Analysis Of 'Westbury Court' By Edwidge Danticat

Angela-Mae De Guzman

Limcolioc

EWRT 1A, Section 6Y

October 8, 2014

Haunted Guilt Trip

In “Westbury Court,” author Edwidge Danticat tells the readers about how one drastic event in her childhood can completely change her whole life. Danticat grew up in an apartment in a seemingly unprivileged area called Westbury Court in Brooklyn, New York. One day after school, she came home with her younger brother and immediately turned on the television to watch her favorite show. Suddenly, she and her show were interrupted by an abrupt knock on the apartment’s door. Apparently, there was a deadly fire coming from the apartment across from theirs. By then, Danticat realizes the importance of the phrase that her mother told her after the tragedy, “Sometimes

it’s too late to say, ‘I shouldn’t have.’”
Originally, the phrase “Sometimes it’s too late to say, ‘I shouldn’t have’” is utilized in the first part of the essay as a warning from the mother when she spoke about children playing with matches. Danticat’s brother, especially, had an interest in playing with fire, though that amusement was forgotten after the incident. Furthermore, Danticat’s mother tells this phrase to Danticat to become more vigilant as a young teenager. Since Danticat was too focused into her favorite television show, she was unable to hear anything from her surroundings. She tuned out the world, including the affected children’s screams from across the hall or even as simple as the scent of the smoke. As a result, she failed to pay any attention and had no clue that there was a fatal fire across their own apartment. It was not only until the two firemen appeared in her front door when she finally became aware that there was something terrible going on. By this time, however, she had realized that it was too late for her to say, “’I shouldn’t have’ been so absorbed in General Hospital.” Therefore, her irresponsible actions placed the lives of the two children at risk.
After the whole fire incident, Danticat also began to recognize the dreadful events and crimes that were occurring around her. Following the misfortune of the fire, crimes in Westbury Court became more and more noticeable to her since she stopped daydreaming in her own personal reality. She was more attentive to the death of the cabdriver who lived in the same apartment hall, the thief that stole her father’s camera, and the murderer that shot a Nigerian immigrant across their apartment building. Since she was so engrossed in her television show, she was unknowledgeable about the misbehavior of the people in her neighborhood. She failed to notice that the place she considered as a home was actually a violent area in reality. Danticat’s change of attention is incredibly important because now that she had learned to be completely alert and responsive to her surroundings, she is more likely to be a wiser adult.
As a young adult reminiscing her past experiences in Westbury Court, Danticat’s mother once again brought up the phrase, “Sometimes it is too late to say, ‘I shouldn’t have.’” Since Danticat was about to enter adulthood, her mother reminded her about the horrific event that occurred in Westbury Court a few years ago. It served as another reminder that Danticat should not be like how she was before, who was a complete inattentive teenager. Instead, she needed to learn how to be a responsible adult, especially if she was planning to have any children in the future. In addition, Danticat must come to a realization that she should never neglect her children or ever leave them unattended, unlike the mother of the two affected children. Even though it was not truly her fault that the children were the ones to light up the matches, which caused the deadly fire, she still needs to learn the lesson that the mother of those children learned during that time. Consequently, she will be able to prevent anything terrible to occur to her future children and those around her.
Edwidge Danticat never anticipated that an event like the fire can completely change her inattentive characteristic and her outlook on life.

“Westbury Court” was told in a span of several years, when she was only a young teenager during the tragedy occurred and from then on, it had always haunted her. There is no way for her to entirely dismiss this incident from her memory other than moving forward by learning the consequence of being unmindful and realize the importance of “Sometimes it’s too late to say, ‘I shouldn’t have.’” If she is unable to do this, then she will have no choice but to consistently feel that guilty conscience of putting the two children in danger hanging over

her.

Reflection:
For my first ever college essay, I honestly tried to be as analytical as I can.

Since Professor Limcolioc already notified us that we would be writing about one of the readings, I would always rank the readings from most interesting to least. Obviously, I found “Westbury Court” most interesting because the repetition of “Sometimes it’s too late to say, ‘I shouldn’t have’” truly spoke out to me. For my introduction, I did not really know what to write. I started to think of a hook, but then I felt like I just wanted to get straight to the point—which was to begin with which reading I will be analyzing. I began to type my introduction and I found myself writing a summary of the essay. Initially, the introduction was quite long because I summarized “Westbury Court” with a lot of unnecessary details. When I had someone else proofread it, they told me that I should cut it down a bit and so I did. After my summary, I stated my thesis, which was why the repetition of “Sometimes it’s too late to say, ‘I shouldn’t have’” is significant. For my first body paragraph, I talked about what the mother must have meant when she said the phrase the first time by using one of the heuristics (Notice and Focus). With that, I included a few parts of my original summary. I used the Method for my second body paragraph, in which I specifically utilized the binary opposition to write about how Danticat was before and after the fire. For my third body paragraph, I made assumptions by looking at the

context of the essay. Since it had been a few years since she had moved, I assumed that she was almost an adult by the time she was reminiscing with her mother. I had the toughest time in my conclusion. I did not know what else to put other than to repeat myself. Even so, I was able to wrap it up by relating my analyses to “Westbury Court” as a whole.