, I believe they all had a relevant point to them. I enjoyed them because it showed the different perspectives of the lives of certain people so you could walk in someone elses shoes for a moment. I also liked the way the author wrote the stories because they were all very descriptive and portray an intense mood. One story that I particularly like is "Children of the Sea." This is because I enjoyed how it was written in love letters and how it told two stories at once. I also found the symbolic butterflies of happiness and death were very creative. One quote sticks out to me, "Yes, I did love you then. Somehow when I looked at you, I thought of fiery red ants. I wanted you to dig your fingernails into my skin and drain out all my blood." I like this quote because it's a very unique way to describe the love you have for someone. I think it shows passion and how close they wish they were to that person.
ReplyDeleteIn Krik Krak, I really enjoyed the stories. They were interesting and had good sense of direction. The stories kept me interested all through out the time, plus I liked how the stories were random. My favorite story was " Children of the Sea" because it shows how you never know what you had until it's gone. I thought it was creative how they used different fonts and education to represent between the girl and boy.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite quote is " i feel like all those mountains are pushing me farther and father away from you"
Personally, If i was to read this book again, I would make sure that I pay a little more attention to some stories. Their was a few things I got confused on and wasn't sure what happened. But over all, I liked this book!
I felt that Krik? Krak! was very well at getting its point across and making the reader well aware of the differences, for example, of the life in New York verses that of a life in Haiti, however, it wasn't one of my favorite books we read this year. I liked how it was a bunch of different stories because I felt that the way Danticat gave multiple viewpoints was a way to keep the reader interested, and it worked; but I think I would have liked it better if we read it straight through and didn’t jump around from the beginning of the book to the end. I also liked how in each story she used different narratives and the entire book wasn’t from a single narrative like third person, but in a story like “Children of the Sea” I thought it was very confusing and in a certain aspect not well written because of the fact that it was hard to tell who was who, and who was speaking at times. Even though it wasn’t one of my favorite “school books,” I did like how the book as a whole was written very much. The content of the book is where I sometimes got lost because it was hard going from story to story especially because some of them were so short, I felt it wasn’t as easy to navigate through a book like this compared to a book like Persepolis or Freedom Writers. I liked the story “Night Women” just because it was so intense and not expected and it was sort of in your face in a way and I felt as though you couldn’t do anything but empathize with the people, women especially, that are living in Haiti. In addition I liked how some of the stories didn’t relate at all to each other, it was definitely different from the majority of the books I’m used to reading. I thought that she could sometimes be a bit repetitive in trying to get a point across- that of the way Haitians lived/ live. I think the idea was definitely there but for my personal interests I probably would have enjoyed reading about a topic like this in a different way.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard for me to judge how good of a novel Krik?Krak! is because I only read a couple of the stories. The stories that I did read, "Nineteen Thirty-Seven", "Night Women", "Between the Pool and the Gardenias", and "Seeing Things Simply", I thought were all pretty good. I found "Seeing Things Simply" to be the most tedious to read. I did not find the topic of the story interesting but yet I continued to read it. I found "Between the Pool and the Gardenias" interesting because I generally find mysterious stories that deal with death interesting. Overall, I enjoyed reading Krik?Krak!, mostly because I only read the stories that I would like. After reading a couple paragraphs of "Children of the Sea", I couldn't concentrate on it and decided not to read something I wouldn't like. I liked the way in which the stories were written. I found it interesting how all the stories were somewhat connected. I suppose if stories were getting passed down by word of mouth, then stories would get connected somehow, so it makes sense since all these stories were passed down by word of mouth in Haiti.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the stories in the novel Krik?Kral! By Edwidge Danticat, I felt very depressed and sometimes even angry at some points. What was so depressing about this book was that it was all about the hardships and the troubles of the Haitian people passed down in a verbal story form. Like campfire stories. In the chapter "Wall of fire rising", it told of how one man was upset with the living condition he and his family is in and wishes for a better life and dreams about this place. He desires this new life so much that he kills himself, escaping the life that has plagued him and his family with so much trouble. What also makes this depressing is that many people living in Haiti wanted to escape these problems the country is causing them which is why many fled on a boat to escape arrest and torture. In "Children of the Sea", one man escapes arrest and death by escaping on a boat with many others. Later on in his letters, he says how much he misses his girlfriend, how he never really understood how much he loves her until he can no longer see her.
