Blog Post #3

Jacob Lebowitz 

After reading the chapters, "Night Women" and "New York Day Women," they both had similarities and differences.  Night women is a Mother from Brooklyn, New York.  The narrator who is talking about her mother watches her during the day.  Although, in "Night Women," the Mothers child does not know what she does at night for a living.  There is a similarity which is there secretes.  They both do not tell there secretes and are hidden.  The Mother in "New York Day Women," expresses her Haitian culture when talking to the taxi driver.  In the United States, it is not normal to see road rage while in Haiti if something so little happens the people get very mad at each other.  The United States has more freedom than in Haiti.  The mother in "New York Day Women," has the right to get a job even though she did not get an education.  There are lots of low paying jobs in the United States that do not require an education.  For example, the mother is a Nanny and talks about how other Haitian immigrants are taxi drivers.  In Haiti, citizens would not get the opportunity to get a job or even make money.  Although, the Mother in "New York Day Women" is a nanny, she does not like being seen as one.  She does not want anyone to think of her differently.  She can not talk to many people because her english is not very good and they would not her ethnicity because she is a dark Haitian so she may be treated differently.  There was a part when it talked about parent teacher conferences and she was so ashamed because of her job, culture, and the way she lived.  Just like in "Night Women" she does not want to be noticed by anyone because she is a prostitute.  She would also be treated differently.  Both Night Women and the mother are called/seen as these names in each others chapters.  The mother is only doing this job to support her child because they are not that rich.  Just like Night women, supporting her family with her job.  I think the biggest similarity between these two chapters are that both these women sacrifice there lives to support their kids because they want them to live a better life than what they are experiencing right now.  

There are also a few differences between "Night Women" and "New York Day Women."  The relationship between the mother and daughter are not friendly.  The mother takes care of another family more than the daughter.  As for the Night Women's child, that is all she cares about and wants him to live a better life.  Her worst fear is for him to realize what she does as a living.  It seems the mother and daughter are living a great life.  I think they are extremely lucky to be living in New York rather than in Haiti.  At first the daughter did not like her mother because it seemed like she was jealous in a way by looking at other families and mothers.  In the end the daughter realized what her mother has gone through and shows that she forgives her mother by giving her the seat.  They will always remember the Haitian culture but happy they fled Haiti when the Government was taking over.