New York Day Woman Analysis

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In the narrative, “New York Day Woman” by Edwidge Danticat, a woman spends the afternoon following her mother around New York City, learning new things about her in the process. One of the constant themes throughout the piece was the interpersonal conflict between people of varying cultures and generations. Values, morals, traditions, and life styles differ from one culture to another and this can result in communication difficulties for people of varying backgrounds. From the text, one can conclude that the author’s mother grew up in Haiti and still has relatives living there (pgs. 2-3); therefore, she is very firm in her native customs. Countries such as Haiti tend to live by traditional ideologies and old school ways of living. Compared …show more content…

A cultural conflict in addition to a generational gap can extremely hinder a familial relationship such as that between Suzette and her mother. Understanding where their differences in viewpoints, experiences and morals spur from help the reader to understand why the author feels the need to follow her mother around the city for an extended period of time. Suzette doesn’t understand where her mother’s “crazy” views and actions come from. She also probably feels ashamed of her mother – ashamed of her culture, her appearance (pg. 2), her lack of assimilation to American society (pg. 1), and her lack of understanding towards her own daughter (pg. 3). This is why seeing her mother carry herself with such dignity and purpose surprises her. For probably the first time, she sees her mother in a completely new light and realizes that there is much more to her mother than she always thought. Viewing her in this new situation opens Suzette’s eyes to the way her mother actually lives life, not the way that Suzette has always assumed. By the end of the narrative, she understands that she shouldn’t be ashamed of her mother because her culture makes her who she is – someone who is very kind and

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