ReplyDeleteWhat made me angry sometimes after reading some stories was reading about all of the horrible things that were done to these people by the military. Like the massacre in “Nineteen Thirty Seven” and the killing of manmans son in “Children of the Sea”. The fact that a human can kill someone because of an opposition is inhuman. What I didn’t get was the fact that while reading this, I never heard any sort of rebelling other than the news team. Usually in all struggles, there is a rebellion of some brave people who stand up for what they believe in and fight the power, but there was nothing in here. I felt angry because these people were being pushed around and there was nobody/nothing that could help these people.
Aside from all of the depressing stories, I did like reading this book because this book did what I believe it was supposed to do. It made us aware and conscious of all of the bad things that have been going on, violations of human rights, inhuman acts and this book was written in such a detailed and touching way that I felt that something has to be done to help.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI felt that the stories in Krik? Krak! were very well written and very informative about the living conditions in Haiti. While I did enjoy the majority of the stories, the one I disliked the most was 1937. The topic was difficult to understand and extremely depressing to read. My favorite story was New York Day Women. I enjoyed reading about the girl walking through New York City while discovering things about her mother that she had never previously known. I enjoyed the style of writing of this story, as well as the detail put into it. I liked the style in which most of the stories were written. For example, the style of writing in Children of the Sea, where the author would switch narratives between the man who escaped Haiti and the woman who was stuck at home, was very unique and interesting to read. Overall, I thought the book was very well written and gave a great picture of Haitian life, and also did a good job comparing Haiti and American, which was done primarily in Night Women and New York Day Women.
ReplyDeleteKrik? Krak! was not your typical school reading, every story was different and interesting in there own way and I real enjoyed reading them. This book was riveting and challenged me in ways no other book has. This was because you real had to “dig deep” to comprehend the message Edwidge Danticat. She talks about subjects that not most people are comfortable disguising, but I feel this is what makes the book great and real. In the story “Night Women” Danticat tells of the hardship that a Haiti women has to go thought to feed her child, she was not working in a sweat shop but as a prostitute that has to “work” in the same room while her son sleeps. This creates feelings of empathy in you and makes this stories that much more powerful. But my favorite aspect about “Krik Krak” is how all the stories of completely different things all relate and intertwine. For example the story “between the pool and the gardenias” was about a maid keeping a dead baby she found because of her suffering of a cheating husband and miscarriage. The story “Seeing Things Simply” is about a women with an alcoholic husband how goes to and artist house to be painted naked in exchange for payment and knowledge. These two stories so different both are about the theme of Haiti women so poor and miss treated by there husbands they do crazy or uncomfortable things. Even though I hated how depressing and upsetting the stories were I though this book was unusual spectacular and a nice change from common manuscript.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I enjoyed reading Krik? Krak! Although I have not been in the situation that many of the people in the story have, I still found it easy to empathize with. I liked how it allowed people to feel a sense of empathy towards the poor people in Haiti fighting for survival. By showing these horrible lifestyles these people have to live, helps make people more fortunate then them to help. The story I like the most in the book was “Night Women.” Although it’s really sad, it show’s us what women will do for their children. The girl is a prostitute at night because that is the only way she can get food on the table for her little boy. Although I haven’t been in that situation, I can still empathize with her because I am a woman. This book shows us the conflict between man vs. society and the struggle some people have to survive. It showed me how lucky I am to be living in a place with a stable and functioning society.
ReplyDeleteOverall i like the book. I had a very common theme. But it was too depressing. I am kind of tired of always reading a depressing book. We should read one that hits our heart. So we can leave with a message. Whena all we do is read the same depressing books, they just all seam the same. And they no longer mean alot. Ive been conditioned to not really react so much by these stories. Not so say nothing was true. Otherwise i really like the "children of the sea", that is a very good story. cause i touches the heart becuase you know they each didnt get thier letters. And you just want to JUMP into the book and tell bothe the boy and girl that they will be fine. And exchange them letters. I felt a real connection. The women of the day and the night, both didnt make sense. They were confusing. If i have to try hard to understand a book, i wont get anything from it. thats just my opinion.
ReplyDelete