In-class writing (Night Women)

Discuss the tone of the story through the narrator (what do you think? How does it relate to content?)

      In "Night Women" by Danticat, the narrator speaks of whimsical thoughts in a very real and difficult household. The word choices throughout this story almost seem like a facade for what the woman is dealing with. She speaks of her life as if the content is being told to an adult, but understood by a child. She uses stories to hide her son from the work she does at night, but the relationship she has with her son seems to make up for her lost husband. She has a softer tone of voice, but in no way does it reflect numbness. The narrator seems very alive in her own mind, but detached from the life she has created for herself. When she tells stories to her son, she slips into a distracted mindset of a different world. She has a cover for her son if he ever wakes up while she is working, which is that his father's ghost came to visit her. The way she tells that excuse to the readers gives an essence that she tells herself that when she works, slipping into the fantasy that she expects to tell her son. The way she speaks is not only a cover for her son, but her as well. The story is interesting because of the way it is told. It is also frustrating in the sense that the woman tells it in an  excessive quaint manner, trying to cover the truth for herself and the readers.