Reading Response #2: Explication/close Reading

Irene Holmes
Ms. Darrow
ENG 140
June 15, 2009
Reading Response #2: Explication/Close Reading
Night Women
Edwidge Danticat, the author of Night Women, introduces the narrator “night women” who lives a unique life afar from those who live the life of the “day women”. Although her living conditions and the way she earns a dollar maybe some what discouraging, “night women” like any other female, is still a very protective and compassionate mother to her little boy.
“Night women” like any other person has to make a living to shelter and feed herself and her family, “The night is the time I dread most in my life. Yet if I am to live, I must depend on it.” (Danticat 203). As “night women” gets ready for work, her son also settles into bed for the night, with only a fabric to separate their space. “Night women” is presented a protective mother by offering her son her “long blood-red scarf” which she only uses “during the day to tempt” her “suitors”. The red scarf is a symbol safety and comfort, “he always has something of mine when my face is out of sight.” (Danticat 204). As any mother would, giving a child something that will symbolize comfort will engage the child to be more comfortable in a given place or time.
The protective mode continues as “night women” implements a plan of action should her son awaken to her nightly work, “Should my son wake up, I have prepared my fabrication….I will tell him that his father has come, that an angel brought him back from Heaven for a while.” (Danticat 206). When a child is scared or sees something that is inappropriate, a mother will fabricate the story to lessen the fear of a child or to shield the child of inappropriate behavior induced by adults.
Through out the passage, the physical actions between “night women” and her son implies the loving compassion she has toward her son, “When my smallest finger caresses the narrow cleft beneath his nose…He moans and turns away, perhaps thinking that this too is a part of a dream.” (Danticat 205) and “I whisper my mountain stories in his ears…my fingers coil themselves into visions of birds on his nose. I want him to forget that we live in a place where nothing lasts.” (Danticat 205) Though “ night women” may be getting ready for work every night she still takes the time to interact with her son as he falls asleep which shows affection and compassion of a mother.
Danticat presents a very controversial issue of how a mother whose duties begin at night and at that same moment she continues to care for a child. Danticat use of words to portray the mother as “night women” is very tasteful to the reader, in reality a “night women” is usually presented in propane language which makes it distasteful especially if the story involves a child. The narrator is presented in tactful way that makes it acceptable despite her nightly duties, “night women” is still a very protective and compassionate mother to a young boy.
Oates, Joyce Carol and Beha, Christopher R. The ecco anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction. 1. New York, NY. HarperCollins Publishers. 2008 Danticat, Edwidge. Night Women.