Nineteen Thirty Seven

In Nineteen Thirty Seven by Edwidge Danticat tells a story about a mother and a daughter going through a rough time. The mother, Manman, is in prison because she is suspected of being some kind of witch and criminal (Danticat 39). The daughter, Josephine, goes to visit her mother about once a week and tells about their past. Throughout the story, Josephine takes her mother the Madonna, a little statue that means a lot to the both of them. I found the Madonna to be very interesting because it seems to play a big role of both of these characters lives. Josephine takes the Madonna to her mother everytime she visits her and every time, Manman holds it close to her chest for the entire time Josephine is there. Another reason it seemed important was because when the lady visits Josephine to tell her of her mothers death, one of the questions that is asked to the woman is about the Madonna which indicates that the woman who visited the river along with Manman and Josephine know about it as well. To me, I think the Madonna symbolizes hope and safety to Manman. When Manman knows that she is dying, the last visit that Josephine makes to the prison, she tells her daughter to keep the Madonna “when [she is] completely gone” because she believes that “maybe [Josephine] will have someone to take [her] place” (Danticat 43). Manman is depending on the Madonna to watch over Josephine when she’s gone and to keep her safe as well. I found it very interesting that it would be and item of religious worth. I think even though the Haitian woman were treated poorly, they still found a way to believe in something other than reality, something good. 

Danticat, Edwidge. Krik? Krak!. NY: Vintage Books, 1995. 31-49. Print.

Landscape, Memory and Survival in the Fiction

    In “Landscape, Memory and Survival in the Fiction of Edwidge Danticat,” Elvira Pulitano talks about an assortment of writings by Edwidge Danticat and what each writing represents. Pulitano explains that most of Danticat’s writing is about the trials and horrendous experiences on the islands. Danticat also focuses a lot on her home, Haiti, in her writing as well. Danticat talks about all the horrible things that Haitians have had to endure throughout the years. Pulitano uses many different stories by Danticat and other Haitian authors to explain the ideas of borders and how they affect the people who live on them. I think by reading this journal, I will better understand Danticat’s Krik? Krak! because now I have a better understanding of Danticat and the ideas that encompass her writings. Pulitano references on story from Krik? Krak! in particular, Nineteen Thirty-Seven. It talks about the events that happen in the story and how these events affect the protagonist and her view of “history”. By reading this, I will be able to fully comprehend what the author was trying to say in Nineteen Thirty- Seven and the message she was trying to convey. Throughout the article, readers gain a better understanding of Danticat and why she writes about what she does.


Pulitano, Elvira. “Landscape, Memory and Survival in the Fiction of Edwidge Danticat.” Anthurium:  A Caribbean Studies Journal 6.2 (2008): 1-20. Web.

"Toughest Indian In the World"

“The Toughest Indian in the World” by Sherman Alexie, the author uses metaphors such as salmon and the “toughest indian in the world” (29). Alexie uses the salmon when the narrator is talking about his dad. He says that his “father never taught [him] about hope” (21). I think what the narrator’s father was trying to say was that they can’t show hope because that makes them vulnerable if they are let down.  It’s better to be tough and strong than emotionally weak. That’s where the “toughest indian in the world” comes in because even though the author uses the phrase to describe the actual fighters, I think the narrator could very well be “the toughest indian in the world” because he was taught to not be emotionally fragile. He was always taught that he had to be tougher than the white men in the white world he lives in. He learned, from his father, “to be silent in the presence of white people” because they wanted them just to go away (22). I think the whole story has to do with the fact that the Indians live in a white world where they have to assimilate to white customs. The whole point of the story is that the narrator feels lost in the white world. At the end, when he “[traveled] upriver toward the place where [he] was born…”, he’s finding his way back to his culture (34).

Alexie, Sherman. The Toughest Indian in the World. First Edition. New York: Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 2000. 21-34. Print.

Let My Dataset Change Your Mindset- Hans Rosling

In the lecture, “Let My Dataset Change Your Mindset” Hans Rosling uses his own data to challenge different myths about the “Developing World” and why they should be challenged. 

Rosling’s students had preconceptions about “we” and “them”, which in their words meant the Western World and the Developing World. They said that they learned it in college. THe students basically said that the larger your family, the shorter your life expectancy and visa versa. When Rosling separates all the regions into countries, Africa seems to all the stay around the same place, poor. As for the other countries, most of them seem to be spread out along the chart. And then you have the U.S. and that tends to stay at the top of the chart. When he zeros in on specific countries like that, the results change dramatically because the different countries have different advancements and such. Money, of course, has everything to do with this. All of the data that Rosling is exhibiting helps challenge assumptions such as the fact that war is the cause of disease. It’s necessary to challenge them because things aren’t always what they seem. To make something better, we must first understand everything about it, even what we all think may be true. When good data is collected, we are more able to understand what it is that we are studying. 

Rosling ends by saying that the world isn’t one of the “western world” and the “developing world” but more so of a converging world except for the bottom billion. The bottom billion is just as poor as they’ve always been.

Rosling, Hans. “Let My Dataset Change Your Mindset.” TED Talks, 2009. Web.